The property 'docs' cannot be unconditionally accessed because received can be 'null' Flutter

Issue

After migrate to null-safety showing this error. What should I do now?

  Widget chatMessages() {
    return StreamBuilder(
        stream: messageStream,
        builder: (context, snapshot) {
          return snapshot.hasData
              ? ListView.builder(
                  padding: EdgeInsets.only(bottom: 70, top: 16),
                  itemCount: snapshot.data.docs.length,
                  reverse: true,
                  itemBuilder: (context, index) {
                    DocumentSnapshot ds = snapshot.data.docs[index];
                    return chatMessageTitle(
                        ds["message"], myUserName == ds["sendBy"]);
                  })
              : Center(child: CircularProgressIndicator());
        });
  }

After adding null check (!) showing this error <the getter ‘docs’ is not defined for the type of object>

              itemCount: snapshot.data!.docs.length,
              reverse: true,
              itemBuilder: (context, index) {
                DocumentSnapshot ds = snapshot.data!.docs[index];

Solution

You have to cast snapshot.data to its type. Suppose the type is QuerySnapshot (change this with the actual type of snapshot.data).

(snapshot.data! as QuerySnapshot).docs.length

Instead of typecasting at all locations, we can specify the type of stream in the StreamBuilder.

StreamBuilder<QuerySnapshot>(
  ...
);

Now snapshot.data is inferred as QuerySnapshot and no typecast is required.

snapshot.data!.docs.length

Answered By – Navaneeth P

Answer Checked By – Clifford M. (FlutterFixes Volunteer)