Final answer:
The statement that following a null reference will cause an exception to be thrown is generally true, leading to errors such as NullPointerException or NullReferenceException.
Step-by-step explanation:
True or False: Following a null reference will cause an exception to be thrown. This statement is typically true. In many programming environments, if you attempt to use a null reference as though it pointed to an object, the system will throw a runtime exception called a NullPointerException or similar, depending on the language (e.g., NullReferenceException in C#). This error occurs because the program is attempting to access a memory area that hasn't been assigned a valid object, and the operation cannot be completed.
For example, if you are programming in Java and you try to call a method on a null reference:
MyObject myObj = null; myObj.doSomething();
The above code would throw a NullPointerException because myObj has not been initialized with an actual object.