What is the Initial value of char literal?

[Milan Sutaria]

What is the Initial value of unassigned char literal?
I thought it to be null & so does the JLS says...JLS Initial Value of Variables

But then why does this runs without null pointer exception?

   public class TestClass
{
static boolean b;
static int[] ia = new int[1];
static char ch;
static boolean[] ba = new boolean[1];
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception
{
boolean x = false;
if( b )
{
x = ( ch == ia[ch]);
//i expected to give a null pointer exception at the above line.
}
else x = ( ba[ch] = b ); 
System.out.println(x+" "+ba[ch]);
}
}
 
 

The output is false false.
But when you print ch as System.out.prinln(ch) it prints nothing on screen [ neither null nor 0]. Can someone explian?
Source: Enthuware

[Paul Clapham]

The "char" data type is a primitive, not a reference type, so you will never get a NullPointerException from one of those.

The initial value of a "char" variable is indeed the null character, as your link to the JLS says. But the null character and the null reference are not the same thing. A null character is (as that link says) simply a character whose Unicode value is zero.

And most output devices are set up to display nothing for a null character. That's why you are seeing nothing when you output it.

[Ireneusz Kordal]

char is a primitive type, not object, field of type char cannot be null
- it's initial value is 0 (character with code 0).

[Justin Smith]

char's initial value is '\0'. This is nothing but character null.

[marc weber]

I would just add that a char can be widened to type int (or wider). So when an int is expected (for example, as an array index), the null character's numeric value of zero is converted to an int value of zero.

[Milan Sutaria]

hmm i got it ... thanks to you all

[Tejas V Shah]

char initial literal value is \u0000