An optional is just a '?' before the type:

For instance a function which returns an optional pointer to a 'Bla':

    fn make_bla() ?*Bla {
        // this would either return a valid *Bla, or null
    }

A null pointer can't be used accidentally, it must be unwrapped first, and in Zig this is implemented as language syntax, for instance you can unwrap with an if:

    if (make_bla()) |bla| {
        // bla is now the unwrapped valid pointer
    } else {
        // make_bla() returned null
    }

...or with an orelse:

    const bla = make_bla() orelse { return error.InvalidBla };

...or if you know for sure that bla should be valid, and otherwise want a panic:

    const bla = make_bla().?;

...error handling with error unions has similar syntax sugar.

It's probably not perfect, but I feel that for real-world code, working with optionals and errors in Zig leads to more readable code on average than Rust, while providing the same set of features.