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Are nil and null interchangeable? For example,

My bank a/c has a nil balance.

My bank a/c has a null balance.

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Actually I think it is zero balance far better way to say this. There are different names of zero in different occasions. Nil is for football score. I suppose null can be used as it is about figures. There are a lot of questions about that just check it out here. – speedyGonzales Mar 16 '12 at 8:05
possible duplicate of Is there a real difference between "null" and "zero"? (as implied in the top answer there, nil equates to zero) – FumbleFingers Mar 16 '12 at 15:00
What does "a/c" stand for in this context? Obviously not "air conditioning"... – Marthaª Mar 16 '12 at 15:46
@Marthaª, a/c-->account – Vijin Paulraj Mar 16 '12 at 15:57
@VijinPaulraj: really? Then why the slash? IME a slash is used in abbreviations to indicate separate words; it seems... misleading to use it between the first two letters of a word. – Marthaª Mar 16 '12 at 16:00
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4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

Almost the only time you hear or see null is in the legal expression ‘null and void’, while nil normally indicates that a football team has scored no goals. If the bottom line of your bank statement shows neither a credit nor a debit, what you have is a zero balance.

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+1. Nice answer like always @Barrie England. I am happy my comment is so similar although I haven't read your answer before posting it. – speedyGonzales Mar 16 '12 at 8:09
i dunno about other countries. But in India, here banks provide a special a/c i.e, no-frills a/c. and that is often called as null balance a/c, nil balance a/c, zero balance a/c. – Vijin Paulraj Mar 16 '12 at 8:16
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As a side note, nil is rarely used in the U.S. for sports scores; nothing is used far more often (or, in place of nothing, one might hear zero, or even zip). The one exception I hear is when ardent soccer fans are discussing a soccer match ("Spain beat Portugal 2-0," [pronounced "two-nil"]; but, "The Falcons beat the Seahawks 10-0," [pronounced "ten-nothing"]). As a side note to my side note, very ardent soccer fans will refer to soccer as "real football." :^) – J.R. Mar 16 '12 at 8:32
A good example then, @Vijin, of Indian English, but I don't quite understand how a bank can offer a zero balance account. The whole point of a bank account, surely, is either to have a plus or a minus balance. – Barrie England Mar 16 '12 at 8:42
@BarrieEngland, wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_no_frills_account the above mentioned a/c is called nil,null,zero balance a/c – Vijin Paulraj Mar 16 '12 at 9:04
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up vote 2 down vote

Null is also used in mathematics (a null set) and science (null hypothesis). I can't think of a time when nil is used in those areas.

Etymologically, null is from French, and nil is from Latin.

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Nilpotent is a common term, usually written as one word and sometimes as two, nil potent. Per ngrams for nil potent,nil - potent it appears all or nearly all of the hyphenated instances (like "nil- potent") result from end-of-line hyphenation. – jwpat7 Mar 18 '12 at 19:03
up vote 1 down vote

NULL is used in computing most often (always?) to signify "not a value." This is different than zero: in a bank database, a zero value means no money, while a NULL value means there has been no value assigned to the balance.

This is a specialized usage, but increasingly common as more people learn to program.

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up vote 1 down vote

Null is also used in physics and electronics. Here's a description of a Null comparator using a Wheatstone bridge. Null tends to describe something with no net value, but possibly the sum of large values of opposing signs, while nil implies a value of 0.

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