JDK8: Improved Iterator

One of my favorite changes in Java 8, default methods on interfaces, adds this gem to venerable Iterator:

    default void remove() {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("remove");
    }

By default now when you implement an iterable you need not supply "remove()". Beautiful.

There is also a new, defaulted "forEachRemaining(Consumer)".

Adapters with Lambda

Java 8 lambdas make some things more interesting:

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import static java.lang.String.format;

interface EasyLogger {
    void log(Throwable cause, String message,
             Object... arguments);

    enum LogLevel {
        TRACE(logger -> logger::trace),
        DEBUG(logger -> logger::debug),
        INFO(logger -> logger::info),
        WARN(logger -> logger::warn),
        ERROR(logger -> logger::error);

        Adapt adapt;

        LogLevel(Adapt adapt) {
            this.adapt = adapt;
        }

        EasyLogger using(Logger logger) {
            return (Throwable cause, String message,
                    Object... arguments)
                -> adapt.from(logger)
                    .log(format(message, arguments), cause);
        }

        static String format(String message, Object... arguments) {
            return null == message
                    ? null : String.format(message, arguments);
        }

        interface Call {
            void log(String message, Throwable cause);
        }

        interface Adapt {
            Call from(Logger logger);
        }
    }
}

This is just an example, not a real logger class! (Also please excuse the formatting, done to keep the code readable on narrow screens.)

Key point: Java has no "perfect forwarding", so simulate it with method references. Using enums complicated things; essentially these are "factory factories" mapping a level and a logger to a method reference.

Perhaps over clever.

UPDATE: Still a toy class but this makes the interface more familiar:

    default void log(String message, Object... arguments) {
        log(null, message, arguments);
    }

    default void log(Throwable cause) {
        log(cause, null);
    }

An example will help:

import static EasyLogger.INFO;
// Other suitable imports

class Example {
    public static void main(String... args) {
        EasyLogger info = INFO.using(LoggerFactory.getLogger("main"));

        info.log("Hi, %s!", "mom"); 
    }
}

Java 8 AutoCloseable trick

I am working with an API some of whose interfaces have a "close()" method but which do not implement AutoCloseable (they predate this JDK addition), yet I would like to use them in a try-resources block. What to do?

Previously I would give up and just do the try/finally dance — Java has no perfect forwarding, implementing a wrapper class preserving the original's calls is terribly hard.

Java 8 provides a neat trick with method references:

interface Foo {
    void close();

    void doFoo();
}

Elsewhere:

final Foo foo = new SomeFoo();
try (final AutoCloseable ignored = foo::close) {
    foo.doFoo();
}

Presto!

A practical use is pre-4 Spring Framework. When a context type in version 4 declares "close", it implements AutoCloseable; version 3 and earlier do not.

Another neat trick here, the method names need not be the same:

interface Bar {
    void die();

    void doBar();
}

And:

final Bar bar = new SomeBar();
try (final AutoCloseable ignored = bar::die) {
    bar.doBar();
}

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