When using a Java Stream, sometimes null values can occur after mapping. Currently when these values need to be omitted, I use:

```
.stream()
.<other operations...>
.filter(element -> element != null)
.<other operations...>

```

For a more functional style a tiny helper method is quickly written:

```
public static <T> boolean nonNull(T entity) {
    return entity != null;
}

```

So that you can use a method reference instead:

```
.stream()
.<other operations...>
.filter(Elements::nonNull)
.<other operations...>

```

I could not find such a jdk method, even though I would suspect they have included one. Is there a different approach here? Or did they omit this for a reason?