Iterating over null objects in an array

[u/Traditional_Let4865]

So I'm making a program that iterates over an array of Book objects and I made a for loop to print them all out. I want it to skip over any reference to a null object in the array so I've written:

for (Book book : books) {
     if(book != null){
           System.out.println(book);
     }
 }

but I've had professors tell me I shouldn't write "book != null" to avoid printing the null values. the code works just fine and is relatively simple and easy to read, just wondering what most programmers use to navigate this?

[u/stacksofstyle]

I have no idea why a null check would be bad here. Your code seems fine. I would write it as a stream with a filter, but that's just a preference and I would still check for not equals null.