How to avoid null checking in Java?

Question

I use object != null a lot to avoid NullPointerException.

Is there a good alternative to this?

For example I often use:

Answer 1

This is the most common error occurred for most of the developers.

We have number of ways to handle this.

Approach 1:

org.apache.commons.lang.Validate //using apache framework

notNull(Object object, String message)

Approach 2:

if(someObject!=null){ // simply checking against null
}

Approach 3:

@isNull @Nullable  // using annotation based validation

Approach 4:

// by writing static method and calling it across whereever we needed to check the validation

static  T isNull(someObject e){  
   if(e == null){
      throw new NullPointerException();
   }
   return e;
}