Options can and should be treated as any other collection. http://www.scala-lang.org/api/current/index.html#scala.Option

option-filter-fold.scala

val o1 = Some("string")
//o1: Some[String] = Some(string)

val o2 = Some("")
//o2: Some[String] = Some()

val o3: Option[String] = None
//o3: Option[String] = None

o3.filter (_ != "").fold( "Bad Bad Bad")( x => s"Good, we got $x" )
//res8: String = Bad Bad Bad

o2.filter (_ != "").fold( "Bad Bad Bad")( x => s"Good, we got $x" )
//res9: String = Bad Bad Bad

o1.filter (_ != "").fold( "Bad Bad Bad")( x => s"Good, we got $x" )
//res10: String = Good, we got string

val mm = collection.mutable.Map[String,String]();
//mm: scala.collection.mutable.Map[String,String] = Map()

mm ++ o1.filter(_ != "").map( v => "key" -> v )
//res13: scala.collection.mutable.Map[String,String] = Map(key -> string)