"safe navigation operator" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "safe navigation operators",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "safe navigation operator (plural safe navigation operators)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Programming",
          "orig": "en:Programming",
          "parents": [
            "Computing",
            "Software engineering",
            "Technology",
            "Computer science",
            "Engineering",
            "Software",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Media",
            "Fundamental",
            "Communication"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Bashar Jawad, Groovy and Grails Recipes, page 57",
          "text": "One operator I haven't talked about yet is the safe navigation operator (?.). By preceding a dot with a question mark, you can safely navigate to methods or properties of an object even if that object is null.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Mert Caliskan, Kenan Sevindik, Beginning Spring, page 278",
          "text": "The safe navigation operator (?.) provides navigation on the nested properties without getting any exception when a null value is evaluated from any of the properties iterated.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Gary McLean Hall, Adaptive Code: Agile coding with design patterns and SOLID principles",
          "text": "C# 6 introduced a cascading nulls operator, also called the null-conditional operator and the safe navigation operator.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A binary operator that returns its second argument, unless the first argument is null, in which case it returns null; used to simplify code that would otherwise need multiple explicit checks for nullity."
      ],
      "id": "en-safe_navigation_operator-en-noun-5huQazUy",
      "links": [
        [
          "programming",
          "programming#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "binary",
          "binary"
        ],
        [
          "operator",
          "operator"
        ],
        [
          "return",
          "return"
        ],
        [
          "argument",
          "argument"
        ],
        [
          "null",
          "null"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) A binary operator that returns its second argument, unless the first argument is null, in which case it returns null; used to simplify code that would otherwise need multiple explicit checks for nullity."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "safe navigation operator"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "safe navigation operator"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "safe navigation operators",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "safe navigation operator (plural safe navigation operators)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Programming"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Bashar Jawad, Groovy and Grails Recipes, page 57",
          "text": "One operator I haven't talked about yet is the safe navigation operator (?.). By preceding a dot with a question mark, you can safely navigate to methods or properties of an object even if that object is null.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Mert Caliskan, Kenan Sevindik, Beginning Spring, page 278",
          "text": "The safe navigation operator (?.) provides navigation on the nested properties without getting any exception when a null value is evaluated from any of the properties iterated.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, Gary McLean Hall, Adaptive Code: Agile coding with design patterns and SOLID principles",
          "text": "C# 6 introduced a cascading nulls operator, also called the null-conditional operator and the safe navigation operator.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A binary operator that returns its second argument, unless the first argument is null, in which case it returns null; used to simplify code that would otherwise need multiple explicit checks for nullity."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "programming",
          "programming#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "binary",
          "binary"
        ],
        [
          "operator",
          "operator"
        ],
        [
          "return",
          "return"
        ],
        [
          "argument",
          "argument"
        ],
        [
          "null",
          "null"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) A binary operator that returns its second argument, unless the first argument is null, in which case it returns null; used to simplify code that would otherwise need multiple explicit checks for nullity."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "safe navigation operator"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "safe navigation operator"
}