Java Boolean Class Variable Used in Comparisons

Question

I have

Boolean condition;

public Boolean isCondition() { return condition; }

Is the following usage of this method then allowed, as with a primitive,

if (isCondition())
{
  //...
}

I would use that for primitives but not sure about the class. Does it need to be checked for NULLs? Do I need to getBooleanValue() first?

Answer 1

Yes, you can use any boxed primitive (in your case, Boolean) as a primitive itself; namely, your example would work if you could guarantee that condition was set to a non-null value.

The caveat here is that if any of the boxed primitives themselves are null, you will get a NullPointerException when unboxing them. If you have the possibility of that value being null, you should re-evaluate why you're using the boxed primitive in the first place. It may be better to use the unboxed primitive (in your case, boolean) instead.