Description Sven Efftinge 2012-01-10 03:03:51 EST

The elvis operator effectively allows to provide a default value in case an expression evaluates to 'null'.

Example :

  someStringOrNull :? 'hello'

I propose to do this via library using an extension method on java.lang.Object.

  someStringOrNull.ifnull['hello']

@rrmckinley suggested via twitter to use a shorter more readable name like 'or' or 'else'. 
Unfortunately 'else' being a keyword won't work and 'or' could be surprising since as it would be defined on Object the following expression would result in 'false':

false.or[true]

Any other suggestions?