[GitHub] [incubator-datasketches-java] davecromberge commented on pull request #319: Tuple theta extension

[GitBox <gi...@apache.org>]

davecromberge commented on pull request #319:
URL: https://github.com/apache/incubator-datasketches-java/pull/319#issuecomment-637094410


   > However, the intersection and difference operators are a quandry. If a user does not like our treatment of nulls, they can catch nulls before entering the set operator, If we returned nulls the user would have to catch these null cases on output. There is no perfect answer here.
   
   > I would be interested in your view.
   
   I would agree that there is no ideal way to handle nulls in these circumstances, and that there is probably a lot more harm to be done in allowing them to taint calculations undetected.
   My viewpoint is really to try and avoid implicit contracts between the caller and callee as much as possible, and to make the behaviour of the method explicit with regard to input arguments.  I would argue for raising an exception on invalid arguments, and to avoid interpreting nulls as an empty sketch, which is not clear from the signature.  
   
   I realise there is a lot of merit to the argument regarding dirty data, but I think that this is the data owner's concern.  The disclaimer here is that I'm not a library author and don't have to contend with all these edge cases :)
   


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