# False Positive on \`optional.orElse(null)\` **URL:** \ **Category:** Report False-positive / False-negative...\ **Tags:** false-positive, sonarqube, java\ **Created:** [January 26, 2023, 8:07am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410 "2023-01-26T08:07:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AJ8GH](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/aj8gh/32/41319_2.png) [@AJ8GH](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/AJ8GH)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2023, 8:07am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/1 "2023-01-26T08:07:10Z")
- Version info: Developer Edition, Version 9.4 (build 54424), [LGPL v3](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.txt) - what are you trying to achieve: Pass null as an argument to `orElse` in the Java Optional API: `Optional.of().map().orElse(null)` Example of how to replicate the issue in code: ```auto Optional.of("anything") .map(String::toUpperCase) .orElse(null); ``` This is failing as it’s being marked by SonarQube as a bug, with the message: ```auto Parameter 1 to this call is marked "@NotNull" but null could be passed. ``` I believe this is incorrect and is a false positive, because the parameter itself is marked nullable in the java optional source code: ```auto public T orElse(@Nullable @Flow(targetIsContainer = true) T other) { return value != null ? value : other; } ``` ---
**Author:** ![ganncamp](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/ganncamp/32/1261_2.png) [@ganncamp](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/ganncamp)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2023, 3:10pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/2 "2023-01-27T15:10:52Z")
Hi, Welcome to the community! What rule is raising this issue? The id will be something like `java:S111`. Also, can you upgrade to the latest version, SonarQube 9.8, and see if this is replicable?   Ann ---
**Author:** ![mbrown10](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/mbrown10/32/42869_2.png) [@mbrown10](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/mbrown10)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/3 "2023-03-08T16:21:01Z")
I have the same issue using SonarCloud caused by rule java:S2637 ---
**Author:** ![ganncamp](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/ganncamp/32/1261_2.png) [@ganncamp](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/ganncamp)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 4:24pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/5 "2023-03-08T16:24:04Z")
Hi @mbrown10, Welcome to the community and thanks for chiming in here. I’ve flagged this for team attention.   Ann ---
**Author:** ![jbeleites](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/jbeleites/32/11750_2.png) [@jbeleites](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/jbeleites)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 9:27am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/7 "2023-03-15T09:27:56Z")
Hello Matt, hello Adam, Thank you for reporting this issue. Indeed, this looks like a false positive. Unfortunately, I have not been able to reproduce the issue on SonarCloud or SonarQube based on the first example provided in the initial post. Could you provide a stand-alone compilable reproducer, which triggers this behavior? Optionally, I can open a private channel for you to share such a reproducer if you cannot make it work without including private code. ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 11:20am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/9 "2023-04-11T11:20:02Z")
We currently have this issue as well: ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/uploads/sonarcommunity/original/3X/b/f/bf4923a7a80e174005758134a0cf53a2c488fd5b.png) java:S2637 is the issue that is reported. Using SonarQube Developer Edition Version 9.5 (build 56709). ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 11:22am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/10 "2023-04-11T11:22:35Z")
Java’s `Optional.ofNullable`’s first parameter, however, is annotated with `@Nullable`. ---
**Author:** ![jbeleites](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/jbeleites/32/11750_2.png) [@jbeleites](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/jbeleites)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2023, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/12 "2023-04-11T12:54:28Z")
Thank you @henrykuijpers for confirming the issue. After digging a bit more, in fact, [we have a ticket](https://sonarsource.atlassian.net/browse/SONARJAVA-4121) for this issue. Thank you all for reporting the issue anyway, it helps us assess how prevalent the problem is and how to prioritize fixing it. ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 8:23am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/14 "2023-04-12T08:23:57Z")
Do you have any idea how I can get my atlassian account to join the SonarSource JIRA? I see that the linked issue has been there for more than a year already, without a fix. If needed, I can try to work on this, to get this fixed. ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 8:29am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/15 "2023-04-12T08:29:06Z")
Do you have any idea on how to join the SonarSource JIRA with my Atlassian account? I see that the linked ticket is more than 1 year old, without a fix. It would be nice to work on this. ---
**Author:** ![ganncamp](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/ganncamp/32/1261_2.png) [@ganncamp](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/ganncamp)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2023, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/16 "2023-04-12T12:25:56Z")
Hi, Unfortunately, you won’t be able to interact in our Jira projects. Fortunately, you don’t need to to contribute. Feel free to reference an existing ticket in a PR and if we accept the PR, we’ll handle the Jira admin.   😃 Ann ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2023, 9:17am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/17 "2023-05-03T09:17:39Z")
Hi, is there any progress on the issue? And/or are there any pointers on how to fix this? It’s popping up very frequently and making our quality pipelines fail. I would be willing to submit a PR, however, I have no idea where to start on trying to make a test case to prove the issue and then fixing it. ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/18 "2024-01-17T13:59:58Z")
@ganncamp Any update on this issue? Would love to see this fixed. And I could also help fixing it, if I knew how. ---
**Author:** ![ganncamp](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/ganncamp/32/1261_2.png) [@ganncamp](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/ganncamp)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/19 "2024-01-17T14:05:48Z")
@henrykuijpers if there’s no progress in Jira, then there’s no progress.   Ann ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 9:03am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/20 "2025-03-24T09:03:34Z")
@ganncamp This was supposed to be fixed in v7.15 (according to the history @Michael set this fix version). Later on, we read somewhere that this was fixed in a 9.9 version. We are currently running version 2025.1 and we still see this issue occurring. Any ETA on the fix being pushed through? ---
**Author:** ![ganncamp](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/ganncamp/32/1261_2.png) [@ganncamp](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/ganncamp)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/21 "2025-03-24T11:59:56Z")
Hi @henrykuijpers, Again, if there’s no progress in Jira, there’s no progress. This ticket is still `Open`.   Ann ---
**Author:** ![henrykuijpers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/henrykuijpers/32/44017_2.png) [@henrykuijpers](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/henrykuijpers)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 12:16pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/22 "2025-03-24T12:16:39Z")
@ganncamp And it’s still impossible to contribute the fix? We use this pattern a lot and it’s very annoying that our quality gate fails all the time; We then have to mark the issue as “false positive” and then rerun the build (and quality gate). ---
**Author:** ![Leonardo\_Pilastri](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/leonardo_pilastri/32/38853_2.png) [@Leonardo\_Pilastri](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/Leonardo_Pilastri)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 9:44am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/24 "2025-03-25T09:44:32Z")
Hi Henry, as Ann mentioned the ticket is still open and it does not have priority over others. That being said if you are familiar with the analyzer and you have a fix, please feel free to create a PR! The ticket is fairly detailed and should give some directions already. The “Contributing” section of sonar-java ([here](https://github.com/SonarSource/sonar-java?tab=readme-ov-file#contributing)) should kickstart you with running tests and creating a PR, but let me know if I can assist you with that. ---
**Author:** ![Andret2344](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/sonarsource/user_avatar/community.sonarsource.com/andret2344/32/77160_2.png) [@Andret2344](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/Andret2344)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/28 "2026-08-07T21:59:38Z")
If anyone needs it, and I bet there are individuals who do, here’s my PR with a fix for that: > > > Fixes the false positive reported in SONARJAVA-4121 (and its twin JAVASE-87). > > D…iscussed in https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410 > > \## Problem > > \`\`\`java > import java.util.Optional; > import org.eclipse.jdt.annotation.NonNull; > > class A { > private final String value = "value"; > > @NonNull // when this is removed, the FP disappears > public String getValue() { > return value; > } > > public String test(A a) { > return Optional.ofNullable(a) > .map(A::getValue) > .orElse(null); // FP: Parameter 1 to this call is marked "@NonNull" but null could be passed > } > } > \`\`\` > > \`org.eclipse.jdt.annotation.NonNull\` and \`lombok.NonNull\` are \`TYPE\_USE\` annotations, so ECJ keeps them in > the type binding. In the snippet above the type argument is inferred as \`@NonNull String\`, the receiver > becomes \`Optional\<@NonNull String\>\` and the substituted signature of \`orElse\` becomes > \`@NonNull String orElse(@NonNull String)\`. With \`javax.annotation.Nonnull\`, which is not \`TYPE\_USE\`, the > FP does not appear. > > The frontend copied those inferred annotations onto the symbols of the call: > > \* \`JMethodSymbol#declarationParameters\` built the parameter placeholder from the substituted parameter > type, so \`JSymbolMetadata#of\` stored \`@NonNull\` among the annotations of the parameter. The parameter > was then reported as \`NON\_NULL\` at \`VARIABLE\` level, which is what S2637 reads. > \* \`JSymbol#convertMetadata\` used the substituted return type, so the same annotation ended up on the > method symbol. \`Optional#orElse\` was reported as \`NON\_NULL\` at \`METHOD\` level, which makes the > symbolic execution engine constrain the result of the call to \`NOT\_NULL\`. > > Note that the annotation only leaks when the type variable is substituted directly. For \`map\`, whose > return type is \`Optional\<@NonNull String\>\`, the annotation correctly stays in the type argument metadata. > > \## Fix > > Annotations are read from the declared types, while \`type()\` and \`returnType()\` keep the substituted > types, as checks rely on them. Annotations written explicitly on a declaration, including those on type > arguments of a declared parameter, are unaffected; only annotations inferred at the call site are > dropped. > > \* \`JMethodSymbol\` and \`JVariableSymbol\`: parameter metadata comes from the declared parameter type > \* \`JSymbol\`: method metadata comes from the declared return type > > \## Tests > > \`NullabilityWithInferredTypeArgument\` reproduces the reported snippet and the null check that the leaked > return type annotation would turn into an always-false condition. Two tests in \`JSymbolMetadataTest\` > cover the parameter and the method side; both fail without the change: > > \`\`\` > Expecting empty but was: \[org.sonar.java.model.JSymbolMetadata$JAnnotationInstance@5dac488d\] > \`\`\` > > Ran on JDK 26: \`java-frontend\` (1595 tests), \`java-checks-testkit\` (210 tests) and \`java-checks\` > (1706 tests) show no new failures compared to master. I hope it’ll be accepted soon! ---
**Author:** ![gabriel.fleischer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f07891/32.png) [@gabriel.fleischer](https://community.sonarsource.com/u/gabriel.fleischer)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2026, 8:44am UTC](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410/35 "2026-08-26T08:44:10Z")
Hello, Thank you for your proposition, it looks promising ! We plan to work on Java Symbolic Execution Engine in the coming weeks and we will try to merge your PR. Best [Next page](https://community.sonarsource.com/t/false-positive-on-optional-orelse-null/82410.md?page=2)