Java8 Lambdas vs Anonymous classes

by

An anonymous inner class (AIC) can be used to create a subclass of an abstract class or a concrete class. An AIC can also provide a concrete implementation of an interface, including the addition of state (fields). An instance of an AIC can be referred to using this in its method bodies, so further methods can be called on it, its state can be mutated over time, etc. None of these apply to lambdas.

I’d guess that the majority of uses of AICs were to provide stateless implementations of single functions and so can be replaced with lambda expressions, but there are other uses of AICs for which lambdas cannot be used. AICs are here to stay.

UPDATE

Another difference between AICs and lambda expressions is that AICs introduce a new scope. That is, names are resolved from the AIC’s superclasses and interfaces and can shadow names that occur in the lexically enclosing environment. For lambdas, all names are resolved lexically.

More Related Contents:

  1. Java 8 Lambda Expressions – what about multiple methods in nested class
  2. Difference between final and effectively final
  3. How can I throw CHECKED exceptions from inside Java 8 streams?
  4. What is the equivalent lambda expression for System.out::println
  5. Very confused by Java 8 Comparator type inference
  6. Precise definition of “functional interface” in Java 8
  7. Break or return from Java 8 stream forEach?
  8. Lambda Expression and generic defined only in method
  9. Java 8: Difference between method reference Bound Receiver and UnBound Receiver
  10. Lambda expression vs method reference
  11. Reflection type inference on Java 8 Lambdas
  12. Filter values only if not null using lambda in Java8
  13. Retrieving a List from a java.util.stream.Stream in Java 8
  14. Java8: ambiguity with lambdas and overloaded methods
  15. Java 8: Where is TriFunction (and kin) in java.util.function? Or what is the alternative?
  16. How do I use the new computeIfAbsent function?
  17. Java8 Lambdas and Exceptions
  18. Why can method reference use non-final variables?
  19. Possibility to explicit remove Serialization support for a lambda
  20. How to make a lambda expression define toString in Java 8?
  21. Java 8 grouping using custom collector?
  22. How can I throw CHECKED exceptions from inside Java 8 lambdas/streams?
  23. How to apply multiple predicates to a java.util.Stream?
  24. Parallel stream from a HashSet doesn’t run in parallel
  25. Non-interference exact meaning in Java 8 streams
  26. Why does this Java 8 lambda fail to compile?
  27. FunctionalInterface Comparator has 2 abstract methods
  28. Group sequences of values
  29. Stream.peek() method in Java 8 vs Java 9
  30. Java 8 stream map to list of keys sorted by values

Leave a Comment