The class java.util.Objects is new for JDK 7. Its mission is to provide "null-safe or null-tolerant versions of common operations on objects."

The methods nonNull(x) have the behavior of throwing NPE if their argument is null, and returning their argument if non-null. It is very common in Java source bases for a method named nonNull(x) to have the behavior of coercing their argument to null; that is, it is generally associated with a null-tolerant rather than a null-safe behavior.

These methods should be renamed to something that makes its checking/verification behavior clear, while preserving the convenient self-return property so that it can be used in cases like:

  public void fooWrapper(String s, String t) {
      foo(checkNonNull(s), checkNonNull(t));
  }