this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
83 points (96.6% liked)

Programming

18333 readers
205 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Rules

  • Follow the programming.dev instance rules
  • Keep content related to programming in some way
  • If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities [email protected]



founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The word, used by computer scientists to mean ‘no value,’ has created long-running challenges

all 31 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 day ago

When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works

No, when people DON'T PROPERLY SANITIZE THEIR USER INPUT, nothing works!!!

Looks like little Bobby Tables has some extended family.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Anyone got a non-paywall link? I’m changing my name soon and this is highly relevant to my interests.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This topic pops up in random news sites like every 5 years, and usually the conclusion is people with these names have less and less problems, as systems evolve.

Nowadays names which looks like some vulgar words cause more problems, it's called the Scunthorpe problem from the city of Scunthorpe. As this is a shitty article, this actual problem is not even mentioned, classic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Lol one of the characters in my D&D group is named Farthard (pronounced Far-thard) and his steed is named Shithead (pronounced Sha-theed)

[–] NABDad 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Representatives for the internet provider she had used in her old apartment initially told her they couldn’t cancel her account because there was no last name associated with it.

She had been paying the company for months. She has since switched internet providers.

Are people this silly? Just stop paying them. They'll figure out how to cancel the account.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They might report you to a credit agency or keep your deposit

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"We're sending you to collections"

Oh so you have my last name?

"...no..."

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Who the hell writes if 'null'? If it's a thing, what language would interpret a string like that?

[–] SpaceNoodle 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

No it doesn't?

> Boolean(null)
false
> Boolean('null')
true
> null == 'null'
false
[–] sir_pronoun 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Javascript is fun. The video takes a few jabs at ruby and then gives a glimpse into the insanity that is Javascript.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] dneaves 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

!![] + !![] == 2

[–] pHr34kY 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I've seen XML parsers that will convert element content from strings to native types by default. So "0" becomes an int, "true" becomes a boolean, and "null" becomes an actual null. I had to take extra steps to keep everything as a string unless explicitly told not to.

JSON does not have this problem, BTW.

[–] calcopiritus 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I don't think anyone actually chooses XML. There's no reason to use it over JSON unless you need to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

json is fine as a serialization format for things that need to be text, but it's not great as something that gets edited by hand.

not that I enjoy xml, but writing long strings in json is even worse. xml I can write multiline strings as a first class entity.

I can add a comment to an xml document, json I have to write something hacky like "//": "my comment" and hope whatever is consuming it doesn't care.

there's just as many problems with json parsers, since most but not all of them treat numbers as js numbers, which are basically floats. you can't rely on an arbitrary consumer having support to parse ints above a certain size so you just have to make everything a string and hope.

json allows duplicate keys, but they get overridden by the last occurrence. you can't round trip json without losing something. you can't rely on just seeing a key value in json text and that being correct since there could be another later. doesn't come up often but it's there.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The entirety of the banking world uses XML very heavily, as it's part of the SWIFT standards.

[–] calcopiritus 6 points 1 day ago

I didn't say that it's not used. I say that you shouldn't if you have the option.

If the entire X world uses Y technology. You have no choice other than using Y technology.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Really? Right in front of my AJAX?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

little bobby null

[–] solrize 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wait til they meet my friend Little Bobby Tables.

[–] Schal330 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

At this point I would think most people know, but for those who don't:

https://xkcd.com/327

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This seems to be old news, and paywalled.

Edit: gee, thanks MSN. The article i'd read was about the license plate.

Morgan Null, in black, with her parents and brother, all Nulls. lol

Not that rare of a name apparently...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Taking the issue at face value, I wonder what Johnny Null's workaround would be for his (or their) name?

N'ull? Nul-l? \Null? Null? JohnnyN ull?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Definitely not N'ull, that would trigger a SQL error when it can't interpret the ull after the string delimiter.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

If they're not sanitizing that, they deserve to have their system broken lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

NuII works

SpoilerUpper case i