'Optional' can be replaced with sequence of 'if' statements

Reports Optional call chains that can be replaced with a sequence of if statements.

Example:

  return Optional.ofNullable(name)
    .map(this::extractInitials)
    .map(initials -> initials.toUpperCase(Locale.ENGLISH))
    .orElseGet(this::getDefault);

After the quick-fix is applied:

  if (name != null) {
    String initials = extractInitials(name);
    if (initials != null) return initials.toUpperCase(Locale.ENGLISH);
  }
  return getDefault();

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

OptionalToIf

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Code style issues

This inspection can help to downgrade for backward compatibility with earlier Java versions.

This inspection depends on the Java feature 'Stream and Optional API', which is available since Java 8.

New in 2020.2

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection OptionalToIf

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025