null pointer exception

[Sonia Kapoor]

Hi,
I am trying to understand why this piece of code does not give a null pointer exception:
String test = null;
test.valueOf(someDoubleValue);
someDoubleValue is any double number. Is this because valueOf() is a static method?
Thank you.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Originally posted by Sonia Kapoor:
Is this because valueOf() is a static method?

Yes. As you know, an object isn't needed to call the static method. The compiler generates code here that never actually uses the variable "test" -- the compiled code just mentions the String class, where the method is defined.

Note that a good IDE (development environment) will warn you here, saying that you're calling a static method via a non-static context -- which is bad style, even though it's not an error.

[Sonia Kapoor]

Thank you!