Related
I am adding some changes to existing code and noticed that it could possibly be optimized by checking a condition before hand, however doing so does make the code as clean.
The original code was something like this:
private void changeProperties(String a, String b, Document doc) {
if(!isEmptyOrNull(a)) {
doc.setA(a);
}
if(!isEmptyOrNull(b)){
doc.setB(b);
}
saveDocument(doc);
}
And then I added a method would simply take in a list and call the above method, like so
private void updatePropertiesForDocuments(List<Document> docs, String a, String b) {
docs.forEach(doc -> changeProperties(a, b, doc));
}
I then realized that, in the new functionality, that the attributes 'a' and 'b' will always be the same for each document. With this information, I thought that it is pretty pointless to check if 'a' and 'b' are null or empty for every single document (esepcially if the list can be quite large, such as 100,000+).
So then I thought it would be a better idea to just do the null checks before entering the loop like so:
private void updatePropertiesForDocuments(List<Document> docs, String a, String b) {
boolean isAMissing = isEmptyOrNull(a);
boolean isBMissing = isEmptyOrNull(b);
if(!isAMissing && !isBMissing) {
docs.forEach(doc -> {
doc.setA(a);
doc.setB(b);
saveDocument(doc);
});
} else if(!isBMissing) {
docs.forEach(doc -> {
doc.setB(b);
saveDocument(doc);
});
} else if(!isAMissing) {
docs.forEach(doc -> {
doc.setA(a);
saveDocument(doc);
});
}
}
I would like to know, if the size of the documents is large (100,000+), will there be a noticible difference in performance or is there some 'under the hood' optimization that the JVM does that would make it pointless to make this change?
In case of assignment the situation is simple,
result = testCondition ? value1 : value2;
But what if I want to use it instead of an if statement?
for instance in a logging situation:
logger.shouldDebbug ? logger.log("logging") : (what to do if not?);
In the case I don't what to do anything in the case of false, can I still use this Operator?
Yes you can if you wrap them in a returning function, but no you shouldn't.
In your example of the logger, let your logger output to void, discard the input when debugging isn't enabled.
You do not want to riddle your code with all these logging checks.
Perform a check as least and as central as possible.
Either have a check in the logger.log function if debugging is enabled, or replace the logger with a dummy mock that does nothing except accept input and immediately discard it.
If you use standard logging frameworks like log4j you can set debugging levels, where you show only info or more serious, only warnings or more serious, only errors or more serious.
The same goes for other "quick" checks. If you find yourself using a certain pattern a lot, write a utility class for it with a static method if need be, so you have one place, where you have to change stuff, instead of 200 code points that you have to update when going to production.
You could use it if you insist, by defining a meaningless variable and take advantage of the functions' side-effects, but that's not a very good coding habit. It's purely a work-around.
For example:
public static boolean test() {
return 1>0;
}
public static int success() {
System.out.println("true");
return 0; // has no meaning whatsoever
}
public static int fail() {
System.out.println("false");
return 0; // has no meaning whatsoever
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int meaningless = test() ? success() : fail();
}
Everything has been explained in comments, so I will put here only some idea:
public class Ternary {
private final boolean condition;
private Ternary(boolean condition) { this.condition = condition; }
public static Ternary of(boolean condition) { return new Ternary(condition); }
public Ternary onTrue(Runnable r) { if (condition) { r.run(); } return this; }
public Ternary onFalse(Runnable r) { if (!condition) { r.run(); } return this; }
}
Example of usage:
Ternary.of(o != null).onTrue(() -> doSomething()).onFalse(() -> doSomethingElse());
But simplier would be to write:
if (o != null) { doSomething(); } else { doSomethingElse(); }
Often, I can see a code constructs like following:
if(a == null || b == null || c == null){
//...
}
I wonder if there is any widely used library (Google, Apache, etc.) to check against nullity for multiple objects at once, e.g.:
if(anyIsNull(a, b, c)){
//...
}
or
if(allAreNulls(a, b, c)){
//...
}
UPDATE:
I perfectly know how to write it by myself
I know it can be the result of the poor program structure but it's not a case here
Let's make it more challenging and replace original example with something like this:
if(a != null && a.getFoo() != null && a.getFoo().getBar() != null){
//...
}
UPDATE 2:
I've created a pull request for Apache Commons Lang library to fix this gap:
Issue: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LANG-781
PR: https://github.com/apache/commons-lang/pull/108
These will be incorporated in commons-lang, version 3.5:
anyNotNull (Object... values)
allNotNull (Object... values)
In Java 8, you could use Stream.allMatch to check whether all of the values match a certain condition, such as being null. Not much shorter, but maybe a bit easier to read.
if (Stream.of(a, b, c).allMatch(x -> x == null)) {
...
}
And analogeously for anyMatch and noneMatch.
About your "more challenging example": In this case, I think there is no way around writing a lazy-evaluated conjunction of null-checks, like the one you have:
if (a != null && a.getFoo() != null && a.getFoo().getBar() != null) {
...
}
Any of the other approaches, using streams, lists, or var-arg methods, would try to evaluate a.getFoo() before a has been tested not to be null. You could use Optional with map and method pointers, that will be lazily evaluated one after the other, but whether this makes it any more readable is debatable and may vary from case to case (particularly for longer class names):
if (Optional.ofNullable(a).map(A::getFoo).map(B::getBar).isPresent()) {
...
}
Bar bar = Optional.ofNullable(a).map(A::getFoo).map(B::getBar).orElse(null);
Another alternative might be to try to access the innermost item, but I have a feeling that this is not considered good practice, either:
try {
Bar bar = a.getFoo().getBar();
...
catch (NullPointerException e) {
...
}
Particularly, this will also catch any other NPEs after accessing that element -- either that, or you have to put only the Bar bar = ... in the try and everything else in another if block after the try, nullifying any (questionable) gains in readability or brevity.
Some languages have a Safe Navigation Operator, but it seems like Java is not one of them. This way, you could use a notation like a?.getFoo()?.getBar() != null, where a?.getFoo() will just evaluate to null if a is null. You could emulate behavior like this with a custom function and a lambda, though, returning an Optional or just a value or null if you prefer:
public static <T> Optional<T> tryGet(Supplier<T> f) {
try {
return Optional.of(f.get());
} catch (NullPointerException e) {
return Optional.empty();
}
}
Optional<Bar> bar = tryGet(() -> a.getFoo().getBar(););
EDIT 2018: As of Apache Commons lang 3.5, there has been ObjectUtils.allNotNull() and ObjectUtils.anyNotNull().
No.
None of Apache Commons Lang (3.4), Google Guava (18) and Spring (4.1.7) provide such a utility method.
You'll need to write it on your own if you really, really need it. In modern Java code, I'd probably consider need for such a construct a code smell, though.
You could also use something like the following method. It allows you to pass as many parameters as you want:
public static boolean isAnyObjectNull(Object... objects) {
for (Object o: objects) {
if (o == null) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
You call it with as many parameters as you like:
isAnyObjectNull(a, b, c, d, e, f);
You could do something similar for areAllNull.
public static boolean areAllObjectsNull(Object... objects) {
for (Object o: objects) {
if (o != null) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
Note: you could also use the ternary operator instead of if (o == null). The two methods shown here have no error handling. Adjust it to your needs.
Objects.requireNonNull
It is possible with help of Objects class and its requireNonNull method.
public static void requireNonNull(Object... objects) {
for (Object object : objects) {
Objects.requireNonNull(object);
}
}
Apache commons-lang3 since version 3.11 has method ObjectUtils.allNull(Object... values)
ObjectUtils.allNull(obj1, obj2, obj3);
I was looking for a solution, but I don't have apache as a dependency yet and it felt silly to me to add it just for the allNonNull method. Here is my plain vanilla java solution using Predicate#and() / Predicate#or() like this:
private static boolean allNonNull(A a) {
Predicate<A> isNotNull = Objects::nonNull;
Predicate<A> hasFoo = someA -> someA.foo != null;
Predicate<A> hasBar = someA -> someA.foo.bar != null;
return Optional.ofNullable(a)
.filter(isNotNull.and(hasFoo.and(hasBar)))
.isPresent();
}
Note: for the anyNonNull, simply use the or() method instead of and().
When invoked, would give the following output:
System.out.println(isValid(new A(new Foo(new Bar())))); // true
System.out.println(isValid(new A(new Foo(null)))); // false
System.out.println(isValid(new A(null))); // false
System.out.println(isValid(null)); // false
Class definitions used:
public static class A {
public A(Foo foo) {
this.foo = foo;
}
Foo foo;
}
public static class Foo {
public Foo(Bar bar) {
this.bar = bar;
}
Bar bar;
}
public static class Bar { }
Simply as that:
Stream.of(a,b,c).allMatch(Objects::nonNull)
You can create a list of you objects and use yourList.contains(null) in it.
List < Object > obList = new ArrayList < Object > ();
String a = null;
Integer b = 2;
Character c = '9';
obList.add(a);
obList.add(b);
obList.add(c);
System.out.println("List is " + obList);
if (obList.contains(null)) {
System.out.println("contains null");
} else {
System.out.println("does not contains null");
}
DEMO
I'd like to call a method that either returns false, or an integer. At the moment my code is:
int winningID = -1;
if((ID = isThereAWinner()) != -1) {
// use the winner's ID
} else {
// there's no winner, do something else
}
private int isThereAWinner() {
// if a winner is found
return winnersID;
// else
return -1;
}
I don't like the if((ID = isThereAWinner()) != -1) bit as it doesn't read very well, but unlike C you can't represent booleans as integers in Java. Is there a better way to do this?
I would use something similar to Mat's answer:
class Result {
public static Result withWinner(int winner) {
return new Result(winner);
}
public static Result withoutWinner() {
return new Result(NO_WINNER);
}
private static final int NO_WINNER = -1;
private int winnerId;
private Result(int id) {
winnerId = id;
}
private int getWinnerId() {
return winnerId;
}
private boolean hasWinner() {
return winnerId != NO_WINNER;
}
}
This class hides the implementation details of how you actually represent if there were no winner at all.
Then in your winner finding method:
private Result isThereAWinner() {
// if a winner is found
return Result.withWinner(winnersID);
// else
return Result.withoutWinner();
}
And in your calling method:
Result result = isThereAWinner();
if(result.hasWinner()) {
int id = result.getWinnerId();
} else {
// do something else
}
It may seem a little bit too complex, but this approach is more flexible if there would be other result options in the future.
What about something like:
private int getWinnerId() {
// return winner id or -1
}
private boolean isValidId(int id) {
return id != -1; // or whatever
}
int winnerId = getWinnerId();
if (isValidId(winnerId)) {
...
} else {
...
}
This is all quite subjective of course, but you usually expect an isFoo method to provide only a yes/no "answer".
The problem is you are trying to return two values at once. The approach you have taken is the simplest for this. If you want a more OO or design pattern approach I would use a listener pattern.
interface WinnerListener {
void onWinner(Int winnerId);
void noWinner();
}
checkWinner(new WinnerListener() {
// handle either action
});
private void checkWinner(WinnerListener wl) {
// if a winner is found
wl.onWinner(winnersID);
// else
wl.noWinner();
}
This approach works well with complex events like multiple arguments and multiple varied events. e.g. You could have multiple winners, or other types of events.
I'm afraid not. To avoid errors caused by mistaking if(a == b) for if(a = b), Java removes the conversion between boolean type and number types. Maybe you can try exceptions instead, but I think exception is somewhat more troublesome. (My English is not quite good. I wonder if I've made it clear...)
Perhaps you may wish to consider exceptions to help you with your understanding of asthetics of coding.
Use Integer instead of int and return null instead of -1. Look from this point: "I am returning not integer, but some object that represents winner identity. No winner - no instance"
Joe another suggestion, this is constructed based on #Mat and #buc mentioned little while ago, again this is all subjective of course I'm not sure what the rest of your class/logic is. You could introduce an enum with different ResultStatuses if it makes sense within the context of your code/exmaple.
As Matt mentioned you would expect isValid method to return a boolean yes/no (some may also complain of readability)
public enum ResultStatus {
WINNER, OTHER, UNLUCKY
}
This could be an overkill as well and depends on the rest of your logic (and if logic is expanding) but I thought I'll suggest nonetheless my two cents! So therefore in your public class (similar to #bloc suggested) you could have a method such as below that will return the status of the result checked.
public ResultStatus getResultStatus() {
if (isWinner()) {
return ResultStatus.WINNER;
} else {
return isOtherCheck() ? ResultStatus.OTHER : ResultStatus.UNLUCKY;
}
}
Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
After reading Hidden Features of C# I wondered, What are some of the hidden features of Java?
Double Brace Initialization took me by surprise a few months ago when I first discovered it, never heard of it before.
ThreadLocals are typically not so widely known as a way to store per-thread state.
Since JDK 1.5 Java has had extremely well implemented and robust concurrency tools beyond just locks, they live in java.util.concurrent and a specifically interesting example is the java.util.concurrent.atomic subpackage that contains thread-safe primitives that implement the compare-and-swap operation and can map to actual native hardware-supported versions of these operations.
Joint union in type parameter variance:
public class Baz<T extends Foo & Bar> {}
For example, if you wanted to take a parameter that's both Comparable and a Collection:
public static <A, B extends Collection<A> & Comparable<B>>
boolean foo(B b1, B b2, A a) {
return (b1.compareTo(b2) == 0) || b1.contains(a) || b2.contains(a);
}
This contrived method returns true if the two given collections are equal or if either one of them contains the given element, otherwise false. The point to notice is that you can invoke methods of both Comparable and Collection on the arguments b1 and b2.
I was surprised by instance initializers the other day. I was deleting some code-folded methods and ended up creating multiple instance initializers :
public class App {
public App(String name) { System.out.println(name + "'s constructor called"); }
static { System.out.println("static initializer called"); }
{ System.out.println("instance initializer called"); }
static { System.out.println("static initializer2 called"); }
{ System.out.println("instance initializer2 called"); }
public static void main( String[] args ) {
new App("one");
new App("two");
}
}
Executing the main method will display:
static initializer called
static initializer2 called
instance initializer called
instance initializer2 called
one's constructor called
instance initializer called
instance initializer2 called
two's constructor called
I guess these would be useful if you had multiple constructors and needed common code
They also provide syntactic sugar for initializing your classes:
List<Integer> numbers = new ArrayList<Integer>(){{ add(1); add(2); }};
Map<String,String> codes = new HashMap<String,String>(){{
put("1","one");
put("2","two");
}};
JDK 1.6_07+ contains an app called VisualVM (bin/jvisualvm.exe) that is a nice GUI on top of many of the tools. It seems more comprehensive than JConsole.
Classpath wild cards since Java 6.
java -classpath ./lib/* so.Main
Instead of
java -classpath ./lib/log4j.jar:./lib/commons-codec.jar:./lib/commons-httpclient.jar:./lib/commons-collections.jar:./lib/myApp.jar so.Main
See http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/classpath.html
For most people I interview for Java developer positions labeled blocks are very surprising. Here is an example:
// code goes here
getmeout:{
for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i) {
for (int j = i; j < N; ++j) {
for (int k = j; k < N; ++k) {
//do something here
break getmeout;
}
}
}
}
Who said goto in java is just a keyword? :)
How about covariant return types which have been in place since JDK 1.5? It is pretty poorly publicised, as it is an unsexy addition, but as I understand it, is absolutely necessary for generics to work.
Essentially, the compiler now allows a subclass to narrow the return type of an overridden method to be a subclass of the original method's return type. So this is allowed:
class Souper {
Collection<String> values() {
...
}
}
class ThreadSafeSortedSub extends Souper {
#Override
ConcurrentSkipListSet<String> values() {
...
}
}
You can call the subclass's values method and obtain a sorted thread safe Set of Strings without having to down cast to the ConcurrentSkipListSet.
Transfer of control in a finally block throws away any exception. The following code does not throw RuntimeException -- it is lost.
public static void doSomething() {
try {
//Normally you would have code that doesn't explicitly appear
//to throw exceptions so it would be harder to see the problem.
throw new RuntimeException();
} finally {
return;
}
}
From http://jamesjava.blogspot.com/2006/03/dont-return-in-finally-clause.html
Haven't seen anyone mention instanceof being implemented in such a way that checking for null is not necessary.
Instead of:
if( null != aObject && aObject instanceof String )
{
...
}
just use:
if( aObject instanceof String )
{
...
}
Allowing methods and constructors in enums surprised me. For example:
enum Cats {
FELIX(2), SHEEBA(3), RUFUS(7);
private int mAge;
Cats(int age) {
mAge = age;
}
public int getAge() {
return mAge;
}
}
You can even have a "constant specific class body" which allows a specific enum value to override methods.
More documentation here.
The type params for generic methods can be specified explicitly like so:
Collections.<String,Integer>emptyMap()
You can use enums to implement an interface.
public interface Room {
public Room north();
public Room south();
public Room east();
public Room west();
}
public enum Rooms implements Room {
FIRST {
public Room north() {
return SECOND;
}
},
SECOND {
public Room south() {
return FIRST;
}
}
public Room north() { return null; }
public Room south() { return null; }
public Room east() { return null; }
public Room west() { return null; }
}
EDIT: Years later....
I use this feature here
public enum AffinityStrategies implements AffinityStrategy {
https://github.com/peter-lawrey/Java-Thread-Affinity/blob/master/src/main/java/vanilla/java/affinity/AffinityStrategies.java
By using an interface, developers can define their own strategies. Using an enum means I can define a collection (of five) built in ones.
As of Java 1.5, Java now has a much cleaner syntax for writing functions of variable arity. So, instead of just passing an array, now you can do the following
public void foo(String... bars) {
for (String bar: bars)
System.out.println(bar);
}
bars is automatically converted to array of the specified type. Not a huge win, but a win nonetheless.
My favorite: dump all thread stack traces to standard out.
windows: CTRL-Break in your java cmd/console window
unix: kill -3 PID
A couple of people have posted about instance initializers, here's a good use for it:
Map map = new HashMap() {{
put("a key", "a value");
put("another key", "another value");
}};
Is a quick way to initialize maps if you're just doing something quick and simple.
Or using it to create a quick swing frame prototype:
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.add( new JLabel("Hey there"){{
setBackground(Color.black);
setForeground( Color.white);
}});
panel.add( new JButton("Ok"){{
addActionListener( new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent ae ){
System.out.println("Button pushed");
}
});
}});
frame.add( panel );
Of course it can be abused:
JFrame frame = new JFrame(){{
add( new JPanel(){{
add( new JLabel("Hey there"){{
setBackground(Color.black);
setForeground( Color.white);
}});
add( new JButton("Ok"){{
addActionListener( new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent ae ){
System.out.println("Button pushed");
}
});
}});
}});
}};
Dynamic proxies (added in 1.3) allow you to define a new type at runtime that conforms to an interface. It's come in handy a surprising number of times.
final initialization can be postponed.
It makes sure that even with a complex flow of logic return values are always set. It's too easy to miss a case and return null by accident. It doesn't make returning null impossible, just obvious that it's on purpose:
public Object getElementAt(int index) {
final Object element;
if (index == 0) {
element = "Result 1";
} else if (index == 1) {
element = "Result 2";
} else {
element = "Result 3";
}
return element;
}
I think another "overlooked" feature of java is the JVM itself. It is probably the best VM available. And it supports lots of interesting and useful languages (Jython, JRuby, Scala, Groovy). All those languages can easily and seamlessly cooperate.
If you design a new language (like in the scala-case) you immediately have all the existing libraries available and your language is therefore "useful" from the very beginning.
All those languages make use of the HotSpot optimizations. The VM is very well monitor and debuggable.
You can define an anonymous subclass and directly call a method on it even if it implements no interfaces.
new Object() {
void foo(String s) {
System.out.println(s);
}
}.foo("Hello");
The asList method in java.util.Arrays allows a nice combination of varargs, generic methods and autoboxing:
List<Integer> ints = Arrays.asList(1,2,3);
Using this keyword for accessing fields/methods of containing class from an inner class. In below, rather contrived example, we want to use sortAscending field of container class from the anonymous inner class. Using ContainerClass.this.sortAscending instead of this.sortAscending does the trick.
import java.util.Comparator;
public class ContainerClass {
boolean sortAscending;
public Comparator createComparator(final boolean sortAscending){
Comparator comparator = new Comparator<Integer>() {
public int compare(Integer o1, Integer o2) {
if (sortAscending || ContainerClass.this.sortAscending) {
return o1 - o2;
} else {
return o2 - o1;
}
}
};
return comparator;
}
}
Not really a feature, but an amusing trick I discovered recently in some Web page:
class Example
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println("Hello World!");
http://Phi.Lho.free.fr
System.exit(0);
}
}
is a valid Java program (although it generates a warning).
If you don't see why, see Gregory's answer! ;-) Well, syntax highlighting here also gives a hint!
This is not exactly "hidden features" and not very useful, but can be extremely interesting in some cases:
Class sun.misc.Unsafe - will allow you to implement direct memory management in Java (you can even write self-modifying Java code with this if you try a lot):
public class UnsafeUtil {
public static Unsafe unsafe;
private static long fieldOffset;
private static UnsafeUtil instance = new UnsafeUtil();
private Object obj;
static {
try {
Field f = Unsafe.class.getDeclaredField("theUnsafe");
f.setAccessible(true);
unsafe = (Unsafe)f.get(null);
fieldOffset = unsafe.objectFieldOffset(UnsafeUtil.class.getDeclaredField("obj"));
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
};
}
When working in Swing I like the hidden Ctrl - Shift - F1 feature.
It dumps the component tree of the current window.
(Assuming you have not bound that keystroke to something else.)
Every class file starts with the hex value 0xCAFEBABE to identify it as valid JVM bytecode.
(Explanation)
My vote goes to java.util.concurrent with its concurrent collections and flexible executors allowing among others thread pools, scheduled tasks and coordinated tasks. The DelayQueue is my personal favorite, where elements are made available after a specified delay.
java.util.Timer and TimerTask may safely be put to rest.
Also, not exactly hidden but in a different package from the other classes related to date and time. java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit is useful when converting between nanoseconds, microseconds, milliseconds and seconds.
It reads a lot better than the usual someValue * 1000 or someValue / 1000.
Language-level assert keyword.
Not really part of the Java language, but the javap disassembler which comes with Sun's JDK is not widely known or used.
The addition of the for-each loop construct in 1.5. I <3 it.
// For each Object, instantiated as foo, in myCollection
for(Object foo: myCollection) {
System.out.println(foo.toString());
}
And can be used in nested instances:
for (Suit suit : suits)
for (Rank rank : ranks)
sortedDeck.add(new Card(suit, rank));
The for-each construct is also applicable to arrays, where it hides the index variable rather than the iterator. The following method returns the sum of the values in an int array:
// Returns the sum of the elements of a
int sum(int[] a) {
int result = 0;
for (int i : a)
result += i;
return result;
}
Link to the Sun documentation
i personally discovered java.lang.Void very late -- improves code readability in conjunction with generics, e.g. Callable<Void>