René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"PSCredential.Empty.GetNetworkCredential() throws NRE instead of returning null per docs","articleBody":"Steps to reproduce\r\n------------------\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\n\u003e [pscredential]::Empty.GetNetworkCredential()\r\n```\r\n\r\nExpected behavior\r\n-----------------\r\n\r\n```none\r\n$null\r\n```\r\n\r\nPer [the docs](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/blob/fd047a82506ac6a38c20052f45683cf5407c9c3a/src/System.Management.Automation/engine/Credential.cs#L248), an \"uninitialized\" `PSCredential` object should return `null`\r\n\r\nMSDN also documents it as such, though only on [the page of the explicit cast operator](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.automation.pscredential.op_explicit) which just calls `GetNetworkCredential`\r\n\r\nActual behavior\r\n---------------\r\n\r\n```none\r\nException calling \"GetNetworkCredential\" with \"0\" argument(s): \"Object reference not set to an instance of an object.\"\r\nAt line:1 char:1\r\n+ [pscredential]::Empty.GetNetworkCredential()\r\n+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r\n    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException\r\n    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NullReferenceException\r\n```\r\n\r\nEnvironment data\r\n----------------\r\n\r\n\u003c!-- provide the output of $PSVersionTable --\u003e\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\n\u003e $PSVersionTable\r\n\r\nName                           Value\r\n----                           -----\r\nPSVersion                      5.0.10586.117\r\nPSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}\r\nBuildVersion                   10.0.10586.117\r\nCLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000\r\nWSManStackVersion              3.0\r\nPSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3\r\nSerializationVersion           1.1.0.1\r\n```\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n[`_userName` is `null`](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/blob/fd047a82506ac6a38c20052f45683cf5407c9c3a/src/System.Management.Automation/engine/Credential.cs#L266) so [`SplitUserDomain` throws at the `IndexOf()`](https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/blob/fd047a82506ac6a38c20052f45683cf5407c9c3a/src/System.Management.Automation/engine/Credential.cs#L369)\r\n\r\n```\r\n\u003e $Error[0].Exception.InnerException.StackTrace\r\n\r\n   at System.Management.Automation.PSCredential.SplitUserDomain(String input, String\u0026 user, String\u0026 domain)\r\n   at System.Management.Automation.PSCredential.IsValidUserName(String input, String\u0026 user, String\u0026 domain)\r\n   at System.Management.Automation.PSCredential.GetNetworkCredential()\r\n   at CallSite.Target(Closure , CallSite , PSCredential )\r\n```","author":{"url":"https://github.com/Arnavion","@type":"Person","name":"Arnavion"},"datePublished":"2017-08-29T10:26:41.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1},"url":"https://github.com/4696/PowerShell/issues/4696"}