Java Stream API was added in Java 8 in order to provide a functional approach to process a collection of objects. Do not get confused with I/O Streams, Java 8 Streams are a completely different thing.
Java Stream does not store data and is not a data structure. Also the underlying data source is not modified.
Java Stream uses functional interfaces and supports functional-style operations on streams of elements using lambda expressions.
Stream operations
Stream operations are divided into intermediate and terminal operations.
Intermediate operations are Stream operations that return a new Stream. These operations are used for producing new stream elements and to send the stream to the next operation. These operations are lazy, i.e. they are not executed until the result of the processing is needed.
List of all Stream intermediate operations:
- filter()
- map()
- flatMap()
- distinct()
- sorted()
- peek()
- limit()
- skip()
Terminal operations are Stream operations that do not return a new Stream. Once the terminal method is called in a stream, it consumes the stream and after that the stream can not be used anymore. Terminal operations are processing all the elements in the stream before they return the result.
List of all Stream terminal operations:
- toArray()
- collect()
- count()
- reduce()
- forEach()
- forEachOrdered()
- min()
- max()
- anyMatch()
- allMatch()
- noneMatch()
- findAny()
- findFirst()
Some code examples
forEach
The simplest and most common operation, it loops over the elements of the stream, calling the supplied code on each element.
Map<Integer, List<User>> usersByAge = users.stream().collect(Collectors.groupingBy(User::getAge));
usersByAge.forEach((age, u) -> System.out.format("age %s: %s\n", age, u));
// age 18: [John]
// age 23: [Alex, David]
// age 12: [Peter]
map
Produces new stream after applying a function to each element of the existing stream. It can produce a new stream of different type.
Integer[] userIds= { 5, 2, 7 };
List<User> users= Stream.of(userIds).map(employeeRepository::findById)
.collect(Collectors.toList());
assertEquals(users.size(), userIds.length);
collect
Repacks element to new data structure on data elements from the existing stream.
List<Employee> users= usersList.stream().collect(Collectors.toList());
assertEquals(usersList, users);
filter
Produces new stream that contains elements from the existing stream that are fulfilling some criteria from the predicate.
users.stream().filter(user -> user.getAge() > 20)
.collect().collect(Collectors.toList());
findFirst
Returns an Optional for the first entry in the stream.
users.stream().filter(user -> user.getAge() > 20).findFirst().orElse(null);
findAny()
Returns an Optional from any entry in the stream. It will most likely return the first entry in the stream in a non-parallel execution, but there is no guarantee for that.
users.stream().filter(user -> user.getAge() > 20).findAny().orElse(null);
toArray
Returns array from the stream.
User[] users = usersList.stream().toArray(User[]::new);
assertThat(usersList.toArray(), equalTo(users));
flatMap
Used to flatten the data structure to simplify further operations on the stream. Useful for complex data structures.
List<String> names1 = Arrays.asList(“Peter”, “David”);
List<String> names2 = Arrays.asList(“Dave”, “Robert”);
List<String> names3 = Arrays.asList(“Tom”, “Tim”);
List<List<String>> names = Arrays.asList(names1, names2, names3);
List<String> flatNames = names.stream().flatMap(Collection::stream).collect(Colectors.toList());
peek
Performs the specified operation on each element of the stream and returns a new stream that can be used for further processing.
User[] arrayOfUsers = {
new User(1, "James", 100000.0),
new User(2, "Martin", 200000.0),
new User(3, "David", 300000.0) };
List<User> userList = Arrays.asList(arrayOfUsers);
userList .stream()
.peek(e -> e.salaryIncrement(10.0))
.peek(System.out::println)
.collect(Collectors.toList());
assertThat(userList, contains(
hasProperty("salary", equalTo(110000.0)),
hasProperty("salary", equalTo(220000.0)),
hasProperty("salary", equalTo(330000.0))
));
sorted()
Sorted is an intermediate operation which returns a sorted view of the stream. The elements are sorted in natural order unless you pass a custom Comparator.
List<String> names = Arrays.asList("Peter", "Dave", "Mike", "David", "Pete");
names.stream().sorted().map(String::toUpperCase).forEach(System.out::println);
Output:
DAVE
DAVID
MIKE
PETE
PETER
Keep in mind that sorted does only create a sorted view of the stream without manipulating the ordering of the backed collection. The ordering of names is untouched.
count()
Count is a terminal operation returning the number of elements in the stream as a long.
long total = names.stream().filter((s) -> s.startsWith("D")).count();
System.out.println(total);
Output: 2
reduce()
This terminal operation performs a reduction on the elements of the stream with the given function. The result is an Optional holding the reduced value.
List<Car> cars = Arrays.asList(new Car("Kia", 19500),
new Car("Hyundai", 20500),
new Car("Ford", 25000),
new Car("Dacia", 20000));
Optional<Car> car = cars.stream().reduce((c1, c2)
-> c1.getPrice() > c2.getPrice() ? c1 : c2);
car.ifPresent(System.out::println);
Output: Ford 25000
anyMatch()
The method accepts Predicate as an argument. This will return true once a condition passed as predicate satisfy. It will not process any more elements.
List<String> names = Arrays.asList("Peter", "Dave", "Mike", "David", "Pete");
boolean matched = names.stream().anyMatch(name -> name.startsWith("D"));
System.out.println(matched);
Output: true
allMatch()
The method accepts Predicate as an argument. The Predicateis applied to each entry in the stream and if every element satisfies the passed Predicate, then it returns true otherwise false.
List<String> names = Arrays.asList("Peter", "Dave", "Mike", "David", "Pete");
boolean matched = names.stream().allMatch(name -> name.startsWith("D"));
System.out.println(matched);
Output: false
noneMatch()
The method accepts Predicate as an argument. The Predicate is applied to each entry in the stream and if every element does not satisfy the passed Predicate, then it returns true otherwise false.
List<String> names = Arrays.asList("Peter", "Dave", "Mike", "David", "Pete");
boolean matched = names.stream().noneMatch(name -> name.startsWith("S"));
System.out.println(matched);
Output: true
Conclusion
In this article we showed some of the details of the new Stream API in Java 8. We saw various operations and how lambdas are used to reduce a huge amount of boilerplate code.
