Effective Java: A Programming Language Guide (Java Series)

by Bloch Joshua

null;

Bad pattern here: initializing a variable (to null) that can only ever be accessed after being (re)assigned. I recommend starting by not assigning a default value. That will help ensure every path results in a value, and it's clearer to future developers that why (what conditions) results in null (or whatever default value), if any (often time all paths result in a value, and the default — which was misleading — is discarded).