Assigning “null” to objects in every application after their use

Question

• Do you always assign null to an object after its scope has been reached?

• Or do you rely on the JVM for garbage collection?

Answer 1

I assume you're asking this question because you've seen code with variables being assigned to null at the point where they will never be accessed again.

I dislike this style, but another programmer used it extensively, and said he was taught to do so at a programming course at his university. The reasoning he gave is that it would prevent undetectable bugs if he tried to reuse the variable later on, instead of indeterminate behavior, he'd get a null pointer exception.

So if you're prone to using variables where you shouldn't be using variables, it might make your code more easy to debug.