Clarification About c:set target= on bottom of p.447 of HFSJ Book

[Bob Nedwor]

Ranchers;
I am having a hard time understanding what they are saying in the last part of the very last item in the black "Key Points and Gotchas with <c:set>" box. I can't get null when using a non-property in the EL, but I still get an exception, rather than a null value.

When I create the bean and use the <c:set> tag to set the property, it works fine.

  
<%@ taglib  prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
    <c:set target="${myCB}" property="catName" >
    Fluffy
    </c:set>
    <br />
    <br />
  We think the cats name is :  ${myCB.catName}
 

This is fine because, then I get the output I expect:
We think the cats name is : Fluffy

But then when I added a line at the end of the JSP that says:

   
 This should return null:  ${myCB.junk}
 

, then my app blows up with:
javax.servlet.ServletException: Unable to find a value for "junk" in object of class "CatBean" using operator "."

Thanks for any clarification as to what they are saying in this final bullet point.

[Kevin DesLauriers]

According to my notes I show that EL exceptions thrown during the evaluation of an EL expression choose to return null including when a nullpointer exception is thrown - combat this with the empty operator.

However, if a JavaBean property does not exist then an exception is thrown. That seems to jive with what you example did.

Kevin DesLauriers

[Bob Nedwor]

But based on what they are saying at the bottom of p. 447, I should be able to generate the null, rather than throw an exception, using a non-Property under some condition, right?

I just cannot see how?
Thanks for any hints.
[ February 16, 2007: Message edited by: Bob Nedwor ]