Java 8 Optional. Why of and ofNullable?

Question

I have a question regarding Java 8\'s Optional, the purpose of which is to tackle NullPointerException exceptions.

The question is, what is the reason for h

Answer 1

After reading some answers and comments I think this explanation is missing. Consider a method like

public Optional name(Customer c) {
    return c.isNew() ? Optional.ofNullable(getName(c)) : Optional.of(getName(c));
}

Here you want to throw a NullPointerException if the customer isn't new and is supposed to have a name; your code is inconsistent if that's ever null. Yet the name may not yet exist if the customer is new, hence ofNullable in that case and the method returns Optional.