I've just started playing with Java 8 lambdas and I'm trying to implement some of the things that I'm used to in functional languages.
For example, most functional languages have some kind of find function that operates on sequences, or lists that returns the first element, for which the predicate is true
. The only way I can see to achieve this in Java 8 is:
lst.stream()
.filter(x -> x > 5)
.findFirst()
However this seems inefficient to me, as the filter will scan the whole list, at least to my understanding (which could be wrong). Is there a better way?
No, filter does not scan the whole stream. It's an intermediate operation, which returns a lazy stream (actually all intermediate operations return a lazy stream). To convince you, you can simply do the following test:
List<Integer> list = Arrays.asList(1, 10, 3, 7, 5);
int a = list.stream()
.peek(num -> System.out.println("will filter " + num))
.filter(x -> x > 5)
.findFirst()
.get();
System.out.println(a);
Which outputs:
will filter 1
will filter 10
10
You see that only the two first elements of the stream are actually processed.
So you can go with your approach which is perfectly fine.
However this seems inefficient to me, as the filter will scan the whole list
No it won't - it will "break" as soon as the first element satisfying the predicate is found. You can read more about laziness in the stream package javadoc, in particular (emphasis mine):
Many stream operations, such as filtering, mapping, or duplicate removal, can be implemented lazily, exposing opportunities for optimization. For example, "find the first String with three consecutive vowels" need not examine all the input strings. Stream operations are divided into intermediate (Stream-producing) operations and terminal (value- or side-effect-producing) operations. Intermediate operations are always lazy.
return dataSource.getParkingLots()
.stream()
.filter(parkingLot -> Objects.equals(parkingLot.getId(), id))
.findFirst()
.orElse(null);
I had to filter out only one object from a list of objects. So i used this, hope it helps.
.orElse(null) != null
. Instead, make use of the Optional API's .isPresent
i.e. .findFirst().isPresent()
.
.stream().map(ParkingLot::getId).anyMatch(Predicate.isEqual(id))
equals
but it is equal
so as follows: .filter(parkingLot -> Objects.equal(parkingLot.getId(), id))
In addition to Alexis C's answer, If you are working with an array list, in which you are not sure whether the element you are searching for exists, use this.
Integer a = list.stream()
.peek(num -> System.out.println("will filter " + num))
.filter(x -> x > 5)
.findFirst()
.orElse(null);
Then you could simply check whether a is null
.
Already answered by @AjaxLeung, but in comments and hard to find. For check only
lst.stream()
.filter(x -> x > 5)
.findFirst()
.isPresent()
is simplified to
lst.stream()
.anyMatch(x -> x > 5)
import org.junit.Test;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
// Stream is ~30 times slower for same operation...
public class StreamPerfTest {
int iterations = 100;
List<Integer> list = Arrays.asList(1, 10, 3, 7, 5);
// 55 ms
@Test
public void stream() {
for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
Optional<Integer> result = list.stream()
.filter(x -> x > 5)
.findFirst();
System.out.println(result.orElse(null));
}
}
// 2 ms
@Test
public void loop() {
for (int i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
Integer result = null;
for (Integer walk : list) {
if (walk > 5) {
result = walk;
break;
}
}
System.out.println(result);
}
}
}
Improved One-Liner answer: If you are looking for a boolean return value, we can do it better by adding isPresent:
return dataSource.getParkingLots().stream().filter(parkingLot -> Objects.equals(parkingLot.getId(), id)).findFirst().isPresent();
A generic utility function with looping seems a lot cleaner to me:
static public <T> T find(List<T> elements, Predicate<T> p) {
for (T item : elements) if (p.test(item)) return item;
return null;
}
static public <T> T find(T[] elements, Predicate<T> p) {
for (T item : elements) if (p.test(item)) return item;
return null;
}
In use:
List<Integer> intList = Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
Integer[] intArr = new Integer[]{1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
System.out.println(find(intList, i -> i % 2 == 0)); // 2
System.out.println(find(intArr, i -> i % 2 != 0)); // 1
System.out.println(find(intList, i -> i > 5)); // null
Success story sharing
get();
here because I know which values I feed to the stream pipeline and hence that there will be a result. In practice, you should not useget();
, butorElse()
/orElseGet()
/orElseThrow()
(for a more meaningful error instead of a NSEE) as you might not know if the operations applied to the stream pipeline will result in an element..findFirst().orElse(null);
for exampleorElse
?Optional
type, which is what.findFirst
returns. One of the uses of Optional is to help developers avoid having to deal withnull
s. e.g. instead of checkingmyObject != null
, you can checkmyOptional.isPresent()
, or use other parts of the Optional interface. Did that make it clearer?