A freed object should be treated as a "false" value

[qt911025]

A freed object is a , also treated as a null value.
For some types, there is no way to convert it into a bool, but it can be asserted directly, which turn out to be an opposite result.

extends Node

@onready var _sub_node := $Node/SubNode

func _ready() -> void:
	$Node.queue_free()
	await get_tree().process_frame

	prints("_sub_node is null", _sub_node == null)
	if _sub_node:
		prints("_sub_node is true")
	else:
		prints("_sub_node is false")

So if I want to check existence of an object, I should use if _sub_node != null rather than if _sub_node. It's counterintuitive, isn't it?

[Zireael07]

It used to be directly comparable to false but was changed to be more explicit.

Also: use if_instance_valid(_sub_node)

[AThousandShips]

This was done by design, see:

• Inconsistency in boolean validation of [Freed Object] godot#59816

And as suggested above the proper way is to use is_instance_valid, see the documentation

[AThousandShips]

To udpate, this is the case unless there's been some error in the code, my bad got it confused with freed == null which is not true

[dalexeev]

• See Freed nodes are no longer evaluating as truthy (as in they have a value) godot#90513.