Java “?” Operator for checking null - What is it? (Not Ternary!)

Question

I was reading an article linked from a slashdot story, and came across this little tidbit:

Take the latest version of Java, which tries to make null-poi

Answer 1

There was a proposal for it in Java 7, but it was rejected:

http://tech.puredanger.com/java7/#null

Answer 2

There you have it, null-safe invocation in Java 8:

public void someMethod() {
    String userName = nullIfAbsent(new Order(), t -> t.getAccount().getUser()
        .getName());
}

static <T, R> R nullIfAbsent(T t, Function<T, R> funct) {
    try {
        return funct.apply(t);
    } catch (NullPointerException e) {
        return null;
    }
}