2.2 Nullability

Define: nullable

A type in Haxe is considered nullable if null is a valid value for it.

It is common for programming languages to have a single, clean definition for nullability. However, Haxe has to find a compromise in this regard due to the nature of Haxe's target languages: While some of them allow and; in fact, default to null for anything, others do not even allow null for certain types. This necessitates the distinction of two types of target languages:

Define: Static target

Static targets employ their own type system where null is not a valid value for basic types. This is true for the Flash, C++, Java and C# targets.

Define: Dynamic target

Dynamic targets are more lenient with their types and allow null values for basic types. This applies to the JavaScript, PHP, Neko and Flash 6-8 targets.

There is nothing to worry about when working with null on dynamic targets; however, static ones may require some thought. For starters, basic types are initialized to their default values.

Define: Default values

Basic types have the following default values on static targets:

  • Int: 0
  • Float: NaN on Flash, 0.0 on other static targets
  • Bool: false

As a consequence, the Haxe Compiler does not allow the assignment of null to a basic type on static targets. In order to achieve this, the basic type has to be wrapped as Null<T>:

// error on static platforms
var a:Int = null;
var b:Null<Int> = null; // allowed

Similarly, basic types cannot be compared to null unless wrapped:

var a : Int = 0;
// error on static platforms
if( a == null ) { ... }
var b : Null<Int> = 0;
if( b != null ) { ... } // allowed

This restriction extends to all situations where unification is performed.

Define: Null<T>

On static targets the types Null<Int>, Null<Float> and Null<Bool> can be used to allow null as a value. On dynamic targets this has no effect. Null<T> can also be used with other types in order to document that null is an allowed value.

If a null-value is "hidden" in Null<T> or Dynamic and assigned to a basic type, the default value is used:

var n : Null<Int> = null;
var a : Int = n;
trace(a); // 0 on static platforms