[arrakeen]

java:

    Optional<String> result = returnsAnOptional();
    if (result.isPresent()) {
        log.info("result is {}", result.get());
    }

    // and

    returnsAnOptional().map(r -> log.info("result is {}", r);

[tombert]

Optionals are a bit different though, since they don't provide a way to explicitly handle errors, just wrap the `null` value if it exists and force you to be more explicit about it.

I don't know that there's a clean way to do the Either monad in Java without algebraic data types. You could certainly make a wrapper class that maybe has an optional `Left` and `Right` private variable and then make a `map` that handles the unboxing of those, but I think that might be a bit messy.

[arrakeen]

my post was mostly facetious, but it is as you say: possible but probably not something anyone would want to use

[tombert]

Actually, I almost want to give it a try now. There's some messy try-catch Java code at work that might benefit.

Don't worry, I won't deploy it until my team has seen it ;)