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- Type Parameters:
T- the type of input elements to the reduction operationA- the mutable accumulation type of the reduction operation (often hidden as an implementation detail)R- the result type of the reduction operation
public interface Collector<T,A,R>A mutable reduction operation that accumulates input elements into a mutable result container, optionally transforming the accumulated result into a final representation after all input elements have been processed. Reduction operations can be performed either sequentially or in parallel.Examples of mutable reduction operations include: accumulating elements into a
Collection; concatenating strings using aStringBuilder; computing summary information about elements such as sum, min, max, or average; computing "pivot table" summaries such as "maximum valued transaction by seller", etc. The classCollectorsprovides implementations of many common mutable reductions.A
Collectoris specified by four functions that work together to accumulate entries into a mutable result container, and optionally perform a final transform on the result. They are:- creation of a new result container (
supplier()) - incorporating a new data element into a result container (
accumulator()) - combining two result containers into one (
combiner()) - performing an optional final transform on the container (
finisher())
Collectors also have a set of characteristics, such as
Collector.Characteristics.CONCURRENT, that provide hints that can be used by a reduction implementation to provide better performance.A sequential implementation of a reduction using a collector would create a single result container using the supplier function, and invoke the accumulator function once for each input element. A parallel implementation would partition the input, create a result container for each partition, accumulate the contents of each partition into a subresult for that partition, and then use the combiner function to merge the subresults into a combined result.
To ensure that sequential and parallel executions produce equivalent results, the collector functions must satisfy an identity and an associativity constraints.
The identity constraint says that for any partially accumulated result, combining it with an empty result container must produce an equivalent result. That is, for a partially accumulated result
athat is the result of any series of accumulator and combiner invocations,amust be equivalent tocombiner.apply(a, supplier.get()).The associativity constraint says that splitting the computation must produce an equivalent result. That is, for any input elements
t1andt2, the resultsr1andr2in the computation below must be equivalent:A a1 = supplier.get(); accumulator.accept(a1, t1); accumulator.accept(a1, t2); R r1 = finisher.apply(a1); // result without splitting A a2 = supplier.get(); accumulator.accept(a2, t1); A a3 = supplier.get(); accumulator.accept(a3, t2); R r2 = finisher.apply(combiner.apply(a2, a3)); // result with splittingFor collectors that do not have the
UNORDEREDcharacteristic, two accumulated resultsa1anda2are equivalent iffinisher.apply(a1).equals(finisher.apply(a2)). For unordered collectors, equivalence is relaxed to allow for non-equality related to differences in order. (For example, an unordered collector that accumulated elements to aListwould consider two lists equivalent if they contained the same elements, ignoring order.)Libraries that implement reduction based on
Collector, such asStream.collect(Collector), must adhere to the following constraints:- The first argument passed to the accumulator function, both arguments passed to the combiner function, and the argument passed to the finisher function must be the result of a previous invocation of the result supplier, accumulator, or combiner functions.
- The implementation should not do anything with the result of any of the result supplier, accumulator, or combiner functions other than to pass them again to the accumulator, combiner, or finisher functions, or return them to the caller of the reduction operation.
- If a result is passed to the combiner or finisher function, and the same object is not returned from that function, it is never used again.
- Once a result is passed to the combiner or finisher function, it is never passed to the accumulator function again.
- For non-concurrent collectors, any result returned from the result
supplier, accumulator, or combiner functions must be serially
thread-confined. This enables collection to occur in parallel without
the
Collectorneeding to implement any additional synchronization. The reduction implementation must manage that the input is properly partitioned, that partitions are processed in isolation, and combining happens only after accumulation is complete. - For concurrent collectors, an implementation is free to (but not
required to) implement reduction concurrently. A concurrent reduction
is one where the accumulator function is called concurrently from
multiple threads, using the same concurrently-modifiable result container,
rather than keeping the result isolated during accumulation.
A concurrent reduction should only be applied if the collector has the
Collector.Characteristics.UNORDEREDcharacteristics or if the originating data is unordered.
In addition to the predefined implementations in
Collectors, the static factory methodsof(Supplier, BiConsumer, BinaryOperator, Characteristics...)can be used to construct collectors. For example, you could create a collector that accumulates widgets into aTreeSetwith:
(This behavior is also implemented by the predefined collectorCollector<Widget, ?, TreeSet<Widget>> intoSet = Collector.of(TreeSet::new, TreeSet::add, (left, right) -> { left.addAll(right); return left; });Collectors.toCollection(Supplier)).- API Note:
- Performing a reduction operation with a
Collectorshould produce a result equivalent to:R container = collector.supplier().get(); for (T t : data) collector.accumulator().accept(container, t); return collector.finisher().apply(container);However, the library is free to partition the input, perform the reduction on the partitions, and then use the combiner function to combine the partial results to achieve a parallel reduction. (Depending on the specific reduction operation, this may perform better or worse, depending on the relative cost of the accumulator and combiner functions.)
Collectors are designed to be composed; many of the methods in
Collectorsare functions that take a collector and produce a new collector. For example, given the following collector that computes the sum of the salaries of a stream of employees:
If we wanted to create a collector to tabulate the sum of salaries by department, we could reuse the "sum of salaries" logic usingCollector<Employee, ?, Integer> summingSalaries = Collectors.summingInt(Employee::getSalary))Collectors.groupingBy(Function, Collector):Collector<Employee, ?, Map<Department, Integer>> summingSalariesByDept = Collectors.groupingBy(Employee::getDepartment, summingSalaries); - Since:
- 1.8
- See Also:
Stream.collect(Collector),Collectors
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Nested Class Summary
Nested Classes Modifier and Type Interface Description static classCollector.CharacteristicsCharacteristics indicating properties of aCollector, which can be used to optimize reduction implementations.
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Method Summary
All Methods Static Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods Modifier and Type Method Description BiConsumer<A,T>accumulator()A function that folds a value into a mutable result container.Set<Collector.Characteristics>characteristics()Returns aSetofCollector.Characteristicsindicating the characteristics of this Collector.BinaryOperator<A>combiner()A function that accepts two partial results and merges them.Function<A,R>finisher()Perform the final transformation from the intermediate accumulation typeAto the final result typeR.static <T,A,R>
Collector<T,A,R>of(Supplier<A> supplier, BiConsumer<A,T> accumulator, BinaryOperator<A> combiner, Function<A,R> finisher, Collector.Characteristics... characteristics)Returns a newCollectordescribed by the givensupplier,accumulator,combiner, andfinisherfunctions.static <T,R>
Collector<T,R,R>of(Supplier<R> supplier, BiConsumer<R,T> accumulator, BinaryOperator<R> combiner, Collector.Characteristics... characteristics)Returns a newCollectordescribed by the givensupplier,accumulator, andcombinerfunctions.Supplier<A>supplier()A function that creates and returns a new mutable result container.
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Method Detail
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supplier
Supplier<A> supplier()
A function that creates and returns a new mutable result container.- Returns:
- a function which returns a new, mutable result container
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accumulator
BiConsumer<A,T> accumulator()
A function that folds a value into a mutable result container.- Returns:
- a function which folds a value into a mutable result container
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combiner
BinaryOperator<A> combiner()
A function that accepts two partial results and merges them. The combiner function may fold state from one argument into the other and return that, or may return a new result container.- Returns:
- a function which combines two partial results into a combined result
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finisher
Function<A,R> finisher()
Perform the final transformation from the intermediate accumulation typeAto the final result typeR.If the characteristic
IDENTITY_FINISHis set, this function may be presumed to be an identity transform with an unchecked cast fromAtoR.- Returns:
- a function which transforms the intermediate result to the final result
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characteristics
Set<Collector.Characteristics> characteristics()
Returns aSetofCollector.Characteristicsindicating the characteristics of this Collector. This set should be immutable.- Returns:
- an immutable set of collector characteristics
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of
static <T,R> Collector<T,R,R> of(Supplier<R> supplier, BiConsumer<R,T> accumulator, BinaryOperator<R> combiner, Collector.Characteristics... characteristics)
Returns a newCollectordescribed by the givensupplier,accumulator, andcombinerfunctions. The resultingCollectorhas theCollector.Characteristics.IDENTITY_FINISHcharacteristic.- Type Parameters:
T- The type of input elements for the new collectorR- The type of intermediate accumulation result, and final result, for the new collector- Parameters:
supplier- The supplier function for the new collectoraccumulator- The accumulator function for the new collectorcombiner- The combiner function for the new collectorcharacteristics- The collector characteristics for the new collector- Returns:
- the new
Collector - Throws:
NullPointerException- if any argument is null
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of
static <T,A,R> Collector<T,A,R> of(Supplier<A> supplier, BiConsumer<A,T> accumulator, BinaryOperator<A> combiner, Function<A,R> finisher, Collector.Characteristics... characteristics)
Returns a newCollectordescribed by the givensupplier,accumulator,combiner, andfinisherfunctions.- Type Parameters:
T- The type of input elements for the new collectorA- The intermediate accumulation type of the new collectorR- The final result type of the new collector- Parameters:
supplier- The supplier function for the new collectoraccumulator- The accumulator function for the new collectorcombiner- The combiner function for the new collectorfinisher- The finisher function for the new collectorcharacteristics- The collector characteristics for the new collector- Returns:
- the new
Collector - Throws:
NullPointerException- if any argument is null
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