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

Not such a cool idea, but how about catching the exception:

    try 
    {
        PostalCode pc = people.get(0).getAddress().getPostalCode();
    }
    catch(NullPointerException ex)
    {
        System.out.println("Gotcha");
    }