Question

I’m brand new to java, coming from a ruby world. One thing I love about ruby is the very terse syntax such as ||=.

I realize of course that a compiled language is different, but I’m wondering if Java has anything similar.

In particular, what I do all the time in ruby is something like:

someVar ||= SomeClass.new

I think this is incredibly terse, yet powerful, but thus far the only method I can think of to achieve the same thing is a very verbose:

if(someVar == null){
  someVar = new SomeClass()
}

Just trying to improve my Java-fu and syntax is certainly one area that I’m no pro.

Answer 1

No, there’s not. But to replace

if(someVar == null){
  someVar = new SomeClass()
}

something similar is scheduled for Java 7 as Elvis Operator:

somevar = somevar ?: new SomeClass();

As of now, your best bet is the Ternary operator:

somevar = (somevar != null) ? somevar : new SomeClass();