Smart way to use inheritance in JavaPoet

Question

I'm trying to build a class in this way (using the JavaPoet lib):

theClass = TypeSpec.classBuilder(classe.getName())
                                    .addModifiers(javax.lang.model.element.Modifier.valueOf(classe.getProte().toString().toUpperCase()), Modifier.FINAL) //todo
                                    .addMethods(methods)
                                    .superclass(father)
                                    .addFields(fields)
                                    .build();

Where the field "father" can be nothing. I tried using to put NULL inside it, but it gives an exception this way. Isn't there a smart way to write it?

I could write something like

if (father!=null){
   theClass = TypeSpec.classBuilder(classe.getName())
                                .addModifiers(javax.lang.model.element.Modifier.valueOf(classe.getProte().toString().toUpperCase()), Modifier.FINAL) //todo
                                .addMethods(methods)
                                .superclass(father)
                                .addFields(fields)
                                .build();
}
else{
   theClass = TypeSpec.classBuilder(classe.getName())
                                .addModifiers(javax.lang.model.element.Modifier.valueOf(classe.getProte().toString().toUpperCase()), Modifier.FINAL) //todo
                                .addMethods(methods)
                                .addFields(fields)
                                .build();
}

But that wouldn't be nice. Any advice?

Answer 1

One thing you can do immediately to shorten the code is to populate the builder with most of the fields you want first:

public TypeSpec aNiceMethod(
     ClassModel classe, TypeName father, ArrayList methods, ArrayList fields) {

   TypeSpec.Builder theClassBuilder = TypeSpec.classBuilder(classe.getName())
       .addModifiers(
           javax.lang.model.element.Modifier.valueOf(
               classe.getProte().toString().toUpperCase()),
               Modifier.FINAL)
       .addMethods(methods)
       .addFields(fields);
   if (father != null) {
        theClassBuilder.superclass(father);
   }
   return theClassBuilder.build();
}