How to set non-null string variable's value to empty if null value passed

Question

How can I achieve this java code's analog in Kotlin?

class Item {
    private String text = "";

    public String getText() {
        return text;
    }

    public void setText(String str) {
        if(str == null){
            text = "";
        } else {
            text = str;
        }
    }

}

So whenever I set null value for text, it's value replaced with empty string. I want exactly the same behavior but in Kotlin, because I'm working with Java classes in Kotlin code, which may return some null values. Checking for nullability everytime before setting fields value is not a good idea, because it can be forgotten by accident, and give an exception at runtime.

Answer 1

The simplest way is text.orEmpty()

text.orEmpty() for a String? will return "" if null, or the original string

The best alternate option is text ?: ""