Potential nil dereference

Last modified: 03 December 2024

Reports instances where pointers that might be nil are dereferenced.

Example:

type Person struct{ Name string }

func _(person *Person) {
	if person != nil || person.Name != "Peter" {
	}
}

In the provided example, person is a pointer to a Person struct, but it is nil as it is not assigned any value. Attempting to dereference person to access Name without checking if person is nil results in a runtime error.

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

GoDfaNilDereference
Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Go | Data flow analysis (experimental)

Inspection Details

By default bundled with:

GoLand 2024.3, Qodana for Go 2024.3,

Can be installed with plugin:

Go, 243.23131