DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Refcards
Trend Reports

Events

View Events Video Library

Zones

Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Generative AI has transformed nearly every industry. How can you leverage GenAI to improve your productivity and efficiency?

SBOMs are essential to circumventing software supply chain attacks, and they provide visibility into various software components.

Related

  • Dynamically Evaluate Dataweave Scripts
  • SmartXML: An Alternative to XPath for Complex XML Files
  • Soft Skills Are as Important as Hard Skills for Developers
  • Training ChatGPT on Your Own Data: A Guide for Software Developers

Trending

  • The AWS Playbook for Building Future-Ready Data Systems
  • Seata the Deal: No More Distributed Transaction Nightmares Across (Spring Boot) Microservices
  • Stop Prompt Hacking: How I Connected My AI Agent to Any API With MCP
  • Top Load Balancing Algorithms: Choosing the Right Strategy
  1. DZone
  2. Data Engineering
  3. Data
  4. Is it Worth it to Use 'Optional' in Collections?

Is it Worth it to Use 'Optional' in Collections?

There's a practical reason to use Optional in collections. It's just other developers who ruin it for you.

By 
Peter Verhas user avatar
Peter Verhas
DZone Core CORE ·
Aug. 28, 15 · Tutorial
Likes (1)
Comment
Save
Tweet
Share
18.9K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Some argue that the Optional type is worth being used in collections. It allegedly solves the problems like a HashMap that returns null if there is no mapping for a key or if null is mapped to the key. If you use a Map<Optional<Something>> then you can clearly separate a missing mapping and an absent value. And that way you are one level deeper in the rabbit hole.

First of all...

You can...

...tell if a key is mapped to null or not mapped without using Optional. There is the method containsKey(). This is one more method call to separate the non-mapped key from a mapped null value. However, calling Optional does this too. So what is the point? On the other hand...

You do not need...

...to tell if the key is mapped to null or if the mapping is missing. If there is a difference in your program code between the two cases then you coded the business logic in the wrong way. This is certainly a code smell. Think of null as “nothing,” and instead of thinking “null is assigned to the key ‘aaaaaarrghhh'” say out loud: Nothing is assigned to the key ‘aaaaaarrghhh’. You see? There is no difference.  And now everyone in your office is giving you funny looks.

Using Optional as a value in a Map...

You will...

...end up one level deeper in the rabbit hole after a while. Code lives an independent life. It is not only you, who develop it. In large organizations there are developers who are certainly drunk when coding. (This is the only reasonable explanation for some code.) They will soon populate your Map<Optional<Something>> with

  • Null values,
  • Absent Optional values
  • and even  Optional objects that wrap something else, but not your “Something“.

From time to time, if you are lucky you may even find some non-null, non-absent Optional<Something> values.

Business logic Coding (social sciences) dev Data structure Object (computer science)

Published at DZone with permission of Peter Verhas, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Dynamically Evaluate Dataweave Scripts
  • SmartXML: An Alternative to XPath for Complex XML Files
  • Soft Skills Are as Important as Hard Skills for Developers
  • Training ChatGPT on Your Own Data: A Guide for Software Developers

Partner Resources

×

Comments

The likes didn't load as expected. Please refresh the page and try again.

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Support and feedback
  • Community research
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Core Program
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • [email protected]

Let's be friends: