[GROOVY-7177] Calling collect on null doesn't result in a NPE

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Information Provided
• Affects Version/s: 2.3.7
• Component/s: groovy-runtime
• Assignee: Eric Milles
• Reporter: Charlie Hubbard
• Created: 19/Nov/14 09:05
• Updated: 4 days ago 11:45
• Resolved: 22/Aug/24 15:31

Description

def someCollection = null

someCollection.collect { e -> e.name } // returns []
someCollection*.name                   // returns null (or [] for SC)
someCollection.name                    // throws NullPointerException

Actual:
someCollection is null, with no typing hints as to what someCollection really is, and yet it invokes .collect() on a null reference. How is that possible without collect being a global function?

Expected:
All 3 situations throw a NPE. The spread operator seems to short circuit nulls like the ?. operator. So really the spread operator is more like ?.* operator which is maybe desirable. But it's not explicit that it does that and is a bit surprising given we have the difference of . and ?. At the least this is inconsistent between these various operations.