Java 8 Supplier with arguments in the constructor

But, a 1-arg constructor for T that takes a String is compatible with Function<String,T>:

Function<String, Foo> fooSupplier = Foo::new;

Which constructor is selected is treated as an overload selection problem, based on the shape of the target type.

That's just a limitation of the method reference syntax -- that you can't pass in any of the arguments. It's just how the syntax works.

If you like method references so much, you can write a bind method by yourself and use it:

public static <T, R> Supplier<R> bind(Function<T,R> fn, T val) {
    return () -> fn.apply(val);
}

create(bind(Foo::new, "hello"));