Learning Java Lambdas

Method references

I mentioned earlier that method references are kind of like shortcuts to lambdas. They're a compact and convenient way to point to a method and allow that method to be used anywhere a lambda would be used.

When you create a lambda, you create an anonymous function and supply the method body. When you use a method reference as a lambda, it's actually pointing to a named method that already exists; it already has a body.

You can think of them as transforming a regular method into a functional interface.

The basic syntax looks like this:

Class::method

or, a more concrete example:

String::valueOf

The part preceding the double colon is the target reference and after, the method name. So, in this case, we're targeting the String class and ...