Flutter: What option is there to assign variable? to variable - null can't be assigned to non-null; path_provider getExternalStorageDirectory();

Question

Testing for something that might not exist, is spawning risk of a null but what is the option to acknowledge that and assign good results to a non-null variable?

For example [path_provider getExternalStorageDirectory();] might reasonably respond null in the case there is no external storage.

How can a Directory be assigned, if it does exist, with that risk that might null?

Assigning a temporary variable to test for the null, doesn't work.

Error is consistently then

A value of type 'Directory?' can't be assigned to a variable of type 'Directory'.

Answer 1

getExternalStorageDirectory() return nullable Directory from future, you can make data type as nullable.

Directory? directory =  await getExternalStorageDirectory();

Find more about understanding-null-safety

Answer 2

Reading replies then as "nullable forces nullable", which is workable but odd there is not that option to remove the null.