Identity of Lambdas (was Re: JEP 186: Collection Literals)

Peter Levart peter.levart at gmail.com
Sat Jan 18 09:13:58 PST 2014


On 01/18/2014 02:49 PM, Remi Forax wrote:
> On 01/18/2014 12:54 PM, Millies, Sebastian wrote:
>> Surprising, at least when one thinks of lambdas as functions, not objects.
>>
>> I was under the impression that lambdas could not be used as hash keys, because they had no
>> well-defined identity. The source for this belief was Stuart Mark's answer at
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15221659/java-8-lambda-expression-and-first-class-values
>> from which I quote:
>>
>> <quote>
>> Given that lambdas are converted into objects, they inherit (literally) all the characteristics of objects. In particular, objects:
>>
>>       have various methods like equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, toString, and wait
>>       have an identity hash code
>>       can be locked by a synchronized block
>>       can be compared using the == and != and instanceof operators
>>
>> and so forth. In fact, all of these are irrelevant to the intended usage of lambdas. Their behavior is essentially undefined. You can write a program that uses any of these, and you will get some result, but the result may differ from release to release (or even run to run!).
>> </quote>
>>
>> In Peter's example, the only thing that seems to matter would be that if a lambda has an identity hash code, that will not change while the JVM exists. But will the antecedent always be true in the future (function types etc.?)
>> Are there some minimal guarantees on the identities of lambdas, and where are they described?
>>
>> I took Stuart's remark "Their behavior is essentially undefined" to mean: Don't do these things with lambdas! Would that be sound advice?
>>
>> -- Sebastian
> Lambdas have not identity so by example,
>     IntBinaryOperation fun = x -> x;
>     IntBinaryOperation fun2 = fun;
>     fun == fun2
> may be true then false if executed several times.

By "several times", you mean each time with next major release of Java ?

Peter

> So minimal guarantees are that there is no guarantee :)
>
> Rémi
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: lambda-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net [mailto:lambda-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net] On Behalf Of Peter Levart
>> Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2014 12:17 PM
>> To: Remi Forax; lambda-dev at openjdk.java.net
>> Subject: [Spam]: Re: JEP 186: Collection Literals
>>
>>
>> On 01/16/2014 12:43 AM, Remi Forax wrote:
>>> We can also use the Builder Pattern of Ruby now that we have a lambda syntax
>>>       new ArrayList<>(builder -> builder.add(1).add(2).add(3));
>>>
>>> Rémi
>> This one is interesting, because it shows what can be achieved with lambdas today. It enables expressions that evaluate into singleton objects (like non-capturing lambdas). If the lambda body is non-capturing, it evaluates into constant singleton in current implementation. So objects produced with such lambdas can be cached (using lambda object as a weak key). Here's a sample test that exercises
>> that:
>>
>> public class Test {
>>        public static void main(String[] args) {
>>            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
>>                List<Double> list = immutableList(b -> b._(3.14)._(0.33333));
>>                System.out.println(list + " : " + System.identityHashCode(list));
>>            }
>>            System.out.println();
>>            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
>>                double x = i;
>>                List<Double> list = immutableList(b -> b._(3.14)._(0.33333)._(x));
>>                System.out.println(list + " : " + System.identityHashCode(list));
>>            }
>>            System.out.println();
>>            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
>>                Map<String, Integer> map = immutableMap(b -> b._("aa", 1)._("bb", 2)._("cc", 3));
>>                System.out.println(map + " : " + System.identityHashCode(map));
>>            }
>>            System.out.println();
>>            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
>>                int x = i;
>>                Map<String, Integer> map = immutableMap(b -> b._("aa", 1)._("bb", 2)._("cc", x));
>>                System.out.println(map + " : " + System.identityHashCode(map));
>>            }
>>        }
>> }
>>
>> which prints:
>>
>> [3.14, 0.33333] : 1706377736
>> [3.14, 0.33333] : 1706377736
>> [3.14, 0.33333] : 1706377736
>>
>> [3.14, 0.33333, 0.0] : 868693306
>> [3.14, 0.33333, 1.0] : 989110044
>> [3.14, 0.33333, 2.0] : 321001045
>>
>> {aa=1, bb=2, cc=3} : 1044036744
>> {aa=1, bb=2, cc=3} : 1044036744
>> {aa=1, bb=2, cc=3} : 1044036744
>>
>> {aa=1, bb=2, cc=0} : 1915318863
>> {aa=1, bb=2, cc=1} : 295530567
>> {aa=1, bb=2, cc=2} : 1324119927
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards, Peter
>>
>>
>> P.S. Here's what I used to compile above test:
>>
>> public interface Builder<T> extends Consumer<T> {
>>        default Builder<T> _(T t) {
>>            accept(t);
>>            return this;
>>        }
>> }
>>
>> public interface BiBuilder<T, U> extends BiConsumer<T, U> {
>>        default BiBuilder<T, U> _(T t, U u) {
>>            accept(t, u);
>>            return this;
>>        }
>> }
>>
>> public class Collections2 {
>>
>>        public static <T> ArrayList<T> arrayList(Consumer<Builder<T>>
>> producer) {
>>            ArrayList<T> list = new ArrayList<>();
>>            producer.accept(list::add);
>>            return list;
>>        }
>>
>>        // cache of immutable lists per producer
>>        private static final Map<Consumer<? extends Builder<?>>, List<?>> INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_LISTS = new WeakHashMap<>();
>>
>>        public static <T> List<T> immutableList(Consumer<Builder<T>>
>> producer) {
>>            synchronized (INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_LISTS) {
>>                // check if already interned
>>                @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
>>                List<T> list = (List<T>)
>> INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_LISTS.get(producer);
>>                if (list != null) return list;
>>            }
>>
>>            // count elements produced
>>            final int[] count = new int[1];
>>            producer.accept(t -> count[0]++);
>>
>>            // construct new list
>>            ArrayList<T> aList = new ArrayList<>(count[0]);
>>            producer.accept(aList::add);
>>
>>            synchronized (INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_LISTS) {
>>                // recheck (highly unlikely)
>>                @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
>>                List<T> list = (List<T>)
>> INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_LISTS.get(producer);
>>                if (list != null) return list;
>>                // put it into cache and return
>>                list = Collections.unmodifiableList(aList);
>>                INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_LISTS.put(producer, list);
>>                return list;
>>            }
>>        }
>>
>>        public static <K, V> HashMap<K, V> hashMap(Consumer<BiBuilder<K,
>> V>> producer) {
>>            HashMap<K, V> map = new HashMap<>();
>>            producer.accept(map::put);
>>            return map;
>>        }
>>
>>        // cache of immutable maps per producer
>>        private static final Map<Consumer<? extends BiBuilder<?, ?>>, Map<?, ?>> INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_MAPS = new WeakHashMap<>();
>>
>>        public static <K, V> Map<K, V> immutableMap(Consumer<BiBuilder<K,
>> V>> producer) {
>>            synchronized (INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_MAPS) {
>>                // check if already interned
>>                @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
>>                Map<K, V> map = (Map<K, V>) INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_MAPS.get(producer);
>>                if (map != null) return map;
>>            }
>>
>>            // count elements produced
>>            final int[] count = new int[1];
>>            producer.accept((k, v) -> count[0]++);
>>
>>            // construct new map
>>            HashMap<K, V> hMap = new HashMap<>(count[0] * 4 / 3);
>>            producer.accept(hMap::put);
>>
>>            synchronized (INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_MAPS) {
>>                // recheck (highly unlikely)
>>                @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
>>                Map<K, V> map = (Map<K, V>) INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_MAPS.get(producer);
>>                if (map != null) return map;
>>                // put it into cache and return
>>                map = Collections.unmodifiableMap(hMap);
>>                INTERNED_IMMUTABLE_MAPS.put(producer, map);
>>                return map;
>>            }
>>        }
>> }
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>



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