Functional Interfaces in Java

What is Functional Interface in Java?

Java is an object-oriented programming language i.e everything in java rotates around the java classes and their objects.

No function is independently present on its own in java. They are part of classes or interfaces. And to use them we require either the class or the object of the respective class to call that function.

Functional Interface in Java enables users to implement functional programming in Java. In functional programming, the function is an independent entity.

The function can do anything a variable is capable to perform like passing a function as a parameter, a function returned by another function, etc. Functions in Python is an example of functional programming.

Functional interfaces were introduced in Java 8. A functional interface can contain only one abstract method and it can contain any number of static and default (non-abstract) methods.

Abstract methods are methods that do not require implementation during their declaration and must be overridden by the class implementing the interface.

Default methods can be directly used in a class implementing the interface as well as can be overridden and redefined. Static methods are required to be called using the name of the interface preceding the method name. These cannot be overridden by the classes implementing the interface.

Functional Interface in Java is also called Single Abstract Method (SAM) interface. From Java 8 onwards, to represent the instance of functional interfaces, lambda expressions are used.

Lambda expressions are anonymous (don't have names) shortcode blocks that can take parameters and return a value just like methods.

Syntax:

The functional interface in Java is defined just like normal interfaces. It should only have one abstract method. Though it can contain multiple default or static methods.

Abstract keyword: Though from Java 8, interfaces can have static and default methods. By default, methods in interfaces are abstract only. So it is not mandatory to mention the abstract keyword before the method.

@FunctionalInterface Annotation @FunctionalInterface Annotation is written above the interface declaration. It effectively acts as a function thus, it can be passed as a parameter to a method or can be returned as a value by a method. It is optional, but when mentioned java compiler ensures that the interface has only one abstract method.

If we try to add more than one abstract method, the compiler flags an Unexpected @FunctionalInterface annotation message.

To implement the abstract method of a functional interface in Java, we can either use lambda expression or we can implement the interface to our class and override the method. In the syntax above we are using a lambda expression.

Let us understand the syntax of functional interfaces with a simple example.

Output:

Explanation: In the Main class, note that we didn't override the calculate method. We used lambda expression to implement calculation method of the Sample interface. The target type of lambda must be an interface, thus we are using

Lastly to call and use lambda_expression_name.method_name i.e. solution.calculate().

Two Ways to Use Functional Interfaces in a Class

Using Lambda Expression

Here, we just have to import the interface. We are not required to implement it in our class to use the Functional Interface in Java.

Lambda expressions are just like methods in java but they make the code short, clean, and readable. They are also called anonymous functions. Thus, they are used more frequently with functional interfaces in Java.

Syntax:

InterfaceName is the functional interface we are going to use in our main method. We neither have to implement an interface nor have to override the abstract method.

We can directly give implementation to the abstract method using a lambda expression. To call this temporarily implemented method we have to use the syntax tempName.AbstractMethod().

Example: Let's take an example where we take a user's name and Greet them with a message.

Output:

Explanation: In the example above, we are not required to override any method. We can give implementation to the abstract method of the functional interface in the main method itself using a lambda expression. It takes one String variable as an argument and returns another String.

By Implementing the Interface

Another way is to implement the interface in our class. By doing so we will have to override the abstract method. Then to call the method we are supposed to create the object of our class and use the following syntax obj.AbstarctMethod().

Syntax:

Explanation: In the example above Sample is an interface. Our class Main implements the interface, thus it has to override the abstract method of the interface. To call this abstract method in our main method we have to create the object of our Main class.

Example: Let us take the same example as above and implement it by overriding the method.

Output:

Explanation: In the example above, rather than implementing the abstract method of the functional interface in the main method, we are overriding it in our class. Then we create an object of our class to call this method greeting.

More Examples

A Functional Interface Can Have Methods of Object Class

Example: Let us take an example of a functional interface in Java having a single abstract method and multiple methods of the object class.

Explanation: In the interface above, hashCode(),toString(), and equals() are the methods of the Object class of Java. We can have any number of methods of object classes in our Functional Interface. These object classes don't have an implementation in the interface as well.

Functional Interface Having Multiple Default and Static Classes

Let us see an example of a Functional interface in Java having default and static classes.

Explanation: In the example above, square is an abstract method, add and sub are default methods, and multiply and divide are static methods. We override the square() method in the Test class. Also, add() and sub() can be overridden by the respective class and are called using the object of the Test class. multiply() and divide() is called using the name of the interface in the main method.

Functional Interface Extending to a Non-Functional Interface.

A functional interface in Java can extend other Interfaces. The extends keyword is used after the name of the child interface to extend another interface known as the parent interface. The child interface inherits the methods of the parent interface. The parent interface must not be functional as well as it should not have any abstract method. The functional interface i.e. our child interface can have a single abstract method and multiple default and static methods.

The child and parent interfaces can have the same abstract method, or the child interface can have no methods if both interfaces are Functional.

Example - 1

For instance, let there be a BookStore interface with few methods and a Library interface as a Functional Interface.

• The compiler throws an exception, as the BookStore interface has 3 abstract methods. Thus, the Library interface can't extend BookStore.

Example - 2

With the same example as the previous one, let the Bookstore interface extend Library.

• The BookStore interface can extend Library as BookStore is a normal Interface. There is no compilation error.

Example - 3

In the same example as before, let BookStore and Library both have the abstract method but with the same name.

• In case, BookStore has only one method same as Library issue_book or no method, then BookStore can extend Library.

Built-in Java Functional Interfaces

Java has pre-defined or built-in functional interfaces for commonly occurring cases.

Many interfaces I converted into functional interfaces using @FunctionalInterface Annotation. A few of these interfaces are as follows-

• Runnable - It contains only the run() method. It is used to write applications that can run on a separate thread.
• Comparable - This interface contains only the compareTo() method. The objects of the class that implements the Comparable interface can be compared the objects of the class that implements Comparable interface can be compared and sorted.
• ActionListener - It contains only actionPerformed() method. It is responsible for handling all the action events like a mouse click on a component.
• Callable - It only contains the call() method. This method is used to monitor the progress of a function being executed by a thread.

The most frequently used among these interfaces is comparable. Let us take an example of a Candidate class and its object to understand this Functional Interface. Using a functional interface we will compare objects of the Candidate class.

Explanation: In the example above, the Candidate class implements the Comparable interface.

Candidate class has 4 attributes, id, name, college, and year. The constructor method assigns values to the object variables. As we are implementing a Comparable interface, it is mandatory to implement the compareTo() method. We can use this method to compare two candidates. It will return a positive value if the first candidate is greater than the second one. Negative if the second one is greater and zeroes if both are the same.

Types of Functional interfaces

Functional interfaces in Java are mainly of four types:

1. Consumer
2. Predicate
3. Function
4. Supplier

Function

The function type functional interface receives a single argument, processes it, and returns a value. One of the applications of this type of functional interface is taking the key from the user as input and searching for the value in the map for the given key.

Syntax:

Explaination: @FunctionalInterface is an annotation to ensure our interface is functional only. The function takes two generic types. The first one T is the type it takes a parameter and R is the return type of the abstract method. apply() is the abstract method of the Function.

Example:

For instance, say we have data of employees. In this data, we can add new employees using the add() method and we can search for existing employees using the Function interface.

Output:

We are importing Function, a functional interface in our class. Employee HashMap stores the id and name of the employee. add() method checks if the id already exists, else it adds it to the hashmap. In the main method, we are using the Function interface to define get that returns the name of the employee from their id. We are using a lambda expression to implement the logic for get. apply() is the name of the abstract method of the Function interface.

Bi-Function

Bi-function is just like a function except it takes two arguments. Two arguments are must in Bi-function. Just like a function it also returns a value.

UnaryOperator and BinaryOperator Interfaces

Unary and Binary are two functional interfaces. Unary extends Function and Binary extends Bi-function functional interface. Thus, Unary excepts one argument and returns a value, Binary takes two arguments but they must be of the same type. Also, the return value must be of the same type as the argument(s) for Unary and Binary operators.

1. UnaryOperator Interface

Syntax:

Example: Let us take an example of not operator. It takes 1 or 0 and returns its complement.

Output:

Explanation: Xor with 1 returns the complement of the number. Thus, UnaryOperator takes a single integer value and returns its complement integer.

2. BinaryOperator Interface

Syntax:

Example:

Given two numbers, let us take an example where the bitwise logical operator & (and) will perform the logical operation between two numbers.

Output:

BinaryOperator takes two values of the same type i.e. Integer. It performs AND (&) operation on these two numbers and returns the result of it.

Supplier

The supplier functional interface in Java is much like a functional interface, the only difference is it doesn't take any arguments. On calling the supplier it simply returns a value. Supplier is a generic interface thus, it takes the type of value in <> (Angular brackets) while implementing to be returned by the get() method.

Syntax:

The supplier takes only one generic type, the type of data it is going to return. get() is the abstract method of the Supplier.

Example:

Output:

The supplier functional Interface is imported in our example above. We are using a lambda expression to implement the message of Supplier. It takes no parameters and returns a String. get() is the abstract method of the Supplier interface. Thus, to call message we have to use message.get().

Consumer

The Consumer functional interface in Java accepts a single gentrified argument and doesn't return any value.

Syntax:

The consumer takes one generic type, the type of data it is going to take as a parameter. accept is the abstract method of the Consumer.

BiConsumer

It takes two arguments one generic, and the other of primitive type. It also doesn't return a value.

Example:

Output:

To stand in school elections, one must be above the age of 14 and must be at least scoring 75 in the previous grade. To ensure this, we are using Bi-consumer which takes two integer values. It checks for the condition and prints the result. Bi-consumer doesn't return a value just like the Consumer functional interface.

Predicate

The predicate functional interface in Java takes a single argument and returns a boolean value.

It is usually used in filtering values from the collection. It is also a specialization of a Function that takes a gentrified argument or a single argument and returns a boolean.

The predicate is much like a metal detecting machine. It tests each object. If the object is detected to be metal, it sends signals in the form of sound or light, i.e. returns true. If the object is not metal, it simply checks another object or returns false.

Predicate interface in Java has 3 default methods and(),negate(), and or and 1 static method isEqual() other than abstract method test.

Syntax:

Predicate's abstract method returns a boolean value. It takes a paramters of the type T. test() is the name given to its abstarct method.

Example:

Output:

In the above example, we use a predicate functional interface. It takes a string and returns a boolean. It is mostly used to filter the list. We are printing the elements whose length is 8. checkLength returns true if the length is 8, else it returns false.

Bi-Predicate

It is an extension of the Predicate Functional Interface. It takes two arguments instead of one and returns a boolean value. Bi-Predicate can be implemented just like Predicate, the only difference being that we will have to import BiPredicate and pass two parameters instead of one.

Primitive Function Specializations

Since primitive data type cannot be passed as a parameter to a generic type argument. For instance, instead of T, R of R apply (T t) of Function <T, R> we cannot pass int, double, float, etc primitive types.

In functional interfaces and Streams, some classes are specifically defined so that int, long, and double can be operated like generics i.e. without boxing in the wrapper class. This is called a type with primitive specialization.

There are various versions of the Function interface for frequently used primitive data types such as int, double, long, and their combinations in argument as well as return types.

• IntFunction, LongFunction, DoubleFunction: argument type is specified in the Function name, return type is parameterized.
• ToIntFunction, ToLongFunction, ToDoubleFunction: return type is mentioned in the function name, arguments are parameterized.
• DoubleToIntFunction, DoubleToLongFunction, IntToDoubleFunction, IntToLongFunction, LongToIntFunction, LongToDoubleFunction: argument and return type are specified in the function itself.

key Points

• Functional interface can have only one abstract method. It can contain multiple default and static methods. We use @FunctionalInterface Annotation is not mandatory but it is useful to ensure that the interface has only one abstract method.

abstract keyword is optional as by default all the methods of the interface are abstract only.

• The java.util.function contains various in-built functional interfaces from Java 8 onwards like Function, Consumer, Supplier, etc.