Method Reference. Cannot make a static reference to the non-static method
As peter-walser pointed out, since MyCass::mymethod
is an instance method it requires an instance to be converted to a Function
instance.
The static
in front of your interface declaration just makes it a static interface, it does not turn each method into a static one.
A possible solution would be to declare the method inside the class as static:
class MyCass{
static boolean mymethod(String input){
return true;
}
}
To understand better how it works, you can consider the code equivalente to the method reference MyCass::mymethod
that is (assuming the above modified declaration of MyClass
):
new FunctionalInterface{
boolean function(String file){
return MyClass.mymethod(file);
}
}
Your original code would attempt to sort-of translate into:
new FunctionalInterface{
boolean function(String file){
return _missing_object_.mymethod(); # mymethod is not static
}
}
Another possibility is using a BiFunction
instead of your FunctionalInterface
. In that case the first argument of apply
would be the object and the second would be the argument to mymethod
.
Method references to non-static methods require an instance to operate on.
In the case of the listFiles
method, the argument is a FileFilter
with accept(File file)
. As you operate on an instance (the argument), you can refer to its instance methods:
listFiles(File::isHidden)
which is shorthand for
listFiles(f -> f.isHidden())
Now why can't you use test(MyCass::mymethod)
? Because you simply don't have an instance of MyCass
to operate on.
You can however create an instance, and then pass a method reference to your instance method:
MyCass myCass = new MyCass(); // the instance
test(myCass::mymethod); // pass a non-static method reference
or
test(new MyCass()::mymethod);
Edit: MyCass
would need to be declared static (static class MyCass
) in order to be accessible from the main method.