I\'m writing an adapter framework where I need to convert a list of objects from one class to another. I can iterate through the source list to do this as in
Java: Best
Java 8 way:
List<String> original = ...;
List<Wrapper> converted = original.stream().map(Wrapper::new).collect(Collectors.toList());
assuming Wrapper
class has a constructor accepting a String
.
I think you would either have to create a custom List (implementing the List interface) or a custom Iterator. For example:
ArrayList<String> targetList = new ArrayList<String>();
ConvertingIterator<String> iterator = new ConvertingIterator<String>(targetList);
// and here you would have to use a custom List implementation as a source List
// using the Iterator created above
But I doubt that this approach would save you much.
My answer to that question applies to your case:
import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
import com.google.common.base.Functions
List<Integer> integers = Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3, 4);
List<String> strings = Lists.transform(integers, Functions.toStringFunction());
The transformed list is a view on the original collection, so the transformation happens when the destination List
is accessed.
You can write a mapping iterator that decorates an existing iterator and applies a function on it. In this case, the function transforms the objects from one type to another "on-the-fly".
Something like this:
import java.util.*;
abstract class Transformer<T, U> implements Iterable<U>, Iterator<U> {
public abstract U apply(T object);
final Iterator<T> source;
Transformer(Iterable<T> source) { this.source = source.iterator(); }
@Override public boolean hasNext() { return source.hasNext(); }
@Override public U next() { return apply(source.next()); }
@Override public void remove() { source.remove(); }
public Iterator<U> iterator() { return this; }
}
public class TransformingIterator {
public static void main(String args[]) {
List<String> list = Arrays.asList("1", "2", "3");
Iterable<Integer> it = new Transformer<String, Integer>(list) {
@Override public Integer apply(String s) {
return Integer.parseInt(s);
}
};
for (int i : it) {
System.out.println(i);
}
}
}
Lambdaj allows to do that in a very simple and readable way. For example, supposing you have a list of Integer and you want to convert them in the corresponding String representation you could write something like that;
List<Integer> ints = asList(1, 2, 3, 4);
Iterator<String> stringIterator = convertIterator(ints, new Converter<Integer, String> {
public String convert(Integer i) { return Integer.toString(i); }
});
Lambdaj applies the conversion function only while you're iterating on the result. There is also a more concise way to use the same feature. The next example works supposing that you have a list of persons with a name property and you want to convert that list in an iterator of person's names.
Iterator<String> namesIterator = convertIterator(persons, on(Person.class).getName());
Pretty easy. Isn't it?
Well, you could create your own iterator wrapper class to do this. But I doubt that you would save much by doing this.
Here's a simple example that wraps any iterator to a String iterator, using Object.toString() to do the mapping.
public MyIterator implements Iterator<String> {
private Iterator<? extends Object> it;
public MyIterator(Iterator<? extends Object> it) {
this.it = it;
}
public boolean hasNext() {
return it.hasNext();
}
public String next() {
return it.next().toString();
}
public void remove() {
it.remove();
}
}