How to convert an Optional to an OptionalInt?

Question

I have an Optional that I want to "convert" to an OptionalInt, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to do this.

Here's what I want to do (contrived example):

public OptionalInt getInt() {
    return Optional.ofNullable(someString).filter(s -> s.matches("\\d+")).mapToInt(Integer::parseInt);
}

However, there's no mapToInt() method for Optional.

The best I could come up with is:

return Optional.ofNullable(someString)
    .filter(s -> s.matches("\\d+"))
    .map(s -> OptionalInt.of(Integer.parseInt(s)))
    .orElse(OptionalInt.empty());

but that seems inelegant.

Am I missing something from the JDK that can make the conversion more elegant?

Answer 1

While the code isn't more readable than an ordinary conditional expression, there is a simple solution:

public OptionalInt getInt() {
    return Stream.of(someString).filter(s -> s != null && s.matches("\\d+"))
        .mapToInt(Integer::parseInt).findAny();
}

---

With Java 9, you could use

public OptionalInt getInt() {
    return Stream.ofNullable(someString).filter(s -> s.matches("\\d+"))
        .mapToInt(Integer::parseInt).findAny();
}

As said, neither is more readable than an ordinary conditional expression, but I think, it still looks better than using mapOrElseGet (and the first variant doesn't need Java 9.

Answer 2

If you have any object and not just a String, you can temporarily go through a Stream:

public static <T> OptionalInt toOptionalInt(Optional<T> optional, ToIntFunction<? super T> func) {
  return optional.map(Stream::of).orElseGet(Stream::empty)
    .mapToInt(func)
    .findFirst();
}

This solution has the advantage to be a one-liner, meaning you can copy/paste the content of the method and just change func to whatever you want. The disadvantage is going through a Stream to achieve what you want. But if you want a generic one-liner, this is it.

If you want a utility method, you probably prefer to use the following:

public static <T> OptionalInt toOptionalInt(Optional<T> optional, ToIntFunction<? super T> func) {
  if (optional.isPresent()) {
    return OptionalInt.of(func.applyAsInt(optional.get()));
  } else {
    return OptionalInt.empty();
  }
}

Answer 3

No, there's no way to do it in more elegant way using standard Java API. And as far as I know it's not planned to add such methods in JDK-9. I asked Paul Sandoz about adding mapToInt, etc., here's his answer:

Me:

Isn't it a good idea to provide also a way to transfer between Optional types like mapToInt, mapToObj, etc., like it's done in Stream API?

Paul:

I don’t wanna go there, my response is transform Optional* into a *Stream. An argument for adding mapOrElseGet (notice that the primitive variants return U) is that other functionality can be composed from it.

So you will likely to have in Java-9:

return Optional.of(someString).filter(s -> s.matches("\\d+"))
     .mapOrElseGet(s -> OptionalInt.of(Integer.parseInt(s)), OptionalInt::empty);

But nothing more.

That's because JDK authors insist that the Optional class and its primitive friends (especially primitive friends) should not be widely used, it's just a convenient way to perform a limited set of operations on the return value of methods which may return "the absence of the value". Also primitive optionals are designed for performance improvement, but actually it's much less significant than with streams, so using Optional<Integer> is also fine. With Valhalla project (hopefully to arrive in Java-10) you will be able to use Optional<int> and OptionalInt will become unnecessary.

In your particular case the better way to do it is using ternary operator:

return someString != null && someString.matches("\\d+") ? 
       OptionalInt.of(Integer.parseInt(someString)) : OptionalInt.empty();

I assume that you want to return the OptionalInt from the method. Otherwise it's even more questionable why you would need it.