Java 9: JShell

JShell is a new tool introduced in Java 9 that evaluates Java statements entered on the command line. It is the first offical REPL (Read-Evaluate-Print Loop) implementation for the Java platform, and it is great for trying out Java code without having to fire up an IDE or write a full program!

To run JShell, simply type jshell on the command line. Obviously, make sure that you have installed JDK 9 and that your JAVA_HOME environment variable is set correctly. You will see a prompt like this:

$ jshell
|  Welcome to JShell -- Version 9
|  For an introduction type: /help intro

jshell>

Type /help at the prompt to see a list of available commands. To exit, type /exit.

You can enter code "snippets" and JShell will output the results. For example:

jshell> System.out.println("Hello World")
Hello World

You can auto-complete statements and also look at documentation using the Tab key:

jshell> System.out.
append(        checkError()   close()        equals(        flush()        format(        getClass()     hashCode()     notify()
notifyAll()    print(         printf(        println(       toString()     wait(          write(

Here is a screencast GIF showing JShell in action, created using LICECap:

Java 9: Enhancements to the Stream API

Java 9 adds 4 new methods to the Stream interface:

1. dropWhile

The dropWhile method is similar to the skip method but uses a Predicate instead of a fixed integer value. It drops elements from the input stream while the Predicate is true. All remaining elements are then passed to the output stream. For example:

IntStream.range(0, 10)
         .dropWhile(i -> i < 5)
         .forEach(System.out::println);
// prints 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

2. takeWhile

The takeWhile method is similar to the limit method. It takes elements from the input stream and passes them to the output stream while the Predicate is true. For example:

IntStream.range(0, 10)
         .takeWhile(i -> i < 5)
         .forEach(System.out::println);
// prints 0, 1, 2, 3, 4

Note: Be careful when using dropWhile and takeWhile when you have an unordered stream because you might get elements in the output stream that you don't expect.

3. ofNullable

The ofNullable method returns an empty stream if the element is null, or a single-element stream if non-null. This eliminates the need for a null check before constructing a stream.

Stream.ofNullable(null).count();  // prints 0
Stream.ofNullable("foo").count(); // prints 1

4. iterate

The static iterate method has been overloaded in Java 9 to allow you to create a stream using the for-loop syntax. For example:

Stream.iterate(0, i -> i < 10, i -> i + 1)
      .forEach(System.out::println); //prints from 0 to 9

Java 9: Enhancements to Optional

Previously, I wrote about the Optional class that was introduced in Java 8 to model potentially absent values and reduce the number of places where a NullPointerException could be thrown.

Java 9 adds three new methods to Optional:

1. ifPresentOrElse

The new ifPresentOrElse method allows you to perform one action if the Optional is present and a different action if the Optional is not present. For example:

lookup(userId).ifPresentOrElse(this::displayUserDetails,
                               this::displayError)

2. stream

The new stream method makes it easier to convert a stream of Optional objects into a stream of values that are present in them. Previously (in Java 8), you needed two steps in order to achive this. First, you would filter out the empty Optionals and then you would unbox the rest in order to get their values. This is shown below:

// In Java 8:
Stream.of("alice", "bob", "charles")
      .map(UserDirectory::lookup)
      .filter(Optional::isPresent)
      .map(Optional::get)
      .collect(toList());

In Java 9, the code becomes simpler using the stream method:

// In Java 9:
Stream.of("alice", "bob", "charles")
      .map(UserDirectory::lookup)
      .flatMap(Optional::stream)
      .collect(toList());

3. or

The or method is somewhat similar to the orElseGet method but returns Optional objects instead of values. If a value is present, it returns the existing Optional. If the value is not present, it returns the Optional produced by the supplying function. For example:

lookup(userId).or(() -> lookupInAnotherDatabase(userId));

Java 9: My favourite feature!

First of all, sorry about the "click-baity" title!

My favourite feature in Java 9 has to be the Javadoc Search.

The Java API documentation now has a search box which you can use to find packages, types and methods quickly. It would be nice if it supported regular expressions :)

Here is a screencast GIF showing the Javadoc Search in action, created using LICECap:

Using XSLT 2.0 with Java and Saxon

In my previous post, I showed how you can split a string using the tokenize function in XSLT 2.0. In order to run an XSLT 2.0 stylesheet in Java, you need a transformer that supports XSLT 2.0. Unfortunately, the default JAXP transformer (com.sun.org.apache.xalan.internal.xsltc.trax.TransformerImpl) does not. Instead, use Saxon, which supports both XSLT 2.0 and 3.0.

The class below shows how you can perform an XSL transformation in Java, using Saxon and the JAXP interface:

import java.io.StringReader;
import java.io.StringWriter;

import javax.xml.transform.Templates;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;

public class XSLTransformer {

  private final Templates templates;

  public XSLTransformer(final String xslFileName) throws Exception {
    templates = new net.sf.saxon.BasicTransformerFactory().newTemplates(
        new StreamSource(XSLTransformer.class.getClassLoader()
                             .getResourceAsStream(xslFileName)));
  }

  public String transform(final String xml) throws Exception {
    final Transformer transformer = templates.newTransformer();
    final StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
    transformer.transform(new StreamSource(new StringReader(xml)),
                          new StreamResult(writer));
    return writer.toString();
  }
}

An alternative to the JAXP interface is to use Saxon's own s9api interface, which is more robust:

import java.io.StringReader;
import java.io.StringWriter;

import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;

import net.sf.saxon.s9api.Processor;
import net.sf.saxon.s9api.SaxonApiException;
import net.sf.saxon.s9api.XsltExecutable;
import net.sf.saxon.s9api.XsltTransformer;

public class SaxonTransformer {

  private final Processor processor;
  private final XsltExecutable xsltExec;

  public SaxonTransformer(final String xslFileName) throws SaxonApiException {
    processor = new Processor(false);
    xsltExec = processor.newXsltCompiler().compile(new StreamSource(
        XSLTransformer.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(xslFileName)));
  }

  public String transform(final String xml) throws Exception {
    final XsltTransformer transformer = xsltExec.load();
    transformer.setSource(new StreamSource(new StringReader(xml)));
    final StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
    transformer.setDestination(processor.newSerializer(writer));
    transformer.transform();
    return writer.toString();
  }
}