Question

I have a Java function called testForNull

   public static void testForNull(Object obj)
    {
     if (obj == null)
      {
        System.out.println("Object is null");
      }
    }

I use it to test multiple objects to ensure they are not null. But, I am unable to tell the name of the variable that way.

For eg. if I say

    testForNull(x);
    testForNull(y);
    testForNull(z);

I cannot tell which of the three lines caused the “Object is null” output. Of course, I can simply add another parameter to the function and have something like

    testForNull(x, "x");
    testForNull(y, "y");
    testForNull(z, "z");

But I want to know whether it is possible to deduce the name of the variable without passing it explicitly. Thanks.

Answer 1

Consider that the parameter might not have been a variable (and therefore wouldn’t have a name):

testForNull(x != y);