Answers by Sentry

Use the null object in Python

David Y.

The Problem

How can I use null values in Python?

The Solution

None is Python’s equivalent of null. It is a singleton object of the class NoneType. It is universally available and cannot be reassigned. To test whether a variable is None, we should use Python’s is identity operator, as below:

my_object = None
if my_object is None:
    print("It's null!")

Using is is preferable to using ==, as the latter can be overloaded, which may lead to unexpected behavior when used with certain objects.

None is falsy, which means that it will be considered equivalent to False when used in boolean expressions.

if None:
    print("This line will never execute")
else:
    print("This line will always execute")

Get Started With Sentry

Get actionable, code-level insights to resolve Python performance bottlenecks and errors.

  1. Create a free Sentry account

  2. Create a Python project and note your DSN

  3. Grab the Sentry Python SDK

pip install --upgrade sentry-sdk
  1. Configure your DSN
import sentry_sdk

sentry_sdk.init(
    "https://<key>@sentry.io/<project>",

    # Set traces_sample_rate to 1.0 to capture 100%
    # of transactions for performance monitoring.
    # We recommend adjusting this value in production.
    traces_sample_rate=1.0,
)

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