checkers.nullness.quals

Annotation Type LazyNonNull

public @interface LazyNonNull

Indicates that a field (or variable) is lazily initialized to a non-null value. Once the field becomes non-null, it never becomes null again. There is no guarantee that the field ever becomes non-null, however.

Lazily initialized fields have these two properties:

1. The field may be assigned only non-null values.
2. The field may be re-assigned as often as desired.

When the field is first read within a method, the field cannot be assumed to be non-null. After a check that a LazyNonNull field holds a non-null value, all subsequent accesses within that method can be assumed to be non-null, even after arbitrary external method calls that might access the field.

LazyNonNull gives stronger guarantees than Nullable. After a check that a Nullable field holds a non-null value, only accesses until the next non-Pure method is called can be assumed to be non-null.

To indicate that a LazyNonNull or Nullable field is non-null whenever a particular method is called, use NonNullOnEntry.

Final fields are treated as LazyNonNull by default.

This annotation is associated with the NullnessChecker.

See Also:

Nullable, NullnessChecker

See the Checker Framework manual:

Nullness Checker