ArrayAdapter getItem(position) - Can i ignore this NullPointer Warning?

Question

I built a custom ArrayAdapter to fill a Spinner.

public class CountryAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<CountryItem> {

    public CountryAdapter(@NonNull Context context, ArrayList<CountryItem> countryList) {
        super(context, 0, countryList);
    }

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public View getView(int position, @Nullable View convertView, @NonNull ViewGroup parent) {
        return initView(position, convertView, parent);
    }

    @Override
    public View getDropDownView(int position, @Nullable View convertView, @NonNull ViewGroup parent) {
        return initView(position, convertView, parent);
    }

    private View initView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {

        if (convertView == null) {
            convertView = LayoutInflater.from(getContext()).inflate(
                R.layout.country_spinner_row, parent, false);
        }
        ImageView imageViewFlag = convertView.findViewById(R.id.image_view_flag);
        TextView textViewName = convertView.findViewById(R.id.text_view_name);

        CountryItem currentItem = getItem(position);

        imageViewFlag.setImageResource(currentItem.getFlagImage());
        textViewName.setText(currentItem.getCountryName());

        return convertView;
    }
}

the setImageResource and setText methods show me a NullPointer warning, but is this neglectable considering that i pass an ArrayList here anyways? In my opinion, this should also return an item for the given position.

Answer 1

The problem is here:

CountryItem currentItem = getItem(position);

getItem() can return a null value. The below is the source code of the method and you will notice that it's annotated with @Nullable.

@Override
public @Nullable T getItem(int position) {
    return mObjects.get(position);
}

This means that when you call this method, you need to handle for null condition. I know that in normal operation you will never get null, and you can just ignore this warning. But the right way is to do a null check.

final CountryItem currentItem = getItem(position);
if (currentItem != null) {
    imageViewFlag.setImageResource(currentItem.getFlagImage());
    textViewName.setText(currentItem.getCountryName());
}