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DesignPatternsPHP/Behavioral/NullObject/README.md
Antonio Spinelli e59d70a0ac start a restructure
2014-03-21 18:03:45 -03:00

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# Null Object
## Purpose
NullOutput is a example of NullObject pattern. It is not formally a Design Pattern by the GoF but it's a schema which appears frequently enough to
be a pattern. Furthermore it is a really good pattern in my opinion:
* the code in the client is simple
* it reduces the chance of null pointer exception
* less "if" => less test cases
Every time you have a method which returns an object or null, you should return an object or a `NullObject`. With NullObject, you don't need
a statement like `if (!is_null($obj)) { $obj->callSomething(); }` anymore.
## Examples
* Symfony2: null logger of profiler
* Symfony2: null output in Symfony/Console
* null handler in a Chain of Responsibilities pattern
* null command in a Command pattern