Which do you prefer of these two? The goal is the same. If bar is null then make foo null and avoid the exception. In other languages there is the ?. operator to help with this.

foo = bar == null ? null : bar.baz();
foo = bar != null ? bar.baz() : null;

I ask because I feel like the “English” of the first example is easier to read and has less negations so it is more straightforward, but the second one has the meat of the expression (bar.baz()) more prominently.

  • MagicShelEnglish
    61·
    1 year ago

    I’d skip the ternary and go with

    foo = Optional.ofNullable(bar)
        .map(Bar::baz)
        .orElse(null);

    But if I didn’t, I’d use the first form.