title: toString but only if not null
body: <p>Is there any utility available to easily get the string representation of an arbitrary object if it exists and keep it <code>null</code> if it was <code>null</code>?</p>
  
  <p>For example</p>
  
  <pre><code>String result = null;
  if (object != null) {
      result = object.toString();
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but less verbose.</p>
  
  <p>I have looked into <code>ObjectUtils</code> and <code>String.valueOf</code> but neither returns just <code>null</code> itself. Both return default strings, i.e. the empty string or the string <code>"null"</code> instead of just <code>null</code>.</p>