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When Your Last Name Is Null, Nothing Works (www.wsj.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by otter@lemmy.ca to c/programming@programming.dev
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The word, used by computer scientists to mean ‘no value,’ has created long-running challenges

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[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 day ago

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

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Fucking JavaScript

[-] kamiheku@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 day ago

No it doesn't?

> Boolean(null)
false
> Boolean('null')
true
> null == 'null'
false
[-] sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Srsly?

[-] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago

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

[-] Lemjukes@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

More of this please

[-] dneaves@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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

[-] ursakhiin@beehaw.org 4 points 1 day ago

I'd bet it's less simple input sanitizing and more 2 mistakes made separately because they don't know any better.

  1. The input field converting everything to a string indiscriminately
  2. Because they did 1, converting everything back to the assumed type

If the front end Dev makes the first mistake, null would be sent in the body as "null". Then on the backend, somebody might even be binding the variables correctly, but before hand realizing they have to deal with the market and rather than just have a conversation undoes it in their own code.

this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
84 points (96.7% liked)

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