Explicit receiver parameters

I discovered that Java 8 has a language feature I'd never heard of before today!

Explicit receiver parameters

Consider a simple method in Java 7:

 public class Currency {
   public String getCode() { ... }
 }

In Java 8, it turns out there is a second way to write the method:

 public class Currency {
   public String getCode(Currency this) { ... }
 }

The same trick also works for methods with arguments:

 public class Currency {
   public int compareTo(Currency this, Currency other) { ... }
 }

So, what is going on here?

The relevant part of the Java Language Specification is here.

The receiver parameter is an optional syntactic device for an instance method or an inner class's constructor. For an instance method, the receiver parameter represents the object for which the method is invoked. For an inner class's constructor, the receiver parameter represents the immediately enclosing instance of the newly constructed object. Either way, the receiver parameter exists solely to allow the type of the represented object to be denoted in source code, so that the type may be annotated. The receiver parameter is not a formal parameter; more precisely, it is not a declaration of any kind of variable, it is never bound to any value passed as an argument in a method invocation expression or qualified class instance creation expression, and it has no effect whatsoever at run time.

The new feature is entirely optional, and exists to allow the type to be annotated at the point it is used:

 public class Currency {
   public int compareTo(@AnnotatedUsage Currency this, Currency other) { ... }
 }
 @Target(ElementType.TYPE_USE)
 public @interface AnnotatedUsage {}

The annotation is made available in reflection using Method::getAnnotatedReceiverType().

Looking to the future

I discovered this feature in the context of Project Valhalla, the effort to add value types to Java. One possible syntax being considered to allow different methods on List<int> from List<String> is to use receiver types:

 public class List<any T> {
   public int sum(List<int> this) { ... }
 }

This syntax would be used to define a sum() method that only applies when List is parameterized by int, and not when parameterized by anything else, such as String.

For more information, see this email to the Valhalla experts mailing list. But please note that the list is read-only, cannot be signed up to and is for pre-selected experts only. In addition, everything discussed there is very, very early in the process, and liable to change greatly before being released in a real version of Java (such as Java 10).

Summary

Java 8 has a new language feature which you've probably never heard of and will probably never use. But at least you now have some knowledge that you can use to prove you are a Java Guru!

Naming Optional query methods

In the last article I outlined a pragmatic approach to Java 8's Optional class. In this one I'm looking at how we should name query methods that might return Optional.

Convenience method naming

Consider a requirement to produce a tree data structure, perhaps something like XML DOM. The basic data structure might look something like this:

 public XmlElement {
   private final String name;
   private final String content;
   private final Map<String, String> attributes;
   private final List<XmlElement> children;
 }

(This article uses this as an example, but many other data structures or domain objects face similar issues, so don't get too caught up in the "XML"-ness of the example, and it's inability to represent every last subtlety of XML.)

The key question for this article is about the convenience methods this class exposes. Using standard best practices, an element with no children should return an empty list, and an element with no attributes should return an empty map. Similarly, we can use the empty string, "", when there is no content.

 public XmlElement {
   public String getName() {...}
   public String getContent() {...}
   public Map<String, String> getName() {...}
   public List<XmlElement> getChildren() {...}
 }

This approach is fine, and allows us to fully query this immutable data structure. But it would be nice to have some additional convenience methods. The main one to consider is a method to return the value of an attribute by name. The naive implementation would be:

 public XmlElement {
   public String getAttribute(String name) {
     return attributes.get(name);
   }
 }

But, this method can return null which the last article recommended against. The not so naive implementation would be:

 public XmlElement {
   public Optional<String> getAttribute(String name) {
     return Optional.ofNullable(attributes.get(name));
   }
 }

This is better, as null is no longer returned and it is now clear that there is a failure case to consider. However, what if the calling code knows that the data it is asking for is expected to be there, and is going to throw an exception if it isn't?

The "standard" approach in that case is to use the method Optional.orElseThrow() on the result of the last method. And that is good advice. But, equally, if the same call to orElseThrow() follows lots of calls to the new helper method, it may be a sign that the convenience method isn't helping as much as it should! As such, perhaps it is worthy of a helper method itself:

 public XmlElement {
   public String getAttribute(String name) {
     String value = attributes.get(name);
     if (value == null) {
       throw new IllegalArgumentException(
           "Unknown attribute '" + name + "' on element '" + this.name + "'"));
     }
     return value;
   }
 }

(Note that this follows the last article's recommendation to use null, not Optional, within the methods of a class.)

So, this is better for the many use cases where it is a failure case anyway if the attribute is missing. ie. where the caller knows that the attribute is defined to be mandatory, and it is necessarily an exception if it is missing.

In reality though, some attributes are going to be mandatory and some are optional. Which brings us to the point of this article, and design approach for a case like this, and the ensuing naming problem. My suggestion is to have two methods:

 public XmlElement {

   // throw exception if no attribute
   public String getAttribute(String name) { ... }

   // return empty optional if no attribute
   public Optional<String> findAttribute(String name) { ... }
 }

In this approach, there are two methods, and the caller can choose one method if they want the exception when the name is not found, and the other method if they want to handle the missing case.

The need for this approach is relatively rare - it needs to be a method that can be used in both ways, mandatory and optional. It also needs to be an API that will be called enough for the value of the two helper methods to outweigh the extra cost. But when it does crop up, it needs a good naming convention as the two methods cannot be overloads. And that is what I'm proposing here.

• Name the method that throws an exception when not found getXxx(String)
• Name the method that returns an optional findXxx(String)

With this approach, both methods are available, and have reasonable names. It seems to me, that when this kind of situation arises, the mandatory case is typically most common, and thus it gets the "get" name.

There are other possible naming approaches to this "near overload". But I've settled on this one as the right balance for my APIs.

Note however, that this is not a suggestion to name all methods returning an Optional something like findXxx(String). Only use it when appropriate, such as when paired with an exception throwing version do I think this makes sense.

Summary

This article outlines a naming approach for when you need overloaded convenience methods on an API, typically for accessing a collection, such as a map or list. It proposes adding one method, getXxx(String), that throws an exception when the key cannot be found, and a second method findXxx(String), that returns an empty optional when the key is not found.

Update 2015-10-15

The original version of this article proposed the name "getXxxOptional()". I've changed that to "findXxx()" based on the comments and experimentation with both options. Its clear to me now that "findXxx()" is a way better method name than "getXxxOptional()" for a situation like this.

Java SE 8 Optional, a pragmatic approach

The Optional classs in Java 8 is a useful tool to help developers manage data. But advice on how to use it varies. This is my take on one good approach to using Optional in Java 8.

Note that this article assumes you know what Optional is and how it works. See my previous article and other tutorials for more info. Also, be aware that Optional is a heavily argued topic, with some commentators liable to get rather too excited about its importance.

A pragmatic approach to Optional in Java 8

What follows is a specific approach to using Optional in Java 8 that I have found very useful. It should be considered that the approach has been developed in terms of writing a new application, rather than maintaining an existing one. There are five basic points:

1. Do not declare any instance variable of type Optional.
2. Use null to indicate optional data within the private scope of a class.
3. Use Optional for getters that access the optional field.
4. Do not use Optional in setters or constructors.
5. Use Optional as a return type for any other business logic methods that have an optional result.

For example:

  public class Address {
    private final String addressLine;  // never null
    private final String city;         // never null
    private final String postcode;     // optional, thus may be null

    // constructor ensures non-null fields really are non-null
    // optional field can just be stored directly, as null means optional
    public Address(String addressLine, String city, String postcode) {
      this.addressLine = Preconditions.chckNotNull(addressLine);
      this.city = Preconditions.chckNotNull(city);
      this.postcode = postcode;
    }

    // normal getters
    public String getAddressLine() { return addressLine; }
    public String getCity() { return city; }

    // special getter for optional field
    public Optional<String> getPostcode() {
      return Optional.ofNullable(postcode);
    }

    // return optional instead of null for business logic methods that may not find a result
    public static Optional<Address> findAddress(String userInput) {
      return ... // find the address, returning Optional.empty() if not found
    }
  }

The first thing to notice about this users of our address API are protected from receiving null. Calling getAddressLine() or getCity() will always return a non-null value, as the address object cannot hold null in those fields. Calling getPostcode() will return an Optional<String> instance that forces callers to at least think about the potential for missing data. Finally, findPostcode() also returns an Optional. None of these methods can return null.

Within the object, the developer is still forced to think about null and manage it using != null checks. This is reasonable, as the problem of null is constrained. The code will all be written and tested as a unit (you do write tests don't you?), so nulls will not cause many issues.

In essence, what this approach does is to focus on using Optional in return types at API boundaries, rather than within a class or on input. Compared to using it as a field, optional is now created on-the-fly. The key difference here is the lifetime of the Optional instance.

It is often the case that domain objects hang about in memory for a fair while, as processing in the application occurs, making each optional instance rather long-lived (tied to the lifetime of the domain object). By contrast, the Optional instance returned from the getter is likely to be very short-lived. The caller will call the getter, interpret the result, and then move on. If you know anything about garbage collection you'll know that the JVM handles these short-lived objects well. In addition, there is more potential for hotspot to remove the costs of the Optional instance when it is short lived. While it is easy to claim this is "premature optimization", as engineers it is our responsibility to know the limits and capabilities of the system we work with and to choose carefully the point where it should be stressed.

While it is a minor point, it should be noted that the class could be Serializable, something that is not possible if any field is Optional (as Optional does not implement Serializable).

The approach above does not use Optional for inputs, such as setters or constructors. While accepting Optional would work, it is my experience that having Optional on a setter or constructor is annoying for the caller, as they typically have the actual object. Forcing the caller to wrap the parameter in Optional is an annoyance I'd prefer not to inflict on users. (ie. convenience trumps strictness on input)

On the downside, this approach results in objects that are not beans. The return type of the getter does not match the type of the field, which can cause issues for some tools. Before adopting this approach, check that any tool you use can handle it, such as by directly accessing the field.

If adopted widely in an application, the problem of null tends to disappear without a big fight. Since each domain object refuses to return null, the application tends to never have null passed about. In my experience, adopting this approach tends to result in code where null is never used outside the private scope of a class. And importantly, this happens naturally, without it being a painful transition. Over time, you start to write less defensive code, because you are more confident that no variable will actually contain null.

The key to making this approach work beyond the basics is to learn the various methods on Optional. If you simply call Optional.get() you've missed the whole point of the class.

For example, here is some code that handles an XML parse where either "effectiveDate" or "relativeEffectiveDate" is present:

 AdjustableDate startDate = tradeEl.getChildOptional("effectiveDate")
   .map(el -> parseKnownDate(el))
   .orElseGet(() -> parseRelativeDate(tradeEl.getChildSingle("relativeEffectiveDate")));

Breaking this down, tradeEl.getChildOptional("effectiveDate") returns an Optional<XmlElement>. If the element was found, the map() function is invoked to parse the date. If the element was not found, the orElseGet() function is invoked to parse the relative date.

For a large enterprise-style codebase that uses this approach to Optional, see OpenGamma Strata, a modern open source toolkit for the finance industry.

See also Joda-Beans code generation, which can generate this pattern (and much more).

Finally, it should be noted that some future Java version, beyond Java 9, will probably support value types. In this future world, the costs associated with Optional will disappear, and using it far more widely will make sense. I simply argue that now is not the time for an "optional everywhere" approach.

Summary

This article outlines a pragmatic approach to using Optional in Java 8. If followed consistently on a new application, the problem of null tends to just fade away.

Any comments?