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kotlinlang

is there a shorthand to access an optional throwing an exception if it's not set?

You mean something like this but shorter?
```myOptional ?: throw Error("myOptional")```


don't see it in autocompletions :thinking_face:

yeah but I'd like to chain it. I tried writing this:
```fun &lt;T&gt; T?.unwrap(errorMsg: String): T =
    this ?: error(errorMsg)```


But it doesn't get rid of the optional when chaining:

```inputs.cough?.unwrap("Cough not set").type = type // error after ), because it's missing ?```


so all I can do now is
```(inputs.cough ?: error("Cough not set")).type = type```


Ah its a nullable not the type Optional :nerd_face:

`requireNotNull`  already exists in kotlin

<@U5QGY080J> I see. You can sort of do this using experimental feature: contracts.

Given:
```@ExperimentalContracts
fun &lt;T&gt; T.unwrap(errorMessage: String): T {
    contract {
        returns()
    }
    return this ?: throw Error(errorMessage)
}```
Usage:
```val a: String?
a = null
a?.unwrap("a is Null!!")
a // a would smart cast to not-null here.```


It's used by `requireNotNull`, `checkNotNull`  <@UFC7B9QPM> recommended.

btw the way the shortest shortcut is `!!` if you don't care for the concrete error :see_no_evil:

aware of `!!` :wink: I wanted an error message