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Method References In Java

Method References
 
Method references are introduced in Java 8. Method references help to identify methods by their names and it is expressed using :: (double colon) symbol.
 
A method reference is used to identify the following types of methods.
  • Static methods

  • Instance methods

  • Constructors using new operator
Let’s see an example of Method Reference.
 
Code
  1. import java.util.List;  
  2. import java.util.ArrayList;  
  3. public class MethodReferencesExample {  
  4.     public static void main(String args[]) {  
  5.         List l = new ArrayList();  
  6.         l.add("Jack");  
  7.         l.add("Bob");  
  8.         l.add("Harry");  
  9.         l.add("Mia");  
  10.         l.forEach(System.out::println);  
  11.     }  
  12. }  
14

Output

15

In the above example, we pass System.out::println method as a static method reference.
 
Summary

Thus, we learned that Method references help to identify methods by their names and also learns how to use it in Java.