A null pointer can be dereferenced into a "null reference" which can be passed around, however. Theoretically UB, in practice, typically represented identically

A null pointer can be dereferenced into a "null reference" which can be passed around, however. Theoretically UB, in practice, typically represented identically to the null pointer and behaves the same when used. Still helps in that the null bug root cause can hide in less places (modulo memory overwriting which adds root causes unimaginable in Java)