Is there a more concise way to write this Java code?

Question

This foo that is returned by lookup could be null.

That's why I'm trying to avoid calling foo.getFooStr() on a null value by first returning null if foo is null.

But is there a better (more concise) way to write this?

public static String getFooStr(String input)
{
    Foo foo = lookup(input);
    if(foo==null)
    {
        return null;
    }
    return foo.getFooStr();
}

Answer 1

You've two questions: is there a better way to write the code, and is there a more concise way to write the code.

Regarding more concise, this could work:

public static String getFooStr(String input) {
    Foo foo = lookup(input);          
    return foo == null ? null : foo.getFooStr();
}

Regarding better: I value readability over conciseness any day, and by a wide margin. Your original code looks fine to me. What matters is what looks good to you, and which is easier for you to understand and debug 3 months from now. I've heard someone say it best -- write your code so that is easily understandable by others, and even more importantly, by your future self.

Answer 2

Why isn't there a lookup that returns the appropriate foo string?

Answer 3

I'm not into java, but I do like clean code... Source code should be easy to read and understand for humans - the machine doesn't care how it looks but your colleagues do. More concise code usually takes a moment or two longer to grasp (sometimes much longeer depending on the quantity and complexity). Keep code understandable and it will be maintainable (even if it is a bit more verbose)!