Uses for Optional

Question

Having been using Java 8 now for 6+ months or so, I\'m pretty happy with the new API changes. One area I\'m still not confident in is when to use Optional. I se

Answer 1

Here are some of the methods that you can perform on an instance of Optional:

• map
• flatMap
• orElse
• orElseThrow
• ifPresentOrElse
• get

Here are all the methods that you can perform on null:

• (there are none)

This is really an apples to oranges comparison: Optional is an actual instance of an object (unless it is null… but that would probably be a bug) while null is an aborted object. All you can do with null is check whether it is in fact null, or not. So if you like to use methods on objects, Optional is for you; if you like to branch on special literals, null is for you.

null does not compose. You simply can’t compose a value which you can only branch on. But Optional does compose.

You can, for instance, make arbitrary long chains of “apply this function if non-empty” by using map. Or you can effectively make an imperative block of code which consumes the optional if it is non-empty by using ifPresent. Or you can make an “if/else” by using ifPresentOrElse, which consumes the non-empty optional if it is non-empty or else executes some other code.

…And it is at this point that we run into the true limitations of the language in my opinion: for very imperative code you have to wrap them in lambdas and pass them to methods:

    opt.ifPresentOrElse(
            string -> { // if present...
                // ...
            }, () -> { // or else...
                // ...
            }
    );

That might not be good enough for some people, style-wise.

It would be more seamless if Optional was an algebraic data type that we could pattern match on (this is obviously pseudo-code:

    match (opt) {
        Present(str) => {
            // ...
        }
        Empty =>{
            // ...
        }
    }

But anyway, in summary: Optional is a pretty robust empty-or-present object. null is just a sentinel value.

Subjectively disregarded reasons

There seems to be a few people who effectively argue that efficiency should determine whether one should use Optional or branch on the null sentinel value. That seems a bit like making hard and fast rules on when to make objects rather than primitives in the general case. I think it’s a bit ridiculous to use that as the starting point for this discussion when you’re already working in a language where it’s idiomatic to make objects left-and-right, top to bottom, all the time (in my opinion).