exotic

A bestiary of classes implementing exotic semantics in Java

In Java, a static final field is considered as a constant by the virtual machine, but a final field of an object which is a constant is not itself considered as a constant. Exotic allows to see a constant's field as a constant, a result of a calculation as a constant, to change at runtime the value of a constant, etc.

This library run on Java 8+ and is fully compatible with Java 9 modules.

This library needs Java 11+ to be built.

MostlyConstant - javadoc

A constant for the VM that can be changed by de-optimizing all the codes that contain the previous value of the constant.

private static final MostlyConstant<Integer> FOO = new MostlyConstant<>(42, int.class);
private static final IntSupplier FOO_GETTER = FOO.intGetter();

public static int getFoo() {
  return FOO_GETTER.getAsInt();
}
public static void setFoo(int value) {
   FOO.setAndDeoptimize(value);
}

StableField - javadoc

A field that becomes a constant if the object itsef is constant and the field is initialized

enum Option {
  a, b;
    
  private static final Function<Option, String> UPPERCASE =
      StableField.getter(lookup(), Option.class, "uppercase", String.class);
    
  private String uppercase;  // stable

  public String upperCase() {
    String uppercase = UPPERCASE.apply(this);
    if (uppercase != null) {
      return uppercase;
    }
    return this.uppercase = name().toUpperCase();
  }
}
...
Option.a.upperCase()  // constant "A"

ConstantMemoizer - javadoc

A function that returns a constant value if its parameter is a constant.

private static final ToIntFunction<Level> MEMOIZER =
    ConstantMemoizer.intMemoizer(Level::ordinal, Level.class);
...
MEMOIZER.applyAsInt("foo") // constant 3

ObjectSupport - javadoc

Provide a fast implementation for equals() and hashCode().

class Person {
  private static final ObjectSupport<Person> SUPPORT =
      ObjectSupport.of(lookup(), Person.class, p -> p.name);
    
  private String name;
  ...
  
  public boolean equals(Object other) {
    return SUPPORT.equals(this, other);
  }
    
  public int hashCode() {
    return SUPPORT.hashCode(this);
  }
}

StructuralCall - javadoc

A method call that can call different method implementations if they share the same name and same parameter types.

private static final StructuralCall IS_EMPTY =
    StructuralCall.create(lookup(), "isEmpty", methodType(boolean.class));

static boolean isEmpty(Object o) {  // can be called with a Map, a Collection or a String
  return IS_EMPTY.invoke(o);
}

Visitor - javadoc

An open visitor, a visitor that does allow new types and new operations, can be implemented using a Map that associates a class to a lambda, but this implementation loose inlining thus perform badly compared to the Gof Visitor. This class implements an open visitor that's used inlining caches.

private static final Visitor<Void, Integer> VISITOR =
    Visitor.create(Void.class, int.class, opt -> opt
      .register(Value.class, (v, value, __) -> value.value)
      .register(Add.class,   (v, add, __)   -> v.visit(add.left, null) + v.visit(add.right, null))
    );
...
Expr expr = new Add(new Add(new Value(7), new Value(10)), new Value(4));
int value = VISITOR.visit(expr, null);  // 21

TypeSwitch - javadoc

Express a switch on type as function from an object to an index + a classical switch on the possible indexes. The TypeSwitch should be more efficient than a cascade of if instanceof.

private static final TypeSwitch TYPE_SWITCH = TypeSwitch.create(true, Integer.class, String.class);
  
public static String asString(Object o) {
  switch(TYPE_SWITCH.typeSwitch(o)) {
  case TypeSwitch.NULL_MATCH:
    return "null";
  case 0:
    return "Integer";
  case 1:
    return "String";
  default: // TypeSwitch.NO_MATCH
    return "unknown";
  }
}

Build Tool Integration

Get latest binary distribution via JitPack

Maven

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>jitpack.io</id>
        <url>https://jitpack.io</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.github.forax</groupId>
    <artifactId>exotic</artifactId>
    <version>master-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>

Gradle

repositories {
    ...
    maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
}
dependencies {
    compile 'com.github.forax:exotic:master-SNAPSHOT'
}