Declaring variables inside or outside of a loop

Question

Why does the following work fine?

String str;
while (condition) {
    str = calculateStr();
    .....
}

But this one is said to be dangerou

Answer 1

You have a risk of NullPointerException if your calculateStr() method returns null and then you try to call a method on str.

More generally, avoid having variables with a null value. It stronger for class attributes, by the way.