Expressions

Note: You need Java 11 or a higher version installed to use this library.

This library enables Java 8 Lambdas to be represented as objects in the form of expression trees at runtime:

void method(Predicate<Customer> p) {
  LambdaExpression<Predicate<Customer>> parsed = LambdaExpression.parse(p);
  //Use parsed Expression Tree...
}

making it possible to create type-safe fluent interfaces, i.e. instead of:

Customer obj = ...
obj.property("name").eq("John")

one can write

method<Customer>(obj -> obj.getName() == "John")

in type-safe, refactoring friendly manner. And then the library developer will be able to parse the produced Lambda to the corresponding Expression Tree for analysis.

---

For example, JPA Criteria API could benefit a lot from using JaQue, e.g.:

//instead of this:
Root<Pet> pet = cq.from(Pet.class);
Join<Pet, Owner> owner = pet.join(Pet_.owners);

//it could be this:
Join<Pet, Owner> owner = pet.join(Pet::getOwners);

//and instead of this:
query.where(pet.get(Pet_.color).isNull());
query.where(builder.equal(pet.get(Pet_.name), "Fido")
	.and(builder.equal(pet.get(Pet_.color), "brown")));
	
//it could be this:
query.where(pet -> pet.getColor() == null);
query.where(pet -> (pet.getName() == "Fido") && (pet.getColor() == "brown"));

If you are looking for an opportunity to start an open source project, implementing the above should be very beneficial for a very large developer community. Should you start this or any other open source project based on Expressions, I'll be happy to assist you.

How to write fluent interface with Expressions?

• Suppose you want to reference some class property

import com.github.collinalpert.expressions.expression.MemberExpression;import com.github.collinalpert.expressions.expression.UnaryExpression;public class Fluent<T> {
	// this interface is required to make the lambda Serializable, which removes a need for 
	// jdk.internal.lambda.dumpProxyClasses system property. See below.
	public static interface Property<T, R> extends Function<T, R>, Serializable {
	}

	public Fluent<T> property(Property<T, ?> propertyRef) {
		LambdaExpression parsed = LambdaExpression.parse(propertyRef);
		Expression body = parsed.getBody();
		
		// remove casts
		while (body instanceof UnaryExpression)
			methodCall = ((UnaryExpression) methodCall).getFirst();

		// checks are omitted for brevity
		Member member = ((MemberExpression) ((InvocationExpression) methodCall)
				.getTarget()).getMember();
		
		// use member
		...
		
		return this;
	}
}

• Now your users will be able to write

Fluent<Customer> f = new Fluent<Customer>();
f.property(Customer::getName);

Make the lambda Serializable, as shown in example above. If the lambda is not serializable, the jdk.internal.lambda.dumpProxyClasses system property must be set and point to an existing writable directory to give the parser access to the lambda byte code.

Install

You can include the Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.github.collinalpert</groupId>
    <artifactId>expressions</artifactId>
    <version>2.7.0</version>
</dependency>

Or add the JAR to your project.