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A code review of two Java methods that handle null and HTML unescaping, revealing redundant null checks and unclear boundaries between functions. The author critiques storing HTML-escaped strings as canonical data and argues conversions should happen at module boundaries, not scattered across getters and helpers.

Two Conversions

I’m 95% this one is mine. So, I have the inside scoop on this for the <a href="http://daily.dev" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">daily.dev</a> patrons.
<code>NOT_AVAILABLE</code> is, disgustingly, <code>'N/A'</code>. Because what’s worse than dumping a <code>null</code> for an empty string? Replacing it with a string that doesn’t mean the same thing in all languages.
Furthermore, <code>dataString</code> is set via one of 4 different constructors for its owning class as well as 47(!) calls to the setter! This makes it really hard to track what sort of information in being given. But I will say, it could be just about anything. The class is a “cell” for report data… So these are “string values” of strings, dates, booleans–you name it!
Finally, thankfully, this is from our legacy code base. Sadly, however, it’s representative of some of the nonsense that’s in there. This isn’t the only instance of a <code>null</code> check after a <code>null</code> check.