Fantastic Java API and Where to Find Them: Objects.toString

Photo by June Gathercole on Unsplash

Do you have stuff like that in your code?

string = string == null ? “” : string;

or like this one…

if(string==null) string="";

or, more smart, did you create a method like this?

String ifNullThenEmpty(String string) { 
 return string == null ? "" : string;
}

You can put everything on Utilities class as a static method …

…Don’t worry, I did it too, this is not a code crime against Alan Turing’s memory, James Gosling won’t hate you.

However, if you use a version of Java≥ 7, why do you reinvent the wheel?

Oracle has already done it for you! Use it!

Class java.util.Objects contains a method with this segnature

String toString(Object o, String nullDefault)

An example is…

string = Objects.toString(string,””);

or, more simple, with static import

string = toString(string,””);

Simple, clean, and you don’t test it. Oracle has already tested it for you.

You can find this post and others on my blog: trueprogramming.com