Null assignments are flagged for @NotNull annotations with a check group

[chaosflaws]

I am using SonarLint for IntelliJ IDEA, version 4.12.1.22375.

Given the following class,

import javax.validation.constraints.NotNull;

public class Test {
    interface TestCheck {}

    @NotNull(groups = TestCheck.class)
    public String testString;

    public void setTestString() {
        testString = null;
    }
}

SonarLint flags the line testString = null; with S2637, because the field has a @NotNull annotation.

I think this is a rather more clear-cut case than, e. g., this issue: False Positive on S2583 when a @NotNull field is allowed to be null

Given that the validation in question only applies to certain validation groups, it should be clear that the @NotNull annotation is not intended to mean that the field can never be null - only that it cannot be null in certain contexts. Therefore, SonarLint should not flag @NotNull annotations with the groups parameter set.

[Quentin (Quentin Jaquier)]

Hello @chaosflaws

I just stumbled into this old topic when looking into a ticket we recently created: SONARJAVA-3803.

It turns out it is closely related to the problem you reported, it should get rid of your false-positive aswell. I made sure to add your example to make sure we are correctly supporting it.

Best,
Quentin