Problem with method references

[Tomasz Kowalczewski]

Thanks for your explanation Maurizio, this is very interesting.

The Extractor interface is included in my original email (however, you
were right about how it looks). I understand that this#getArgCount
will be translated to a SAM with method that forwards the call to
'this' (so no explicit argument of type LambdaInConstructorExample is
required). But in the constructor I am not using 'this#getArgCount', I
am using LambdaInConstructorExample#getArgCount. That why, at least
for me, this situation is very unintuitive.
When working from a non-static context, is there a possibility to SAM
convert getArgCount to the Extractor interface?

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 3:19 PM, Maurizio Cimadamore
<maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com> wrote:
> On 03/01/11 10:10, Tomasz Kowalczewski wrote:
>>
>> package org.tkowalcz.lambda.extractor;
>>
>> public class LambdaInConstructorExample {
>>
>>   public static void main( final String[] args ) {
>>     // Compiles fine
>>     Extractor x = LambdaInConstructorExample#getArgCount;
>>   }
>>
>>   public LambdaInConstructorExample() {
>>     // Error
>>     Extractor x = LambdaInConstructorExample#getArgCount;
>>   }
>>
>>   public int getArgCount() {
>>     return 1;
>>   }
>> }
>
> There is no bug here. The first method reference compiles because a
> non-static method is being referenced from a static context - in such cases,
> the following expansion is automagically applied by the compiler:
>
> If f is an instance method of Z whose signature is A,B->C, then #obj.f is of
> type A,B->C and #Z.f is of type Z,A,B->C.
>
> Which means that, in the first case, the compiler is looking for a signature
> of the kind (LambdaInConstructorExample)->int.
>
> Since the second method reference occurs in a non-static context, no
> automatic expansion is applied, which means the compiler will look for a
> signature of the kind ()->int.
>
> Now, depending on how you declare the target method in the SAM type
> Extractor, you will not be able to get both method references to compile, as
> the compiler will be looking for different signatures. I guess that, looking
> at your output, your SAM type declaration looks like the following:
>
> interface Extractor {
> int getX(LambdaInConstructorExample arg);
> }
>
> Maurizio
>
>

-- 
Tomasz Kowalczewski