"null" What does it mean?

Harvey Ramer

Whenever I tried to quote from a previous post while using mobile, it abbreviated the entire quote to this word "null". I learned to accept that but now it is happening on my computer too. That's a harder pill to swallow. Also, this message pops up on my screen and mocks me every time I try again;
The quote had to be converted from Html to TextEx. Some formatting may have been lost.

I don't text my ex. That formatting has definitely been lost.

Gordy

Fubar apparantly...I get that if im trying to do quotes in a post from my Iphone dont know why.

FranklinD

I've noticed that too. I was attempting to quote someone in a thread the other day and all that would come up is "null". This would be while being viewed in an iPhone browser. Thank you for asking the question...

Paul48

I attempted to find the answer, here, on the computer,aaanndd....wwweeelllll...........I've decided I really don't want to know. I could probably ask my grandkids, but wouldn't understand the answer anyway. So....I'll answer the way pops use to answer (when he had no clue). " They just put that there, to make you ask, what it means".

Patchogue Phil_2

Technically, "null" means the absence of any value. On the Web page that is being sent to your computer or device, there must be a field or place holder that does not contain anything. If it is supposed to be some written words it doesn't even have a blank space. A space is actually "something". If it was supposed to contain only a number then it doesn't even have a zero. This is a Web page programming error.

Gordy

So basically your saying I have a quarter in my hand but it's not there. Even though I know it is.

Patchogue Phil_2

No. It's a weird concept. To a computer, a field or variable is like a bucket. To run correctly, their program is expecting that bucket contain something or contain air. NULL is like there's a vacuum in that bucket. The software crashes when there is the absence of anything in there.

If they wrote the program correctly they would never have a scenario where there was a vacuum in that bucket. Or they would first test to see if there is a vacuum in that bucket before trying to see if there is air in it or see if there's water.

In your scenario, you either have an empty pocket or there is a quarter in there. NULL would be trying to put your hand in the pocket but there is no pocket.

More precisely, fields or variables are actually a pointer to some address (location) in memory. If it's supposed to be a number field, it either properly points to a place that has a non-zero value or a zero value. NULL doesn't point anywhere.

icesailor

Sort of like in the world of 1's and 0's, it's in between. Like a light switch being between on and off. AKA, Mr. In Between.

Gordy

So then why is it that. While I'm on the desk top PC, or the iPad i don't get the null when doing quotes, but when I'm on the iPhone I always do?

Then yet some experience the null while on their PC?

Jamie Hall

It may well depend on what browser you are using. Actually in some ways returning null is good programming practice (although clearly it shouldn't return null!) as the program has to have something returned, and null is -- in a computer sort of way -- something. Otherwise the program would just crash, which is worse!