Why can't the var keyword in Java be assigned a lambda expression?

Question

It is allowed to assign var in Java 10 with a string like:

var foo = \"boo\";

While it is not allowed to assign it with a lambda e

Answer 1

To answer this we have to go into details and understand what a lambda is and how it works.

First we should understand what a lambda is:

A lambda expression always implements a functional interface, so that when you have to supply a functional interface like Runnable, instead of having to create a whole new class that implements the interface, you can just use the lambda syntax to create a method that the functional interface requires. Keep in mind though that the lambda still has the type of the functional interface that it is implementing.

With that in mind, lets take this a step further:

This works great as in the case of Runnable, I can just create a new thread like this new Thread(()->{//put code to run here}); instead of creating a whole new object to implement the functional interface. This works since the compiler knows that Thread() takes an object of type Runnable, so it knows what type the lambda expression has to be.

However, in a case of assigning a lambda to a local variable, the compiler has no clue what functional interface this lambda is implementing so it can't infer what type var should be. Since maybe it's implementing a functional interface the user created or maybe it's the runnable interface, there is just no way to know.

This is why lambdas do not work with the var keyword.