👀 Views: 0 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-07-08

java spring-boot jpa optional Java

I'm experimenting with Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy... I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer... I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm encountering a `NullPointerException` when trying to use `Optional` in one of my Spring Data JPA repository methods. I'm using Java 17 and Spring Boot 2.5.4. The repository method is intended to find a user by their email address, and I'm trying to handle the case where the user does not exist by returning an empty `Optional` instead of null. Here's the method in my repository interface: ```java public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> { Optional<User> findByEmail(String email); } ``` When I make a call to this method in my service layer, if the email does not exist in the database, I expect to receive `Optional.empty()`. However, I get the following error: ``` Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at com.example.service.UserService.getUserByEmail(UserService.java:25) at com.example.Application.main(Application.java:10) ``` Here’s the relevant code in my service layer: ```java @Service public class UserService { @Autowired private UserRepository userRepository; public User getUserByEmail(String email) { Optional<User> userOptional = userRepository.findByEmail(email); return userOptional.get(); // This line throws the NullPointerException } } ``` I thought that calling `get()` on an `Optional` that is empty would simply return a `NoSuchElementException` instead of a `NullPointerException` as I'm not even reaching that point due to the NPE being thrown beforehand. I've also checked that the database is correctly set up and that the `User` entity is being mapped correctly. To troubleshoot, I've tried adding a null check before calling `get()`, like this: ```java if (userOptional.isPresent()) { return userOptional.get(); } else { return null; // or throw a custom exception } ``` But I still want to understand why the NPE is being thrown in the first place. Any insights on how I can resolve this or a better way to handle the situation would be greatly appreciated! This is part of a larger REST API I'm building. I appreciate any insights! I've been using Java for about a year now. Any examples would be super helpful.