If you don't mind to use a third party library you may use Javaslang. It is like Scala, but implemented in Java.
It comes with a complete immutable collection library that is very similar to that known from Scala. These collections replace Java's collections and Java 8's Stream. It also has its own implementation of Option.
import javaslang.collection.Stream;
import javaslang.control.Option;
Stream<Option<String>> options = Stream.of(Option.some("foo"), Option.none(), Option.some("bar"));
// = Stream("foo", "bar")
Stream<String> strings = options.flatMap(o -> o);
Here is a solution for the example of the initial question:
import javaslang.collection.Stream;
import javaslang.control.Option;
public class Test {
void run() {
// = Stream(Thing(1), Thing(2), Thing(3))
Stream<Thing> things = Stream.of(new Thing(1), new Thing(2), new Thing(3));
// = Some(Other(2))
Option<Other> others = things.flatMap(this::resolve).headOption();
}
Option<Other> resolve(Thing thing) {
Other other = (thing.i % 2 == 0) ? new Other(i + "") : null;
return Option.of(other);
}
}
class Thing {
final int i;
Thing(int i) { this.i = i; }
public String toString() { return "Thing(" + i + ")"; }
}
class Other {
final String s;
Other(String s) { this.s = s; }
public String toString() { return "Other(" + s + ")"; }
}
Disclaimer: I'm the creator of Javaslang.