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Null Handling of Repository Methods
As of Spring Data 2.0, repository CRUD methods that return an individual aggregate instance use Java 8’s Optional
to indicate the potential absence of a value.
Besides that, Spring Data supports returning the following wrapper types on query methods:
-
com.google.common.base.Optional
-
scala.Option
-
io.vavr.control.Option
Alternatively, query methods can choose not to use a wrapper type at all.
The absence of a query result is then indicated by returning null
.
Repository methods returning collections, collection alternatives, wrappers, and streams are guaranteed never to return null
but rather the corresponding empty representation.
See “Repository query return types” for details.
Nullability Annotations
You can express nullability constraints for repository methods by using Spring Framework’s nullability annotations.
They provide a tooling-friendly approach and opt-in null
checks during runtime, as follows:
-
@NonNullApi
: Used on the package level to declare that the default behavior for parameters and return values is, respectively, neither to accept nor to producenull
values. -
@NonNull
: Used on a parameter or return value that must not benull
(not needed on a parameter and return value where@NonNullApi
applies). -
@Nullable
: Used on a parameter or return value that can benull
.
Spring annotations are meta-annotated with JSR 305 annotations (a dormant but widely used JSR).
JSR 305 meta-annotations let tooling vendors (such as IDEA, Eclipse, and Kotlin) provide null-safety support in a generic way, without having to hard-code support for Spring annotations.
To enable runtime checking of nullability constraints for query methods, you need to activate non-nullability on the package level by using Spring’s @NonNullApi
in package-info.java
, as shown in the following example:
package-info.java
Once non-null defaulting is in place, repository query method invocations get validated at runtime for nullability constraints.
If a query result violates the defined constraint, an exception is thrown.
This happens when the method would return null
but is declared as non-nullable (the default with the annotation defined on the package in which the repository resides).
If you want to opt-in to nullable results again, selectively use @Nullable
on individual methods.
Using the result wrapper types mentioned at the start of this section continues to work as expected: an empty result is translated into the value that represents absence.
The following example shows a number of the techniques just described:
package com.acme; (1)
import org.springframework.lang.Nullable;
interface UserRepository extends Repository<User, Long> {
User getByEmailAddress(EmailAddress emailAddress); (2)
@Nullable
User findByEmailAddress(@Nullable EmailAddress emailAdress); (3)
Optional<User> findOptionalByEmailAddress(EmailAddress emailAddress); (4)
}
1 | The repository resides in a package (or sub-package) for which we have defined non-null behavior. |
2 | Throws an EmptyResultDataAccessException when the query does not produce a result.
Throws an IllegalArgumentException when the emailAddress handed to the method is null . |
3 | Returns null when the query does not produce a result.
Also accepts null as the value for emailAddress . |
4 | Returns Optional.empty() when the query does not produce a result.
Throws an IllegalArgumentException when the emailAddress handed to the method is null . |
Nullability in Kotlin-based Repositories
Kotlin has the definition of nullability constraints baked into the language.
Kotlin code compiles to bytecode, which does not express nullability constraints through method signatures but rather through compiled-in metadata.
Make sure to include the kotlin-reflect
JAR in your project to enable introspection of Kotlin’s nullability constraints.
Spring Data repositories use the language mechanism to define those constraints to apply the same runtime checks, as follows:
interface UserRepository : Repository<User, String> {
fun findByUsername(username: String): User (1)
fun findByFirstname(firstname: String?): User? (2)
}
1 | The method defines both the parameter and the result as non-nullable (the Kotlin default).
The Kotlin compiler rejects method invocations that pass null to the method.
If the query yields an empty result, an EmptyResultDataAccessException is thrown. |
2 | This method accepts null for the firstname parameter and returns null if the query does not produce a result. |