New Features in Java 8 - VietMX's Blog

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Interface Default and Static Methods
- 2.1. Static Method
- 2.2. Default Method
3. Method References
4. Optional<T>
- 4.1. Creation of the Optional<T>
- 4.2. Optional<T> Usage
5. Conclusion

1. Overview

In this article, we’ll have a quick look at some of the most interesting new features in Java 8.

We’ll talk about: interface default and static methods, method reference and Optional.

We have already covered some the features of the Java 8’s release – stream API, lambda expressions and functional interfaces – as they’re comprehensive topics that deserve a separate look.

2. Interface Default and Static Methods

Before Java 8, interfaces could have only public abstract methods. It was not possible to add new functionality to the existing interface without forcing all implementing classes to create an implementation of the new methods, nor it was possible to create interface methods with an implementation.

Starting with Java 8, interfaces can have static and default methods that, despite being declared in an interface, have a defined behavior.

2.1. Static Method

Consider the following method of the interface (let’s call this interface Vehicle):

static String producer() {
    return "N&amp;F Vehicles";
}

The static producer() method is available only through and inside of an interface. It can’t be overridden by an implementing class.

To call it outside the interface the standard approach for static method call should be used:

String producer = Vehicle.producer();

2.2. Default Method

Default methods are declared using the new default keyword. These are accessible through the instance of the implementing class and can be overridden.

Let’s add a default method to our Vehicle interface, which will also make a call to the static method of this interface:

default String getOverview() {
    return "ATV made by " + producer();
}

Assume that this interface is implemented by the class VehicleImpl. For executing the default method an instance of this class should be created:

Vehicle vehicle = new VehicleImpl();
String overview = vehicle.getOverview();

3. Method References

Method reference can be used as a shorter and more readable alternative for a lambda expression which only calls an existing method. There are four variants of method references.

3.1. Reference to a Static Method

The reference to a static method holds the following syntax: ContainingClass::methodName.

Let’s try to count all empty strings in the List<String> with help of Stream API.

boolean isReal = list.stream().anyMatch(u -&gt; User.isRealUser(u));

Take a closer look at lambda expression in the anyMatch() method, it just makes a call to a static method isRealUser(User user) of the User class. So it can be substituted with a reference to a static method:

boolean isReal = list.stream().anyMatch(User::isRealUser);

This type of code looks much more informative.

3.2. Reference to an Instance Method

The reference to an instance method holds the following syntax: containingInstance::methodName. Following code calls method isLegalName(String string) of type User which validates an input parameter:

User user = new User();
boolean isLegalName = list.stream().anyMatch(user::isLegalName);

3.3. Reference to an Instance Method of an Object of a Particular Type

This reference method takes the following syntax: ContainingType::methodName. An example::

long count = list.stream().filter(String::isEmpty).count();

3.4. Reference to a Constructor

A reference to a constructor takes the following syntax: ClassName::new. As constructor in Java is a special method, method reference could be applied to it too with the help of new as a method name.

Stream&lt;User&gt; stream = list.stream().map(User::new);

4. Optional<T>

Before Java 8 developers had to carefully validate values they referred to, because of a possibility of throwing the NullPointerException (NPE). All these checks demanded a pretty annoying and error-prone boilerplate code.

Java 8 Optional<T> class can help to handle situations where there is a possibility of getting the NPE. It works as a container for the object of type T. It can return a value of this object if this value is not a null. When the value inside this container is null it allows doing some predefined actions instead of throwing NPE.

4.1. Creation of the Optional<T>

An instance of the Optional class can be created with the help of its static methods:

Optional&lt;String&gt; optional = Optional.empty();

Returns an empty Optional.

String str = "value";
Optional&lt;String&gt; optional = Optional.of(str);

Returns an Optional which contains a non-null value.

Optional&lt;String&gt; optional = Optional.ofNullable(getString());

Will return an Optional with a specific value or an empty Optional if the parameter is null.

4.2. Optional<T> Usage

For example, you expect to get a List<String> and in the case of null you want to substitute it with a new instance of an ArrayList<String>. With pre-Java 8’s code you need to do something like this:

List&lt;String&gt; list = getList();
List&lt;String&gt; listOpt = list != null ? list : new ArrayList&lt;&gt;();

With Java 8 the same functionality can be achieved with a much shorter code:

List&lt;String&gt; listOpt = getList().orElseGet(() -&gt; new ArrayList&lt;&gt;());

There is even more boilerplate code when you need to reach some object’s field in the old way. Assume you have an object of type User which has a field of type Address with a field street of type String. And for some reason you need to return a value of the street field if some exist or a default value if street is null:

User user = getUser();
if (user != null) {
    Address address = user.getAddress();
    if (address != null) {
        String street = address.getStreet();
        if (street != null) {
            return street;
        }
    }
}
return "not specified";

This can be simplified with Optional:

Optional&lt;User&gt; user = Optional.ofNullable(getUser());
String result = user
  .map(User::getAddress)
  .map(Address::getStreet)
  .orElse("not specified");

In this example we used the map() method to convert results of calling the getAdress() to the Optional<Address> and getStreet() to Optional<String>. If any of these methods returned null the map() method would return an empty Optional.

Imagine that our getters return Optional<T>. So, we should use the flatMap() method instead of the map():

Optional&lt;OptionalUser&gt; optionalUser = Optional.ofNullable(getOptionalUser());
String result = optionalUser
  .flatMap(OptionalUser::getAddress)
  .flatMap(OptionalAddress::getStreet)
  .orElse("not specified");

Another use case of Optional is changing NPE with another exception. So, as we did previously, let’s try to do this in pre-Java 8’s style:

String value = null;
String result = "";
try {
    result = value.toUpperCase();
} catch (NullPointerException exception) {
    throw new CustomException();
}

And what if we use Optional<String>? The answer is more readable and simpler:

String value = null;
Optional&lt;String&gt; valueOpt = Optional.ofNullable(value);
String result = valueOpt.orElseThrow(CustomException::new).toUpperCase();

Notice, that how and for what purpose to use Optional in your app is a serious and controversial design decision, and explanation of its all pros and cons is out of the scope of this article. If you are interested, you can dig deeper, there are plenty of interesting articles on the Internet devoted to this problem. This one and this another one could be very helpful.