Question

public Object getValue()
{
    ValueItem valueItem = null;
    Object returnValue = null;

    if(this.value instanceof StringValueImpl)
    {
        valueItem = (StringValueImpl) this.value;
    }
    else if(this.value instanceof ListValueImpl)
    {
        valueItem = (ListValueImpl) this.value;
    }
    else if(this.value instanceof MapValueImpl)
    {
        valueItem = (MapValueImpl) this.value;
    }

    if(valueItem!=null)
        returnValue = valueItem.getValue();

    return returnValue;
}

ValueItem is an interface which is implemented by ListValueImpl, MapValueImpl etc .. I want return value which is an object. The code works fine but i was wondering if this can be improved in any way ?

Answer 1

What is the type of this.value? If it is ValueItem then you don’t need to do any of this and can replace the method with this:

public Object getValue()
{
    Object returnValue = null;
    if(this.value!=null)
        returnValue = this.value.getValue();
    return returnValue;
}

Or even shorter:

public Object getValue()
{
    return this.value!=null ? this.value.getValue() : null;
}

If this.value is not of type ValueItem but it has to contain a ValueItem, then you have a design problem at your hand.