Should I do a check for null for a ResponseEntity<> object in Spring Boot?

Question

I'm working with ResponseEntity<> in a Spring Boot project and I want to know if it's mandatory to check the responseBody object for null before calling getBody()?

For ex:

ResponseEntity<Customer> responseBody = customerClient.getCustomer(id);

I'm not sure if a ResponseEntity object could be null. Can I do directly Customer customer = responseBody.getBody(); or should I do a check for null before that?

Answer 1

No, you don't need to check if responseEntity is null.

Spring is designed to always return a value inside responseEntity. What can be null, is the getBody() method that you call on responseEntity.

You might want to take a look at the following:

• https://docs.spring.io/spring-framework/docs/current/javadoc-api/org/springframework/http/ResponseEntity.html
• https://zetcode.com/springboot/responseentity/