Java 17 Oracle Certified Professional study notes

How to print bytes as String

byte b = 4;
String.format("%8s", Integer.toBinaryString(b & 0xFF)).replace(' ', '0'))

Initialization order notes

A class or interface of type T will be initialized before the first occurrence of any of the following:

instantiation of T
invoking a static method of T
T static field assignment
static field (N.B. not a constant) declared in T is used
when a class is initialized, so do their super classes and superinterfaces containing default methods
a reference to a static (n.b. not a constant) field causes initialization of only the class or interface that declares it (ignoring their possible superclasses)

Therefore, the below class does not initialize the Child class (i.e. executing its static initializer block) regardless of referencing a static parent field from it.

class Super {
    static String id = "Super"; // This member could also be a constant
}

class Child {   
  static {
      System.out.printf("Static initializer block...%n");
  }
}

public class Test {
    public static void main(String...args) {
      System.out.print(Super.id);  // It'll only print "Super"
    }
}

New text block methods

public String indent(int numberSpaces) → adds/removes the same number of blank spaces of each line. It's worth noting that if absent, it'll add a new line (\n) to the end of the string.
public String stripIndent() → It removes all incidental whitespace, but does not add a trailing line break if missing like the above method.

Example:

final var greeting = " hola\n"
        .concat("  hello\n")
        .concat(" bonjour.");

greeting.indent(-1)/**
                    *hola\n
                    * hello\n
                    *bonjour\n
                    */

greeting.indent(-2)/**
                    *hola\n
                    *hello\n
                    *bonjour\n
                    */

greeting.indent(0) /**
                    * hola\n
                    *  hello\n
note the \n added → * bonjour\n
                    */

greeting.stripIndent()/**
                       *hola\n
                       * hello\n
  \n not added !!! →   *bonjour
                       */

String comparison

Strings in Java are naturally ordered (i.e. ascending from smaller to bigger) in the following order:

Numbers
CharSequences in capital letters
CharSequences in small letters

e.g. Given

String[] array = {"abc", "T", "TOTO", "123", "1", "2", "_1_2", "xyz", "a", "x", "z", "y", "xy", "b", "c", "d", "ab", "ba", "ac", "ca"};
Arrays.sort(array); // It'll become: [1, 123, 2, T, TOTO, _1_2, a, ab, abc, ac, b, ba, c, ca, d, x, xy, xyz, y, z]

Time API notes

ZonedDateTime contains an OffSetDateTime as well as a Zone. However, both types can be initialized as:

OffsetDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("America/La_Paz")) // 2022-06-06T14:12:06.294197-04:00
ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("America/La_Paz")) // 2022-06-06T14:12:06.294197-04:00[America/La_Paz]

One fundamental difference relies on the fact that ZonedDateTime allows daylight saving calculations:

// Given the US's spring forward:
ZonedDateTime.of(LocalDateTime.parse("2022-03-13T01:30:00"), ZoneId.of("America/Los_Angeles"))
        .plusHours(1) // 2022-03-13T03:30-07:00[America/Los_Angeles]
        
// Whereas
OffsetDateTime.of(LocalDateTime.parse("2022-03-13T01:30:00"), ZoneOffset.of("-08:00"))
        .plusHours(1) //2022-03-13T02:30-08:00

// It's worth noting that CEST timezone is not accepted by ZoneId class, instead always use CET:
ZonedDateTime.of(LocalDateTime.parse("2022-03-27T01:30:00"), ZoneId.of("CET"))
        .plusHours(1) // 2022-03-27T03:30+02:00[CET]

The most important patterns used by SimpleDateFormat and DateTimeFormatter are:

Symbol	Meaning	Example
y yy yyyy yyyyy [*]	year, don't confuse with `Y` which represents week of the year	2022 22 2022 02022
M MM MMM MMMM MMMMM[*]	month, it does not work with `m` as it's minute	6 06 Jun June J
d or dd	day of the month, it does not work with `D` as it represents the day of the year	15
e ee eee eeee eeeee [*]	day of the week, it also works with `E`	3 03 Wed Wednesday W
h hh	hour of the day, it also works with `H`	5 05
m mm	minute, it does not work with `M` as it's month	1 01
s ss S SS SSS SSSS...[*]	`S` means fraction of second, whereas `s` is the second of the minute	1 01 1 01 013 0135
a	after meridian or past meridian	AM or PM
z, zz, zzz zzzz	Timezone name	BOT or CEST, Bolivian Time or Central European Summer Time
Z, ZZ, ZZZ ZZZZ ZZZZZ[*]	Timezone offset	-0400 or +0200 GMT-04:00 or GMT+02:00 -04:00 or +02:00
for the exhaustive list, refer to the `DateTimeFormatter`'s javaDoc

[*] Having a pattern more than 5 times leads to an exception

DateTimeFormatter contains 4 FormatStyles: given

DateTimeFormatter
        .ofLocalizedDate(formatStyle)
        .withLocale(new Locale.Builder().setLanguageTag(locale).build())
        .format(Instant.now())

where formatStyle and locale are:

FormatStyle	locale es-BO	locale en-US	locale fr-FR
SHORT	6/6/2022	2022-06-06	06/06/2022
MEDIUM	6 jun. de 2022	Jun 6, 2022	6 juin 2022
LONG	6 de junio de 2022	June 6, 2022	lundi 6 juin 2022
FULL	lunes, 6 de junio de 2022	Monday, June 6, 2022	lundi 6 juin 2022

UTC uses the same time zone zero as GMT, therefore they are equivalent
Z at the end of some dates means Zulu or zero timezone (not to be confused with 0 offset)
It's possible to truncate some parts of the time:

// Here we ignore the minutes
LocalTime.of(1, 10)
        .truncatedTo(ChronoUnit.HOURS) // 01:00

Temporal adjusters allow to modify temporal objects by externalizing the adjustement process while leveraring the strategy pattern. There are two ways to use temporal adjusters:

temporal = adjuster.adjustInto(temporal)
temporal = temporal.with(adjuster)

StringBuilder notes

The replace method from StringBuilder takes 3 arguments:

StringBuilder replace(int start, int end, String str) {

whereas the one from String comes in two flavors:

String replace(char oldChar, char newChar)
String replace(CharSequence target, CharSequence replacement)

Method overloading order

Given the methods:

void doStuff(int i) {...}
void doStuff(long l) {...}
void doStuff(Integer i) {...}
void doStuff(int...args) {...}

The below table shows the order by which Java resolves a method when overloaded.

Rule
exact match by type
larger primitive type
autoboxing
vargs

Class initialization order

Parent class static content (i.e. steps 2 to 3)
static variable declaration order-wise
static blocks order-wise
if there's a superclass, initialize it first (i.e. steps 5 to 7)
instance variable declaration order-wise
instance block order-wise
initialize constructor

example:

class Parent {
  static {
    System.out.print("A"); // 1
  }

  {
    System.out.print("B"); // 3
  }

  public Parent(String name) {
    this(1);
    System.out.print("C"); // 5
  }

  public Parent() {
    System.out.print("D");
  }

  public Parent(int stripes) {
    System.out.print("E"); // 4
  }
}

class Child extends Parent {
  static {
    System.out.print("F"); // 2
  }

  {
    System.out.print("H"); // 6 
  }

  public Child(int stripes) {
    super("");
    System.out.print("G"); // 7
  }

  public static void main(String[] grass) {
    new Child(1); // AFBECHG
  }
}

Rules for overriding a method

The method in child must have the same signature (i.e. name + args) as the parent's one
The method in child must be at least as accessible as the method in the parent class
The method in child may not declare any exceptions (including checked, or else it cannot be broader than the checked exception of the parent)
The child return type must be covariant i.e. the overriding return type should be assignable to the parent return type without a cast

Variable and method hiding

Java does not allow variables to be overriden, they can be hidden though. They are resolved based on the type of the reference and not the instance type conversely to what occurs with polymorphic method calls.

Likewise, static methods can be hidden if the parent's method is not declared as final.

Sealing classes

Why do we need sealed classes? It strengthens domain modeling by allowing closed class hierarchy representation. It ultimately enhances the new Java pattern matching feature with switch statement.

Some new keywords:

sealed → indicates that a class (concrete or abstract) or interface may only be extended/implemented by named classes or interfaces.
permits → used along with sealed, lists the classes/interfaces that can extend/implement it. It's usage depends on the location of the subclasses:
- In a different package → required
- In the same file as the sealed class → not required, but permitted.
- Nested class of the sealed class → not required, but permitted.
non-sealed → applies to any class/interface extending/implementing the sealed class, indicating that it can be extended/ implemented by unspecified classes.

Direct subclasses of sealed classes must be marked final, sealed or non-sealed (excluding for interfaces for which they can be defined as either sealed or non-sealed).

ℹ️ Sealed classes and their sub-classes must reside in the same module.

Records compact constructor

Given:

record Person(String fullName, int age) {}

We can leverage compact constructors to process (i.e. validate or alter) constructor arguments before the actual constructor is invoked:

record Person(String fullName, int age) {
    
    Person { // Mind that () aren't required, nor the list of arguments
        if (fullName == null || fullName.isBlank()) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("fullname invalid format.");
        }    
        age++; // Allowed, but discouraged !!!
    }
}

A record cannot extend from a class, only implement interfaces.
A record's canonical constructor, compact constructor, and getters cannot throw any checked exception (i.e. throws Exception)
A record cannot have a compact constructor with an explicit canonical constructor as the compact constructor is kind of a canonical constructor
The first line of a non-canonical constructor must call another record constructor
An inner record is implicitly static
A record is implicitly final and cannot be superseded by sealed, non-sealed or abstract

Lambda expressions & functional interfaces

Lambdas aren't allowed to redeclare local variables. They're only allowed to reference final or effectively final variables.

void doStuff() {
    var var = "foo";
    final var var1 = "foo";
    // String p = ""; // If this line would be uncommented out, then the below line wouldn't compile
    Predicate<String> p = string -> {
        String var1 = ""; // not allowed
        print(var); // allowed if and only if var is effectively final    
        return true;
    };
}

Functional interfaces must only have one abstract class excluding any redefining method of the class Object (i.e. toString, hashCode, equals, etc).

According to Robert Martin, the usage of funtional interfaces can reinforce the SOLID principles adoption. A clear example is the Command design pattern.

Collections and generics

It's important to note that there're two ArrayList implementations:

The one from java.util., and:
The private static inner class from java.util.Arrays → this is an implementation AbstractList which does not allow elements removal.

You've probably encountered yourself in a situation where you needed to convert a collection into an array:

// Given
final var list = List.of(1, 2, 3);
// Traditional way:
final Object[] array = list.toArray();
// Or, strongly typed:
final int[] array = list.toArray(new Integer[0]);
// Or, a bit better
final int[] array = list.toArray(new Integer[list.size()]);
// However, there is this good-looking option with method reference:
final int[] array = list.toArray(Integer[]::new);

Deque API reminder

java.util.ArrayDeque is combination of stack and queue, the exhaustive list of methods can be found here.

add == addLast == offerLast == offer
addFirst == push == offerFirst
poll == pollFirst == pop == getFirst == element == peek == peekFirst == remove == removeFirst
getLast == peekLast == removeLast == pollLast

Mind that there are some methods that remove and return the element such as remove and pop.

Records with generics

It's possible to create records with generics, take a look at the following simplified Monad implementation:

record IdentityFunctor<T>(T value) {
        IdentityFunctor {
            Objects.requireNonNull(value, "The value cannot be null.");
        }

        public <R> IdentityFunctor<R> map(final Function<T, R> mapper) {
            return new IdentityFunctor<>(mapper.apply(value));
        }

        public <R> R match(final Function<T, R> mapper) {
          return mapper.apply(value);
        }
    }

Spliterator

Provides a level of control when processing, particularly useful when applying parallel algorithms on large datasources.

Given:

final var original = Stream.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).spliterator();
final var firstHalf = original.trySplit(); // firstHalf will hence contain [1, 2], whereas the original spliterator [3, 4, 5]
        
original.tryAdvance(System.out::print); // 3, then the original spliterator will contain [4, 5]
original.forEachRemaining(System.out::print); // 45
original.tryAdvance(System.out::print); // Does not print anything and returns false
        
original.trySplit(); // return null as no elements are present anymore.

Turning a stream or collection into a Spliterator:

final Spliterator<?> splitetator = stream.spliterator();
final Spliterator<?> splitetator = collection.spliterator();

And conversely:

final Stream<?> stream = StreamSupport.stream(splitetator, false);

It's worth noting that .spliterator() on a stream is a terminal operation, and it can be applied on infinite streams. In that situation, the method getExactSizeIfKnown() will return -1 and estimatedSize() will return Long#MAX_VALUE.

Sequential vs Parallel vs Ordered vs Unordered streams

Sequential streams run on a single thread (N.B. they aren't necessarily ordered)
Some operations (intermediary especially) of parallel stream run on multiple threads to improve performance
Encounter order dictates whether a stream is considered to be ordered or not, this is defined by the source or intermediate operations (depending on the collection implementation, if it's an array or list, then the stream will be ordered whereas for a TreeSet, it'll be the contrary). The only way to order streams is by calling the sort() method
As a side note to the above statement, they depend on the source implementation, although for any stream it's possible to call unordered() so that the stream becomes unordered, thus potential optimizations can be performed by the JVM

Teeing collector

Allows to merge two collectors into a single object:

final var totalElementsAndTotal = Stream.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
                .collect(Collectors.teeing(Collectors.counting(), // counts the total elements in the stream
                                           Collectors.summingInt(Integer::intValue), // sums up their values
                                           Pair::of)); // we define the object on which collect both results
System.out.println(totalElementsAndTotal); // It'll print (5, 15)

or

final var pairAndOddNumbers = Stream.of(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
                .collect(teeing(filtering(num -> (num & 1) == 0, counting()), // Pair
                                filtering(num -> (num & 1) != 0, counting()), // Odd
                                Pair::of));
System.out.println(pairAndOddNumbers); // (2, 3)

Using Object(){} inside lambdas

To avoid creating custom value objects, there is a useful technique that consists to create an anonymous object with with custom instance fields:

Map<Integer, String> aMap = someMap();
aMap.entrySet()
.map(entry -> new Object() {
    final int id = entry.getKey();
    final String name = entry.getValue();
})
.forEach(tuple -> {
    System.out.println(tuple.id); // Note that the variable tuple recognizes the id defined in the .map(...) operation
});

Using Unary operator with pre-increment

Given:

UnaryOperator<Integer> f = x -> x++; // This won't ever increment the value as it's using a pre-incrementor
// We should instead use `x -> ++x`

Formatting values

The below symbols work with out#printf, String#formatter, String#format:

Symbol	Supported type	Additional notes
%s	string	N/A
%d	int or long	N/A
%f	float or double	Let's take the example of [3.14159285] By default it considers 6 decimals → [3.14159] %.3f will round to two decimals → [3.142] %5.2f adds spaces to the left → [ 3.14] %05.2f adds zeros to the left → [03.14]
%n	\n	It adds a new line independently of the operating system.
%x	byte	Hexadecimal format.

Formatting numbers

The below symbols work with NumberFormat#format:

Symbol	Description	example
#	Omits position if digit is absent	`new DecimalFormat("##.00").format(3.141592)` → [3.14]
0	Fills in with 0's if digit is absent	`new DecimalFormat("00.00").format(3.141592)` → [03.14]

MessageFormat

There is an old but useful class to replace placeholders in the format {0}, {1}, ...

System.out.println(MessageFormat.format("{0} {1}!!! {2}", "Hello", "world", 2022)); // Hello world!!! 2,022

Locales

Locale#toString formats the locales as language abbreviation in small letters + _ + country abbreviation in capital letters, e.g. es_ES, en_US, fr_FR, es_BO
IETF languages tags are in the form es-ES, en-US, fr-FR and es-BO ⚠️ mind the - instead of _. For Java to correctly load this kind of format, we have two options:
- var locale = Locale.forLanguageTag("en-US"), → locale.toString(); // en_US
- var locale = new Locale("en", "US"); → locale.toString(); // en_US ⚠️ deprecated in Java 19, instead favor Locale.of("en", "US");
- To check whether a locale is valid: asList(Locale.getAvailableLocales()).contains(locale)
- It's possible to set finer-grained control of the default locale by setting the Locale#Category (either DISPLAY or FORMAT) by calling Locale.setDefault(category, locale)
- A locale consists of a required lowercase language code and optional uppercase country code.

Formatting currencies

final var amount = 50.99;
System.out.println(NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(Locale.forLanguageTag("en-US"))
        .format(amount)); // $50.99
System.out.println(NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(Locale.forLanguageTag("en-GB"))
        .format(amount)); // £50.99
System.out.println(NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(Locale.forLanguageTag("fr-FR"))
        .format(amount)); // 50.99 €
System.out.println(NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(Locale.forLanguageTag("es-BO"))
        .format(amount)); // Bs50.99

CompactNumberFormat

It's designed to be used in places where print space may be limited. There are two self-explanatory styles available:

LONG
SHORT

CompactNumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.US, SHORT).format(1_400_000_000); // 1B
CompactNumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.US, LONG).format(1_400_000_000); // 1 billion
        
CompactNumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.FR, SHORT).format(1_500_000_000); // 2 Md, ⚠️ mind that rounding is applied 
CompactNumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.FR, LONG).format(1_500_000_000); // 2 milliards
        
CompactNumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.forLanguageTag("es-BO"), SHORT).format(1_400_000_000); // 1400 M
CompactNumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.forLanguageTag("es-BO"), LONG).format(1_400_000_000); // 1400 millones

InstantSource

It certainly becomes an alternative to Instant as it provides an abstraction to Clock, meaning that we should no longer need to mock the Clock for unit testing. Besides, it allows to plug diverse InstantSources when needed:

import java.time.InstantSource;
...

@RequiredArgsConstructor
class Bean {
  @Autowire
  private final InstantSource instantSource;

  public boolean isBefore(final Instant toCompare) {
    return instantSource.instant().isBefore(toCompare);
  }
}

@Configuration
class Config {
  @Bean
  public InstantSource instantSource() {
    return Clock.systemUTC();
  }
}

class UnitTest {

  @Test
  should_test_something {
    //...
    // When
    new Bean(InstantSource.fixed(Instant.EPOCH)).isBefore(customDate);
    //...
  }
}

Resource bundle and properties

// If not found, a MissingResourceException is thrown.
ResourceBundle.getBundle("filename", Locale.US); // Will look in the module/class path for the file called filename_en_US.properties, if not found filename_en.properties, filename_US.properties, filename.properties and so on.
        
Properties properties = new Properties();
System.out.println(properties.get("key")); // null
System.out.println(properties.getProperty("key")); // null
System.out.println(properties.getProperty("key", "defaultValue")); // defaultValue

Modules notes

For a more detailed description, refer to the OCP Java 11 study notes | modules section
Compiling a class within a module:

javac -p mods -d directory classesToCompile

Running a main method from a class from a module:

java -p directory -m moduleName/pathToClass.ClassName

Generating a jar out of the compiled files:

jar -cfv mods/dep.jar -C directory/ .

Running the same class from the jar file:

java -p mods -m moduleName/pathToClass.ClassName

Migration modules strategies

Bottom-up

The easiest approach, and recommended when you have the control of all the application dependencies. Converting lower-level libraries into modular jars before converting higher-level libraries.

Example: A.jar depends on B.jar, which likewise depends on C.jar

Step 1: Pick the lowest-level dependency, in this case, modularize C.jar by making it a named module (at this point, both B.jar and A.jar will remain unnamed modules and therefore will be able to access C.jar).
Step 2: Repeat the process for B.jar and later on for A.jar

The ultimate goal after the migration is to have all packages residing on the module path (and thus none on the classpath).

Top-down

Recommended approach when we don't have control of every jar used by our applications (i.e. become automatic modules) The idea is to put all dependencies on the module path and make the highest-level dependency a named module, adding as many requires as needed in accordance to the default automatic modules' names.

Example: A.jar depends on B.jar, which likewise depends on C.jar, thus,

Step 1: Move A.jar, B.jar, and C.jar to the module path (then they all become automatic modules).
Step 2: Make A.jar a named module by adding the necessary required in the module-info.java file

Concurrency

happens-before relationship is a guarantee that any action performed in any thread is reflected to other actions in different threads. Stream#forEachOrdered is an example of executions that comply with this term.
The volatile keyword ensures that only one thread is modifying a variable at a time and that data read by multiple threads is consistent. However, it does not provide thread-safety. As an example, the usage of the volatile keyword on a variable x ensures that if one thread updates x, then whichever thread is executed after will be aware of the latest updates on x
atomic is the property of an operation to be run as a single unit of execution without any interference from another thread
Mutual exclusion is the property that at most one thread is executing a segment of code at a given time. This can be implemented with a lock or monitor
fairness happens when two threads waiting to acquire a lock, the first to enter the block of code will be the first that entered the waiting list. It's is disabled by default with ReentrantLock and unavailable with synchronized blocks
Intrinsic locking = synchronized + volatile
Explicit locking = manual lock

ReentrantReadWriteLock

ReadWriteLock rwLock = new ReentrantReadWriteLock();
Lock readLock = rwLock.readLock();
Lock writeLock = rwLock.writeLock();
Map<String, Object> cache = new HashMap(); 
// Mind that Collections.synchronizedMap(new HashMap()) could also work but would be inefficient. 

/**
 * Note that any number of threads can call this method at the same time.
 */
public Object readFromCache(final String key) {
    try {
        readLock.lock();    
        return cache.get(key);
    } finally {
        readLock.unlock();
    }    
}

/**
 * However, if a write operation is performed, the write lock will protect the modification of the cache and prevent 
 * concurrent reads that could read corrupted or inconsistent values.  
 */
public void writeToCache(final String key, final Object value) {
    try {
        writeLock.lock();
        cache.putIfAbsent(key, value);
    } finally {
        writeLock.unlock();
    }
}

// Note that a ConcurrentHashMap accomplishes the same goal

Semaphores

Are a kind of a lock and the different lies on the fact that a lock allows only one thread to access a block of code, whereas a semaphore can rely on a number of permits to allow multiple threads to concurrently access a guarded block of code. In other words, a lock has only 1 permit.

Semaphore semaphore = new Semaphore(5);
try {
    semaphore.acquire();
    // guarded block of code: this block is allowed to be executed by 5 threads at the same time
} finally {
    semaphore.release();
}

CyclicBarrier and CountDownLatch

A barrier allows several tasks (run in different threads) wait for each other, then trigger a subsequent task or action and then reset the system, so that it can run again.
A latch works almost in the same way as barriers, the only different is that it does not reset once a latch is open it cannot be closed again.

import java.util.concurrent.CyclicBarrier;

class Foo implements Callable<Boolean> {

  private final CyclicBarrier barrier;

  public Boolean call() throws Exception {
    try {
      System.out.print("Waiting...");
      barrier.await();
      // do something
      System.out.print("Done");
      return true;
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        System.out.print("Interrupted");
    }
    return false;
  }
  
  public static void main(final String...args) {
    final var cyclicBarrier = new CyclicBarrier(4, () -> System.out.println("barrier opened"));
    final var executorService = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(4);
    List<Future<Boolean>> futures = new ArrayList<>();
    try {
      for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        Foo foo = new Foo(cyclicBarrier);
        futures.add(executorService.submit(foo));
      }
      futures.forEach(it -> {
        try {
          it.get();
        } catch (Exception e) {
          throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
      });
    } finally {
      executorService.shutdown();
    }
  }
  // It'll print:
  // Waiting...
  // Waiting...
  // Waiting...
  // Waiting...
  // barrier opened
  // done
  // done
  // done
  // done
}

NIO Streams

When reading from a Reader implementation, -1 or null implies end of file. In hindsight, when reading from an OutputStream implementation, an EOFException is thrown instead.

RandomAccessFile

It extends Object (and not any nio Stream), it implements Autocloseable though
Allows to read, write, and delete a random access file. The valid modes are r, rw, rws, and rwd (new RandomAccessFile(file, mode))
Behind the scenes, it works with a cursor whose position can be manipulated with the method seek(position)
When reaching the end of a file, it throws a EOFException
The method to write a String is raf.writeChars(string) and the method to read a line raf.readLine() (beware that both methods throw IOException)

JDBC

final var ps = DriverManager.getConnection("URL").preparedStatement("sql")
if (ps.execute()) { // the query was of type select and hence we can retrieve a ResultSet  
    final var rs = ps.getResultSet();
    //...
} else {
    final var updatedLines = ps.getUpdateCount();
    // ...
}

Note that if we attempt to retrieve the ResultSet from a non select query (i.e. ps.executeQuery()), we get a SQLException, same goes to calling ps.executeUpdate() on a select query.

ℹ In JDBC we start counting from 1 and not 0.

Before reading from the ResultSet, we must ensure that firstly ps.next() is called to allow the cursor to traverse the results, and secondly, return true so that we are sure we got results:

final var sql = "SELECT count(*) AS count FROM users";
 
try (final var ps = conn.prepareStatement(sql);
   final var rs = ps.executeQuery()) {
 
   if (rs.next()) {
      System.out.println(rs.getInt("count"));
   }
}

ℹ️ If for whatever reason we need to pass a literal to a query "select * from user where type = '" + type + "'";, in order to avoid SQL injection, it's recommended to leverage Statement's enquoteLiteral method:

var query = "select * from user where type = " + stmt.enquoteLiteral(type) + ";";

Now, if we want to apply exact match (e.g. table user and not USER nor User), we can also leverage Statement's enquoteIdentifier method:

var query = "select * from " + stmt.enquoteIdentifier("user") + " where type = " + stmt.enquoteLiteral(type) + ";";

Commit and rollback

By default, transactions are set to autocommit, meaning that once the Statement implementation is run, changes (if applied) are instantly performed in DB.

There is though a way to disable this behavior, by calling connection.setAutoCommit(false).

try(final var connection = DriverManager.getConnection("url", "user", "password");
        final var ps = connection.prepareStatement("TRUNCATE TABLE USERS")) {
        connection.setAutoCommit(false);
        try(final var rs = ps.executeUpdate()) {
            System.out.println(rs > 0 ? "succcess" : "failure");
        } catch(SQLException exception) {
            System.err.printf("Something went wrong %s%n", exception);
            connection.rollback();
        }
}

Exceptions

There are two type of exceptions:

checked: All exceptions extending from Exception or Throwable → we are forced to handle them.
unchecked: All exceptions extending from RuntimeException or Error → we aren't forced to handle them.

Checked exceptions are debatable considered a Java design flaw, and the recommended approach is to create a runtime counterpart (e.g. For IOException, there is a UncheckedIOException introduced in Java 8). There are nevertheless other elegant techniques to handle exceptions such as Vavr's Try, API.unchecked, Jool's unchecked or Apache Commons' asRuntimeException.

Depending on the application requirements and error handling rules, there is a more-functional-friendly alternative without side-effects that consists in declaring a contract of return type in the formEither<Error, Success>, but that's way out of the scope of the present document and has pros and cons.

Important

Be aware that using those jool, vavr or Apache Commons fancy tools to turn checked into unchecked exceptions behind a Cglib proxy as you might end up facing the obscure UndeclaredThrowableException, I coded an example here.

Pattern matching

Pattern matching is a technique for controlling program flow that only executes a section of code that meets certain criteria. Moreover, it's used in conjunction with if statements for greater program control.

// Without pattern matching
final Number number = someNumber();
if (number instanceOf Integer) {
    ((Integer) number)++;    
}

// With pattern matching
final Number number = someNumber();
if (number instanceOf Integer anInteger) {
    anInteger++;
}

// But if we were applying FP by the book...
final Number number = someNumber();
if (number instanceOf final Integer anInteger) {
    final var increasedInteger = increase(anInteger, 1);
}

// We can also add some pre-conditions:
final Number number = someNumber();
    if (number instanceOf final Integer anInteger && anInteger != null) {
    final var increasedInteger = increase(anInteger, 1);
}

The new switch statement

The switch statement can from now on return values:

// Without fallthrough:
// Statement
int numLetters;
switch(seasonName) {
    case "Fall" -> numLetters = 4;
    case "Spring" -> {
        System.out.println("Spring time !!!");
        numLetters = 6;
    }
    case "Summer", "Winter" -> numLetters = 6;
    default -> numLetters = -1;
}

// Expression
int numLetters = switch(seasonName) {
    case "Fall" -> 4;
    case "Spring" -> {
        System.out.println("Spring time !!!");
        yield 6;
    }
    case "Summer", "Winter" -> 6;
    default -> -1;
};

// With fallthrough:
// Statement
int numLetters;
switch(seasonName) {
    case "Fall":
        numLetters = 4;
        break;
    case "Spring":
        System.out.println("Spring time !!!");
    case "Summer", "Winter":
        numLetters = 6;
        break;
    default:
        numLetters = -1;
}

// Expression
int numLetters = switch(seasonName) {
    case "Fall":
        yield 4;
    case "Spring":
        System.out.println("Spring time !!!");
    case "Summer", "Winter":
        yield 6;
    default:
        yield -1;
}

Navigable set and map

These interfaces contain a bunch of navigation methods reporting closest matches for given search targets.

final NavigableSet<String> set = new TreeSet<>();
set.addAll(List.of("a", "cc", "b", "c", "bb", "aa")); // a aa b bb c cc
System.out.println(set.ceiling("bbb")); // returns c, greater than or equal to
System.out.println(set.lower("aa")); // returns a, the lower element (null if not found)
System.out.println(set.floor("bbb")); // returns bb, less than or equal
System.out.println(set.higher("cc")); // returns null no higher element found

System.out.println(set.headSet("aa", true)); // returns [a aa]
System.out.println(set.subSet("b", "cc")); // returns [b bb c], note that the to is not inclusive !!!
System.out.println(set.subSet("b", true, "cc", true)); // returns [b bb c cc] same as above but with inclusive final element
System.out.println(set.tailSet("c")); // returns [c cc]

System.out.println(set.pollFirst()); // returns a from the set and removes it from the set
System.out.println(set.pollLast()); // returns cc from the set and removes it from the set

Methods returning a collection throw an IllegalArgumentException if keys are out of range (e.g. adding c to the subset of aa). Note that the same methods are available for NavigbleMap interface, and therefore its implementations.

Hiding method interfaces

Oftentimes, we're faced with situations when we don't necessarily require to implement all methods exposed by an interface (c.f. interface segregation principle from SOLID principles). There is a technique rarely used to tackle this requirement, it's about using an encapsulated version of the original interface. Let's consider the below example:

interface Repository<T, ID> { // Mind the access level
    T save(T entity);
    
    Optional<T> get(ID id);
  
    List<T> findAll();
    
    void deleteAll(); // ⚠ dangerous method
}

We can create another interface (mind that this one will be exposed) containing only the methods we want to expose:

public interface EncapsulatedRepository<T, ID> { // Mind the access level
    T save(T entity);
    
    Optional<T> get(ID id);
  
    List<T> findAll();
    
    // 😄 no dangerous method exposed
}

So that the original interface can extend the encapsulated one:

interface Repository<T, ID> extends EncapsulatedRepository<T, ID>{
  ...
}

As a matter of fact, the client will use the EncapsulatedRepository which has no dangerous method whatsoever. I created a working example for a Spring Data Jdbc's interface, available here.

I found an alternative technique that consists in using an inner interface implementation and composition, article available here.

Try with resources

Introduced in Java 7, they'are meant automatically close any object implementing Autocloseable (including Closeable from Java 5):

record AutocloseableObject() implements AutoCloseable {

  void close() throws Exception {
      // closing logic...
  }
} 
var final autocloseable = new AutocloseableObject();
try (autocleable){
// or try (var autocloseable = new AutocloseableObject()) { // -> mind that final is implicit 

} catch(Exception e) {
    
}

Mind that variables used by the try-with-resources block must be effectively final.

Static members inheritance

Although static members are actually hidden, there's a special case wherein classes can use a static method "as if they were inherited" without requiring its declaring class:

abstract class Parent {
    public static final String ID = "id";
    public static void foo() {...}
}

interface Inter {
  String ID = "id";
  public static void foo() {...}
}

class Child extends Parent implements Inter {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    foo(); // This will call the method from the abstract class.
    doSomething(ID); // This is also valid and will reference the ID from the Parent class
    // To call the static method or reference the ID from the interface, we need to explicitly preceed the member by Inter
  }
  
  // Mind that overriding the method would not compile
}

String#strip vs String#trim

strip is the "Unicode-aware" version of trim.

trim removes only characters <= U+0020 (space); whereas strip removes all Unicode whitespace characters (but not all control characters, such as \0)

String's new transform method

Now we can provide a Function<? extends String, R> to map a String into something else 🧐 curious to find out why they decided to call it transform and not map as done in the Stream API), regardless below an example:

String aString = "foo";
Function<String, Integer> function = String::length; // mind that we can functions as parameters which is powerful
int length = aString.transform(function); //

Formattable interface

Introduced in Java 5, it allows to perform a custom formatting of %s when an object (implementing Formatable) is passed as argument to a Formatter#format:

class Bear extends Animal implements Formattable {
        @Override
        public void formatTo(final Formatter formatter, final int flags, final int width, final int precision) {
            formatter.format("Bear");
        }
}

class Animal {
    public String toString() {
        return "%s".formatted(this); // → %s will be replaced by Bear 
    }
}

class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
      System.out.println(new Bear().toString()); // Will pring Bear
    }
}

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Java 17 Oracle Certified Professional study notes

How to print bytes as String

Initialization order notes

New text block methods

String comparison

Time API notes

StringBuilder notes

Method overloading order

Class initialization order

Rules for overriding a method

Variable and method hiding

Sealing classes

Records compact constructor

Lambda expressions & functional interfaces

Collections and generics

Deque API reminder

Records with generics

Spliterator

Sequential vs Parallel vs Ordered vs Unordered streams

Teeing collector

Using Object(){} inside lambdas

Using Unary operator with pre-increment

Formatting values

Formatting numbers

MessageFormat

Locales

Formatting currencies

CompactNumberFormat

InstantSource

Resource bundle and properties

Modules notes

Migration modules strategies

Bottom-up

Top-down

Concurrency

ReentrantReadWriteLock

Semaphores

CyclicBarrier and CountDownLatch

NIO Streams

RandomAccessFile

JDBC

Commit and rollback

Exceptions

Pattern matching

The new switch statement

Navigable set and map

Hiding method interfaces

Try with resources

Static members inheritance

String#strip vs String#trim

String's new transform method

Formattable interface