[LANG-676] Potential Autoboxing problems with BooleanUtils methods

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Fix Version/s: 3.0
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Henri Yandell
• Created: 02/Feb/11 05:44
• Updated: 06/Feb/11 06:58
• Resolved: 03/Feb/11 05:17

Description

FindBugs points out the following are bad:

org.apache.commons.lang3.BooleanUtils.toBooleanObject(String, String, String, String)
org.apache.commons.lang3.BooleanUtils.toBooleanObject(String
org.apache.commons.lang3.BooleanUtils.toBooleanObject(Integer, Integer, Integer, Integer)
org.apache.commons.lang3.BooleanUtils.toBooleanObject(Integer)
org.apache.commons.lang3.BooleanUtils.toBooleanObject(int, int, int, int)
org.apache.commons.lang3.BooleanUtils.negate(Boolean)

For each case it's because the method returns Boolean, and returns null. That used to be a feature, but apparently that plays merry havoc with autoboxing:

++NP: Method with Boolean return type returns explicit null (NP_BOOLEAN_RETURN_NULL)

++A method that returns either Boolean.TRUE, Boolean.FALSE or null is an accident waiting to happen. This method can be invoked as though it returned a value of type boolean, and the compiler will insert automatic unboxing of the Boolean value. If a null value is returned, this will result in a NullPointerException.

The only solution imo is to let autoboxing do its job and remove these methods.