Java: avoid checking for null in nested classes (Deep Null checking)

Question

Imagine I have a class Family. It contains a List of Person. Each (class) Person contains a (class) Address. Each (class) Address contains a (class) PostalCode. Any "i

Answer 1

If you can use groovy for mapping it will clean up the syntax and codes looks cleaner. As Groovy co-exist with java you can leverage groovy for doing the mapping.

if(family != null) {
    if(family.getPeople() != null) {
        if(family.people.get(0) != null) {
            if(people.get(0).getAddress() != null) {
                if(people.get(0).getAddress().getPostalCode() != null) {
                    //FINALLY MADE IT TO DO SOMETHING!!!
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

instead you can do this

if(family?.people?[0]?.address?.postalCode) {
   //do something
}

or if you need to map it to other object

somobject.zip = family?.people?[0]?.address?.postalCode