What does this 2024? 2024? mean 2024?

Hello! I'm a software developer with over a decade of experience in building applications and websites. I've seen a lot of code in my time, and I'm pretty familiar with most symbols and their uses in programming.

You're asking about the double question mark symbol, "??". This is a fantastic question because it dives into a relatively new and powerful feature available in some programming languages, specifically, the null coalescing operator. Let me explain why this operator is so useful and how it works.

**Understanding Null Values and Their Challenges**

In the world of programming, we often deal with variables that might not have a value assigned to them. These values are typically represented as null, nil, or None, depending on the programming language. While this concept might seem straightforward, it often leads to a notorious error that many programmers have encountered – the dreaded "null reference exception" or similar errors like "undefined is not a function".

These errors occur when you try to access a property or call a method on a variable that currently holds a null value. Imagine you have a variable representing a user's middle name. Not everyone has a middle name, so for some users, this variable might be null. If your code tries to access the length of the middle name without checking if it's null first, the program crashes.

**Traditional Solutions and Their Drawbacks**

Before the null coalescing operator, developers typically used conditional statements (like "if" statements) to handle potential null values. Let's illustrate with an example. Suppose you're retrieving a user's preferred display name from a database. The database might return null if the user hasn't set a preference.

**Traditional Approach (using an if statement):**

```javascript
let displayName;
if (user.preferredName !== null) {
displayName = user.preferredName;
} else {
displayName = user.firstName;
}
```

This code snippet first checks if `user.preferredName` is not null. If it is, it assigns the preferred name to the `displayName` variable. Otherwise, it uses the `user.firstName` as a fallback.

While this approach works, it can become quite verbose, especially when you're dealing with multiple potential null values. This is where the elegance and conciseness of the null coalescing operator come in.

**The Power of the Null Coalescing Operator (??) **

The null coalescing operator (??) provides an elegant and efficient way to handle null values. Here's how it works:


1. Evaluation: The operator first evaluates the expression on its left side.

2. Null Check: If the left-hand side expression is not null, the operator returns the value of that expression.

3. Fallback: If the left-hand side expression is null, the operator returns the value of the expression on its right side.

Let's rewrite the previous example using the null coalescing operator:

Using the Null Coalescing Operator:

```javascript
let displayName = user.preferredName ?? user.firstName;
```

In this concise line of code, we achieve the same result as the previous "if" statement. The operator checks if `user.preferredName` is null. If it's not, it's used as the display name. Otherwise, `user.firstName` is used.

**Advantages of the Null Coalescing Operator**


1. Readability: Code becomes much more concise and easier to read, especially when dealing with nested checks for null values.

2. Reduced Verbosity: You can achieve the same logic with fewer lines of code, making your code cleaner.

3. Error Prevention: By explicitly handling potential null values, you reduce the likelihood of encountering null reference errors.

Support and Availability

The null coalescing operator is a relatively recent addition to programming languages. Some languages that support it include:

- C# (since version 6.0)
- JavaScript (since ES2020)
- PHP (since version 7)
- Swift
- Kotlin

It's important to check the documentation of your specific programming language to see if it supports the null coalescing operator and to understand its exact behavior.

?? Smirking Face. A sly smile, often used with a sexual, or smug connotation. Not to be confused with the unamused face, which has similar eyes, but a displeased mouth. On Snapchat, this emoji next to a contact denotes that this person snaps you frequently, but you do not frequently snap them in return.