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When teaching null dereferences, show a call that dereferences a null pointer in a debugger to give students a snapshot of what is happening.

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  • Make sure students understand when and why something should be null before showing students dereferencing a null pointer in a debugger.
  • Seeing the impact of this call can help students understand the impact of null pointers.

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  • Programming Concepts
  • Development Methods
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Interview with Walt Schilling

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Other Tips By Walt Schilling

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