Scala avoid using null

Question

I hava a project on github that is analysed by codacy . The analysis suggest to \"Avoid using null\" for the following line of code:

def doS         


        

Answer 1

the most idiomatic way would be to avoid the require (not sure but I have the idea it can thrown an exception - something Scala heavily recommends against)

def doSomethingWithPath(path:Path): Option[stuff] = { // will return an option of the type you were returning previously.
     Option(path).map { notNullPath =>
       ...
     }
}

Now the possible null case will be returned to the caller, that can/will propagate the returned Option until the layer that knows how to handle it properly.

Note: it is possible that the best place to handle the null case is inside you function. In that case you should do something like

Option(path).map { notNullPath =>
    ...
}.getOrElse(/* take care of null case */)

If you do want to keep the require, then the answer by jwvh would be my choice also