Can you explain the concept of the Optional class in Java and its purpose?

The Optional class in Java is a container that may either contain a value or be empty (null). Its main purpose is to help avoid errors related to NullPointerException and to make working with potentially absent values more explicit and safe.

Using Optional allows you to explicitly indicate that a method may return a value or nothing, and provides convenient methods for handling this case, such as:

• isPresent() — to check if a value exists.
• ifPresent() — to perform an action if a value is present.
• orElse() — to return a default value if absent.

Example:

Optional<String> optionalName = Optional.ofNullable(getName());
optionalName.ifPresent(name -> System.out.println("Name: " + name));
String nameOrDefault = optionalName.orElse("Unknown");

Thus, Optional helps write cleaner and safer code, reducing the number of explicit null checks.