Can @PathVariable return null if it's not found?

Question

Is it possible to make the @PathVariable to return null if the path variable is not in the url? Otherwise I need to make two handlers. One for /simple

Answer 1

As others have already mentioned No you cannot expect them to be null when you have explicitly mentioned the path parameters. However you can do something like below as a workaround -

@RequestMapping(value = {"/simple", "/simple/{game}"}, method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView gameHandler(@PathVariable Map pathVariablesMap,
            HttpServletRequest request) {
    if (pathVariablesMap.containsKey("game")) {
        //corresponds to path "/simple/{game}"
    } else {
        //corresponds to path "/simple"
    }           
}

If you are using Spring 4.1 and Java 8 you can use java.util.Optional which is supported in @RequestParam, @PathVariable, @RequestHeader and @MatrixVariable in Spring MVC

@RequestMapping(value = {"/simple", "/simple/{game}"}, method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView gameHandler(@PathVariable Optional game,
            HttpServletRequest request) {
    if (game.isPresent()) {
        //game.get()
        //corresponds to path "/simple/{game}"
    } else {
        //corresponds to path "/simple"
    }           
}