NullHandling.java

public class Foo {
  public String theCurrentWay(SomeData data) {
    if (data.getFoo() != null) { 
      if (data.getFoo().getBar() != null) {
        if (data.getBlah() != null) {
          return data.getFoo().getBar().getBlah().toString();
        }
      }
    }
    return null;
  }
  public String aBetterWay(SomeData data) {
    safeNull {
      // if any of these returns null, just return null
      return data.getFoo().getBar().getBlah().toString();
    }
  }
  public String anotherBetterWay(SomeData data) {
    safeNull("") {
      // if any of these returns null, just return empty string
      return data.getFoo().getBar().getBlah().toString();
    }
  }
}

NullHandling.scala

object NullSafety {
  def safeOption[A](code: => A):Option[A] = safeOption(None)(code)
  def safeOption[A](value: Option[A])(code: => A):Option[A] = {
    try {
      val result = code
      Some(result)
    }
    catch {
      case npe:NullPointerException => value
    }
  }
  def safeNull[A](code: => A):A = safeNull(null)(code)

  def safeNull[A](value:A)(code: => A):A = {
    try {
      code
    }
    catch {
      case npe:NullPointerException => value       
    }
  }
}

class Foo {
  import NullSafety._
  def doit(DataStructure data) {
    safeNull {
      data.foo.bar.blah.toString
    }
  }
}