3.7. Null Object 

3.7.1. Purpose

NullObject is not a GoF design pattern but a schema which appears frequently enough to be considered a pattern. It has the following benefits:

Client code is simplified
Reduces the chance of null pointer exceptions
Fewer conditionals require less test cases

Methods that return an object or null should instead return an object or NullObject. NullObjects simplify boilerplate code such as if (!is_null($obj)) { $obj->callSomething(); } to just $obj->callSomething(); by eliminating the conditional check in client code.

3.7.2. Examples

Null logger or null output to preserve a standard way of interaction between objects, even if the shouldn’t do anything
null handler in a Chain of Responsibilities pattern
null command in a Command pattern

3.7.3. UML Diagram

Alt NullObject UML Diagram

3.7.4. Code

You can also find this code on GitHub

Service.php

 1<?php
 2
 3declare(strict_types=1);
 4
 5namespace DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject;
 6
 7class Service
 8{
 9 public function __construct(private Logger $logger)
10 {
11 }
12
13 /**
14 * do something ...
15 */
16 public function doSomething()
17 {
18 // notice here that you don't have to check if the logger is set with eg. is_null(), instead just use it
19 $this->logger->log('We are in ' . __METHOD__);
20 }
21}

Logger.php

 1<?php
 2
 3declare(strict_types=1);
 4
 5namespace DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject;
 6
 7/**
 8 * Key feature: NullLogger must inherit from this interface like any other loggers
 9 */
10interface Logger
11{
12 public function log(string $str);
13}

PrintLogger.php

 1<?php
 2
 3declare(strict_types=1);
 4
 5namespace DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject;
 6
 7class PrintLogger implements Logger
 8{
 9 public function log(string $str)
10 {
11 echo $str;
12 }
13}

NullLogger.php

 1<?php
 2
 3declare(strict_types=1);
 4
 5namespace DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject;
 6
 7class NullLogger implements Logger
 8{
 9 public function log(string $str)
10 {
11 // do nothing
12 }
13}

3.7.5. Test

Tests/LoggerTest.php

 1<?php
 2
 3declare(strict_types=1);
 4
 5namespace DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject\Tests;
 6
 7use DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject\NullLogger;
 8use DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject\PrintLogger;
 9use DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject\Service;
10use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
11
12class LoggerTest extends TestCase
13{
14 public function testNullObject()
15 {
16 $service = new Service(new NullLogger());
17 $this->expectOutputString('');
18 $service->doSomething();
19 }
20
21 public function testStandardLogger()
22 {
23 $service = new Service(new PrintLogger());
24 $this->expectOutputString('We are in DesignPatterns\Behavioral\NullObject\Service::doSomething');
25 $service->doSomething();
26 }
27}