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Null vs Void - What's the difference?

null | void |

In transitive terms the difference between null and void

is that null is to nullify; to annul while void is to make invalid or worthless.

null

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
  • Zero]] quantity of [[expression, expressions; nothing.
  • (Francis Bacon)
  • Something that has no force or meaning.
  • (computing) the ASCII or Unicode character (), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.
  • (computing) the attribute of an entity that has no valid value.
  • Since no date of birth was entered for the patient, his age is null .
  • One of the beads in nulled work.
  • (statistics) null hypothesis
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having no validity, "null and void"
  • insignificant
  • * 1924 , Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove :
  • In proportion as we descend the social scale our snobbishness fastens on to mere nothings which are perhaps no more null than the distinctions observed by the aristocracy, but, being more obscure, more peculiar to the individual, take us more by surprise.
  • absent or non-existent
  • (mathematics) of the null set
  • (mathematics) of or comprising a value of precisely zero
  • (genetics, of a mutation) causing a complete loss of gene function, amorphic.
  • Derived terms

    * nullity

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to nullify; to annul
  • (Milton)

    See also

    * nil ----

    void

    English

    (wikipedia void)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) vuit'', ''voide (modern vide).

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Containing nothing; empty; vacant; not occupied; not filled.
  • * Bible, Genesis i. 2
  • The earth was without form, and void .
  • * Shakespeare
  • I'll get me to a place more void .
  • * Massinger
  • I'll chain him in my study, that, at void hours, / I may run over the story of his country.
  • Having no incumbent; unoccupied; said of offices etc.
  • * Camden
  • divers great offices that had been long void
  • Being without; destitute; devoid.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xi. 12
  • He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor.
  • Not producing any effect; ineffectual; vain.
  • * Bible, Isa. lv. 11
  • [My word] shall not return to me void , but it shall accomplish that which I please.
  • * Bible, Jer. xix. 7
  • I will make void the counsel of Judah.
  • Of no legal force or effect, incapable of confirmation or ratification.
  • null and void
  • Containing no immaterial quality; destitute of mind or soul.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • idol, void and vain
  • (computing, programming, of a function or method) That does not return a value.
  • * 2005 , Craig Larman, Applying UML and patterns
  • In particular, the roll method is void — it has no return value.
  • * 2007 , Andrew Krause, Foundations of GTK+ Development
  • The return value can safely be ignored if it is a void function.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An empty space; a vacuum.
  • Nobody has crossed the void since one man died trying three hundred years ago; it's high time we had another go.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, / And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
  • (astronomy) An extended region of space containing no galaxies
  • (materials science) A collection of adjacent vacancies inside a crystal lattice.
  • (fluid mechanics) A pocket of vapour inside a fluid flow, created by cavitation.
  • Synonyms
    * pore * bubble

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To make invalid or worthless.
  • :
  • * (1609-1674)
  • *:It was become a practiceto void the security that was at any time given for money so borrowed.
  • *(w) (1643-1715)
  • *:after they had voided the obligation of the oath he had taken
  • To empty.
  • :
  • To throw or send out; to evacuate; to emit; to discharge.
  • :
  • *
  • *:You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:With shovel, like a fury, voided out / The earth and scattered bones.
  • *(Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
  • *:a watchful application of mind in voiding prejudices
  • To withdraw, depart.
  • *:
  • *:BY than come in to the feld kynge Ban as fyers as a lyon/ Ha a said kyng Lot we must be discomfyte / for yonder I see the moste valyaunt knyght of the world / and the man of the most renoume / for suche ij bretheren as is kyng Ban & kyng bors ar not lyuynge / wherfore we must nedes voyde or deye
  • To remove the contents of; to make or leave vacant or empty; to quit; to leave.
  • :
  • * '>citation
  • *
  • *:If they will fight with us, bid them come down, / Or void the field.
  • Synonyms
    * (make invalid or worthless) annul, cancel * evacuate

    Etymology 2

    Alteration of (voidee).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 68:
  • Late on the final evening, as the customary ‘void ’ – spiced wine and sweetmeats – was served, more elaborate disguisings in the great hall culminated in the release of a flock of white doves.

    Anagrams

    * ----