I agree. Having programmed in java for the past 15 years, I can attest that NullPointerExceptions are a constant source of errors. The main benefit I've experie

I agree. Having programmed in java for the past 15 years, I can attest that NullPointerExceptions are a constant source of errors. The main benefit I've experienced with Optional is that it documents the fact that a method might return a null value. Without this, the client has to guess whether or not to add defensive null checks.