why use Optional<MyClass> if you cant call any methods that MyClass has?

[sudden carbon]

hey guys. can smb explain to me what wrong? im trying to retrieve an object from DB: Optional<Payment> earlierPayment=paymentRepository.findByTransactionIdAndAmount(paymentConfirmationRequest.getTransactionId(), paymentConfirmationRequest.getAmount());.

and for some reason i cant call any getters that my Payment entity has. does it mean that id need to change the return type of findByTransactionIdAndAmount from Optional<Payment> to just Payment? and then id loose the advantage Optional gives me. that doesnt make any sense 😦

any help? thanks

[brittle swallow]

⌛ This post has been reserved for your question.

Hey @sudden carbon! Please use /close or the Close Post button above when your problem is solved. Please remember to follow the help guidelines. This post will be automatically closed after 300 minutes of inactivity.

TIP: Narrow down your issue to simple and precise questions to maximize the chance that others will reply in here.

[solar scaffold]

well, look at it this way

you ask the database to look up a thing by an id or something

obviously that thing might not exist, so at the repository level an Optional makes sense

Then in your service layer, you might actually need the thing to do something with

At that point, what do you do if you don't have the thing?

Can the method even continue?

If it can't, .orElseThrow, if it can .(flat)map

[sudden carbon]

wait a sec. it turns out that i can call .get() method on my Optional

and then id have the object, and then i could call the the metods my object has

[north parcel]

Yes you can, but you shouldn't. Because if one of method return Optional, you should check with isPresent() or isEmpty() methods. If payment is empty when you call get() method, it throws null pointer exception

[sudden carbon]

yep. but i see that im doing isEmpty on my optional earlier in my service

but thanks for telling me that it can be a pitfall

[brittle swallow]

If you are finished with your post, please close it.
If you are not, please ignore this message.
Note that you will not be able to send further messages here after this post have been closed but you will be able to create new posts.

[north parcel]

Your welcome, if you had any questions, you can send message to me 🙌🏼