Why can't I use filter as my last step in a stream

Question

I keep getting told it is bad practice to not terminate a Stream via methods such as collect and findFirst but no real feedback as to why not much said about it in blogs.

Looking at following example, instead of using a massive nested if check, I went with Optional to get back a List value. As you can see my last step is filter in that Stream. This works as expected for me which is to get back a list. Why is this wrong and how should I have written it instead?

import lombok.Getter;
import lombok.Setter;
import java.util.*;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        RequestBean requestBean = new RequestBean();
        // if I uncomment this I will get the list values printed as expected
//        FruitBean fruitBean = new FruitBean();
//        AnotherBean anotherBean = new AnotherBean();
//        InnerBean innerBean = new InnerBean();
//        requestBean.setFruitBeans(Collections.singletonList(fruitBean));
//        fruitBean.setAnotherBeans(Collections.singletonList(anotherBean));
//        anotherBean.setInnerBeans(Collections.singletonList(innerBean));
//        List<String> beans = Arrays.asList("apple", "orange");
//        innerBean.setBeans(beans);

        List<String> result = getBeanViaOptional(requestBean);

        if(result != null){
            for(String s : result){
                System.out.println(s);
            }
        }else {
            System.out.println("nothing in list");
        }

    }

    private static List<String> getBeanViaOptional(RequestBean bean){
        Optional<List<String>> output = Optional.ofNullable(bean)
                .map(RequestBean::getFruitBeans)
                .map(n -> n.get(0))
                .map(FruitBean::getAnotherBeans)
                .map(n -> n.get(0))
                .map(AnotherBean::getInnerBeans)
                .map(n -> n.get(0))
                .map(InnerBean::getBeans)
                // why is this bad practice to end with a filter. how should I write this then?
                .filter(n -> n.contains("apple"));

        if(!output.isPresent()){
            throw new CustomException();
        }

        return output.get();
    }

    // not using this. just to show that optional was preferable compared to this.
    private static List<String> getBeanViaIfChecks(RequestBean bean){
        if(bean != null){
            if(bean.getFruitBeans() != null){
                if(bean.getFruitBeans().get(0) != null){
                    if(bean.getFruitBeans().get(0).getAnotherBeans() != null){
                        if(bean.getFruitBeans().get(0).getAnotherBeans().get(0) != null){
                            if(bean.getFruitBeans().get(0).getAnotherBeans().get(0).getInnerBeans() != null){
                                if(bean.getFruitBeans().get(0).getAnotherBeans().get(0).getInnerBeans().get(0) != null){
                                    return bean.getFruitBeans().get(0).getAnotherBeans().get(0).getInnerBeans().get(0).getBeans();
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}

@Getter
@Setter
class RequestBean{
    List<FruitBean> fruitBeans;
}

@Getter
@Setter
class FruitBean{
    List<AnotherBean> anotherBeans;
}

@Getter
@Setter
class AnotherBean{
    List<InnerBean> innerBeans;
}

@Getter
@Setter
class InnerBean{
    List<String> beans;
}

class CustomException extends RuntimeException{
    // do some custom exception stuff
}

Answer 1

I keep getting told it is bad practice to not terminate a Stream via methods such as collect and findFirst but no real feedback as to why not much said about it in blogs.

It really depends on the context, if you're saying "can I end a stream with an intermediate operation e.g. filter and not call a terminal operation (an operation that consumes the stream) ever" then yes it's bad practise and kind of pointless because you've just defined some criteria but never asked for the "result".

Streams are lazy in the sense that they don't do anything unless told so by a terminal operation e.g. collect, findFirst etc.

If you're saying "is it bad practice to return a stream from a method" then it may be worth reading this answer on whether one should return a stream or a collection.

Further, note that your getBeanViaOptional logic is operating on an Optional<T> rather than a Stream<T>. Yes, they both have map, flatMap and filter but note that an Optional<T> can only contain one value or it's empty whereas a stream can have one or more.

Your approach of using an Optional instead of the imperative ifs is obviously better in terms of readability, maintenance, etc. so I'd suggest you proceed with that approach, although you can improve it a little bit by using orElseThrow i.e.:

return Optional.ofNullable(bean)
               .map(RequestBean::getFruitBeans)
               .map(n -> n.get(0))
               .map(FruitBean::getAnotherBeans)
               .map(n -> n.get(0))
               .map(AnotherBean::getInnerBeans)
               .map(n -> n.get(0))
               .map(InnerBean::getBeans)
               .filter(n -> n.contains("apple"))
               .orElseThrow(CustomException::new);