I don't understand the usability of optionals. For example, why not initialize a string to null? Can someone explain what is so revolutionary about them? It seems that they have been hiding within the language for a while now.
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Ignore the _Guava_. It's the concept of Optional that is discussed. – Sotirios Delimanolis Mar 14 '15 at 02:56
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They actually have been implemented in Java 8 so they actually haven't been "hiding" very long. But Google Guava had them for some time, and the Guava guide provides a very compelling analysis on why to use them.
https://code.google.com/p/guava-libraries/wiki/UsingAndAvoidingNullExplained
Nulls suck because they are difficult to determine if they are deliberately used for a design or not. Optional forces the developer to address the idea of an absent value and check for it first.
Not to mention, the Java 8 Optional has some very powerful lambda methods, like map(), flatMap(), and filter() which streamline a chain of transformative operations on a possibly empty value without risking a null pointer exception.
There really is no good reason to use null in your designs unless you're doing some performance-intensive process. Otherwise you are just subjecting yourself to NullPointerExceptions.
tmn
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