Why is “null” present in C# and Java?

Question

We noticed that lots of bugs in our software developed in C# (or Java) cause a NullReferenceException.

Is there a reason why \"null\" has even been included in the l

Answer 1

Null do not cause NullPointerExceptions...

Programers cause NullPointerExceptions.

Without nulls we are back to using an actual arbitrary value to determine that the return value of a function or method was invalid. You still have to check for the returned -1 (or whatever), removing nulls will not magically solve lazyness, but mearly obfuscate it.