Java Coding Problems

228. Returning an already-constructed default value

Let's assume that we have a method that returns a result based on Optional. If Optional is empty then the method returns a default value. If we consider the previous problem, then a possible solution can be written as follows:

public static final String BOOK_STATUS = "UNKNOWN";...// Avoidpublic String findStatus() {  Optional<String> status = ...; // this is prone to be empty  if (status.isPresent()) {    return status.get();  } else {    return BOOK_STATUS;  }}

Well, this is not a bad solution, but is not very elegant. A more concise and elegant solution will rely on the Optional.orElse() method. This method is useful for replacing the isPresent()-get() pair when we want to set or return a default ...