groovy Safe Navigation Operator Basic usage
Example
Groovy's safe navigation operator allows to avoid NullPointerExceptions when accessing to methods or attributes on variables that may assume null values. It is equivalent to nullable_var == null ? null : nullable_var.myMethod()
def lst = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
def f_value = lst.find { it.startsWith('f') } // 'foo' found
f_value?.length() // returns 3
def null_value = lst.find { it.startsWith('z') } // no element found. Null returned
// equivalent to null_value==null ? null : null_value.length()
null_value?.length() // no NullPointerException thrown
// no safe operator used
null_value.length() // NullPointerException thrown
