What part of dereferencing NULL pointers causes undesired behavior?

Question

I am curious as to what part of the dereferencing a NULL ptr causes undesired behavior. Example:

//  #1
someObj * a;
a = NULL;
(*a).somefunc();   // crash, dere         


        

Answer 1

you need to know more about anotherfunc() to tell what will happen when you pass it null. it might be fine, it might crash, depends on the code.