docs/bugpattern/ProtoFieldNullComparison.md

This checker looks for comparisons of protocol buffer fields with null. If a
proto field is not specified, its field accessor will return a non-null default
value. Thus, the result of calling one of these accessors can never be null, and
comparisons like these often indicate a nearby error.

If you need to distinguish between an unset optional value and a default value,
you have two options. In most cases, you can simply use the `hasField()` method.
proto3 however does not generate `hasField()` methods for primitive types
(including `string` and `bytes`). In those cases you will need to wrap your
field in `google.protobuf.StringValue` or similar.

NOTE: This check applies to normal (server) protos and Lite protos. The
deprecated nano runtime does produce objects which use `null` values to indicate
field absence.

```java
void test(MyProto proto) {
  if (proto.getField() == null) {
    ...
  }
  if (proto.getRepeatedFieldList() != null) {
    ...
  }
  if (proto.getRepeatedField(1) != null) {
    ...
  }
}
```

```java
void test(MyProto proto) {
  if (!proto.hasField()) {
    ...
  }
  if (!proto.getRepeatedFieldList().isEmpty()) {
    ...
  }
  if (proto.getRepeatedFieldCount() > 1) {
    ...
  }
}
```

If the presence of a field is required information in proto3, the field can be
wrapped. For example,

```java
message MyMessage {
  google.protobuf.StringValue my_string = 1;
}
```

Presence can then be tested using `myMessage.hasMyString()`, and the value
retrieved using `myMessage.getMyString().getValue()`.