can data binding object be null in android

Question

I am using databinding in my project. In a fragment I am using DataBinding like following

public class ExampleFragment extends Fragment  {

     private FragmentExampleBinding mFragmentExampleBinding;

     @Override
     public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        //initializing data binding object
        mFragmentExampleBinding = DataBindingUtil.inflate(inflater, R.layout.fragment_example, container, false);
        // is there any posibility that mFragmentExampleBinding can be null
        View view = mFragmentExampleBinding.getRoot();
        return view;
      }
}

My question is, is there any possibility that databinding object may return null? Do we really need to do null check while using databinding ?

I keep getting null back in a feature module, that is a module where the build.gradle imports com.android.feature instead of com.android.application, I'm not sure why this is though. — Carel
– Carel, Commented Mar 14, 2019 at 22:04

Dewey Reed · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-19 10:48:11Z

1

Normally it's quite trustworthy and I don't need to check it every time.

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/databinding/DataBindingUtil#inflate

 * @return The newly-created binding for the inflated layout or <code>null</code> if
 * the layoutId wasn't for a binding layout.

But it may be null if there is something wrong in the xml.

However, if you decided to clear the view reference in the onDestroyView(set binding to null) to avoid memory leak, you do need to do null check or throw an exception in case you access binding after the view is destroyed.

At least for now, when using one activity + multiple fragments architectures, I have to set the binding(and other view references) to null to avoid the memory leak.

answered Dec 19, 2018 at 10:48

Dewey Reed

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