JDK 14/JEP 305 instanceof Pattern Matching "Smart Casts"

I generally view the presence of of the instanceof operator in Java code as a "red flag," meaning that it's not necessarily wrong to use instanceof in certain situations, but its use sometimes indicates a design issue that could be resolved in a cleaner way as described in some resources referenced at the end of this post (including resources about similar type checking functionality in languages other than Java).

Although I've seen instanceof used several times when it does not need to be, I've run into even more situations where it was not easy to avoid instanceof. This is particularly true when working with legacy code bases and certain libraries and frameworks in which I have no ability to refactor relationships between classes to support interfaces, method overriding, and other tactics that can be used to remove the need for instanceof.

A very common technique employed with instanceof is to immediately cast to the type checked in the conditional using instanceof. JEP 305 ["Pattern Matching for instanceof (Preview)"] provides an example of this common pattern and I've slightly adapted that example here:

if (object instanceof String)
{
    final String string = (String) object;
    // Do something with the 'string' variable typed as String
}

Benji Weber has posted on using reflection and on using lambda expressions to achieve Kotlin-like "instanceof smart casts." Fortunately, JDK 14 and JEP 305 bring built-in language support (albeit preview status) for this approach.

JDK 14 introduces a preview feature that allows the instanceof conditional and associated cast to be implemented completely within the conditional. The effect on the above code example is shown next:

if (object instanceof String string)
{
    // Do something with the 'string' variable typed as String
}

This preview feature is available in the JDK 14 Early Access Builds and I'm using JDK 14 Early Access Build 34 for my examples in this post.

The JEP 305 preview feature in JDK 14 is a small nicety whose advantage is more obvious in lengthy if-then-else conditional statements. The next two code listings provide a comparison of the "old way" of calling instanceof and explicitly casting to the "new preview way" of using instanceof pattern matching.

Traditional instanceof Coupled with Explicit Cast

static void makeAnimalNoises(final Object animal)
{
   if (animal instanceof Dog)
   {
      final Dog dog = (Dog) animal;
      out.println(dog.bark());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Cat)
   {
      final Cat cat = (Cat) animal;
      out.println(cat.meow());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Duck)
   {
      final Duck duck = (Duck) animal;
      out.println(duck.quack());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Horse)
   {
      final Horse horse = (Horse) animal;
      out.println(horse.neigh());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Cow)
   {
      final Cow cow = (Cow) animal;
      out.println(cow.moo());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Lion)
   {
      final Lion lion = (Lion) animal;
      out.println(lion.roar());
   }
   else
   {
      out.println("ERROR: Unexpected animal: " + animal);
   }
}

JDK 14/JEP 305 Preview Feature

static void makeAnimalNoises(final Object animal)
{
   if (animal instanceof Dog dog)
   {
      out.println(dog.bark());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Cat cat)
   {
      out.println(cat.meow());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Duck duck)
   {
      out.println(duck.quack());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Horse horse)
   {
      out.println(horse.neigh());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Cow cow)
   {
      out.println(cow.moo());
   }
   else if (animal instanceof Lion lion)
   {
      out.println(lion.roar());
   }
   else
   {
      out.println("ERROR: Unexpected animal: " + animal);
   }
}

The full code is on GitHub and the difference between the old approach and new preview approach is available.

Because instanceof pattern matching is a preview feature, the code using this feature must be compiled with the javac flags --enable-preview and -source 14. It must be executed with java flag --enable-preview.

Conclusion

For more details on how this feature is implemented, see the post "RFR: JDK-8237528: Inefficient compilation of Pattern Matching for instanceof." Pattern matching support for instanceof is another Amber-provided step toward reduced boilerplate code in Java.

 

Resources on Issues Using instanceof

• Java 'instanceOf': Why And How To Avoid It In Code
• Do you really need instanceof?
• Is using instanceof in Java consider bad practice?
• Using Instanceof Is Mostly a Code Smell
• Instanceof in Conditionals: A Code Smell
• Beware of instanceof Operator
• How Evil is 'instanceof'?
• Type check is a code smell

Source Code for Effective Java Third Edition Updated to Use Newer Features

Those who have read the Third Edition of Effective Java are likely aware of the source code associated with that book available on GitHub. The jbloch/effective-java-3e-source-code project has 1700+ stars and has been forked nearly 800 times as of this writing. The version of Java featured in the Third Edition of Effective Java is largely JDK 8 with some coverage of JDK 9 (see my earlier post for details on what is covered in this third edition).

Much has been added to the JDK since the publication of the Third Edition of Effective Java and many new releases have arrived with the faster 6-month cadence. Given this, I was particularly interested to see in an amber-spec-experts mailing list post that Rémi Forax has forked jbloch/effective-java-3e-source-code into the GitHub project forax/effective-java-3e-source-code that has "taken the source of Effective Java (3rd Ed) and change them to use var, switch expression, records and the instanceof with the type test pattern."

There are several things that I like about the idea of refreshing examples from Effective Java (Third Edition) to use newer features:

• Developers can see how to apply effective Java practices using recently released features.
• Developers can view the differences between the JDK 8/9 versions and the newer versions to see how new constructs replace older constructs and thus gain a better understanding of the newer constructs.
• It is useful to see some of the changes when deciding whether a particular change to use a newer construct really helps with code readability in a given situation.

The main page for the forked forax/effective-java-3e-source-code (README.md) states, "The source code have been updated to use new constructs available since Java 9, the version used by the 3rd edition." That page then provides bullets on the types of new constructs applied to the source code with links to each new construct's associated JDK Enhancement Proposal (JEP).

As of this writing, Commit 275eef87e4661f7f1edc41f4730cecf7a1096a97 is the main commit of interest. It covers changes to 113 files. I'll call out a few specific changes here to illustrate the types of changes applied (some of which are to apply preferred constructs that were available even before JDK 9):

• NutritionFacts.java (Chapter 2, Item 2) changed from a class to a record.
• PickTwo.java (Chapter 5, Item 32) change demonstrates switch expressions.
• CaseInsenstiveString.java (Chapter 3, Item 10) change demonstrates application of instanceof with type test pattern.
• WordList.java (Chapter 3, Item 14) changed to apply var for variable declarations taking advantage of local type inference. There are many of these changes, but this is one I liked. I'm not convinced that some of the changes in other places (such as changing int to var) are helpful. The change for InstrumentedSet (Chapter 4 Item 18) is even more compelling.
• Change to RecursiveTypeBound.java (Chapter 5, Item 31) demonstrates using var in for loop.
• Copy.copy method (Chapter 2, Item 9) changed to accept instances of Path instead of instances of String and changed to use Files.newInputStream and Files.newOutputStream in place of new FileInputStream and new FileOutputStream respectively.

Conclusion

The ability to view changes to the original source code associated with the Third Edition of Effective Java to accommodate new language constructs is highly useful in terms of learning about the new constructs and how they relate to or replace old constructs and in deciding if the differences are desirable in different situations.

General, Safe, and Deterministic Foreign Memory Access in JDK 14

In the post "JDK 14 Rampdown: Build 27," I summarized the numerous JDK 14-targeted features newly available with JDK 14 Early Access Build #27. There is already another JDK 14 Early Access Build available and this one [Build 28 (2019/12/18)] includes one particularly interesting feature: Enhancement JDK-8234049 ["Implementation of Memory Access API (Incubator)"]. This is the implementation of JEP 370 ["Foreign-Memory Access API (Incubator)"], which is summarized as, "Introduce an API to allow Java programs to safely and efficiently access foreign memory outside of the Java heap."

JEP 370 is intended to achieve a "foreign memory API" that provides "generality", "safety", and "determinism" (with each of these means described in further detail in the JEP). The JEP also states that this foreign memory API is intended as an alternative to currently used approaches (java.nio.ByteBuffer and sun.misc.Unsafe). Downsides and limitations of both of these currently available alternates are discussed in the JEP.

The JEP points out that libraries "access foreign memory" to "avoid the cost and unpredictability associated with garbage collection," to "share memory across multiple processes," and to "serialize and deserialize memory content by mapping files into memory." It adds that "the Java API does not provide a satisfactory solution for accessing foreign memory."

JEP 370's "Description" section introduces the implementation of the foreign memory access API. The section begins, "The foreign-memory access API introduces three main abstractions: MemorySegment, MemoryAddress and MemoryLayout." The section then describes these three main abstractions: "A MemorySegment is used to model a contiguous memory region with given spatial and temporal bounds. A MemoryAddress can be thought of as an offset within a segment. Finally, a MemoryLayout is a programmatic description of a memory segment's contents."

After several detailed examples of using the foreign memory access, the JEP's "Description" section states, "The foreign-memory access API will initially be provided as an incubating module, named jdk.incubator.foreign, in a package of the same name."

Additional background details related to JEP 370 are available in OpenJDK mailing list messages. One key thread starts with the message "RFR JDK-8234049: Implementation of Memory Access API (Incubator)." The CSR for this JEP [JDK-8234050: Implementation of Memory Access API (Incubator)] presents alternate useful descriptions. Javadoc-based documentation for the foreign memory access API is also temporarily available at http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~mcimadamore/panama/memaccess_javadoc/jdk/incubator/foreign/package-summary.html.

The JEP 370 implementation is included in the JDK 14 Early Access Build #28 and available to try.

JDK 14 Rampdown: Build 27

Mark Reinhold's recent post "JDK 14 is now in Rampdown Phase One" announced that "we are now in Rampdown Phase One" and that "the overall feature set is frozen." JDK 14 Early Access Build #27 (2019/12/12) is a hefty build. In this post, I summarize some of the changes associated with JDK 14 Early Access Build 27 that are particularly interesting to me.

One might say that JDK 14 Early Access Build 27 is the "records build." This build is full of updates related to the implementation of the records preview feature (JEP 359). Here are some of the changes associated with this "records build" filled with JEP 359 implementation changes (note that there are already bugs written and fixed for records):

• JEP 359 JDK-8222777: Records (Preview)
• Sub-Task JDK-8227113: Specification for java.lang.Record
• Sub-Task JDK-8225053: Preview APIs support for records
• Sub-Task JDK-8233526: JVM support for records
• Sub-Task JDK-8225054: Compiler implementation for records
• Sub-Task JDK-8225057: Java Language Specification changes for Records
• Sub-Task JDK-8225058: JVM Specification changes for Records
• Sub-Task JDK-8225055: Javadoc for records
• Sub-Task JDK-8225052: javax.lang.model support for records
• Sub-Task JDK-8226314: com.sun.source support for records
• Enhancement JDK-8235359: Simplify method Class.getRecordComponents()
• Bug JDK-8235550: Clarify record reflective support specification
• Bug JDK-8235369: Class.toGenericString need to be updated for records
• Bug JDK-8235446: confusing error message for records with no parens
• Bug JDK-8234101: Compilation error thrown when repeating annotation is used on record component
• Bug JDK-8235474: JShell does not handle records properly

Although JEP 359/Records (Preview) will likely dominate interest of many Java developers in the JDK 14 Early Access Build 27, there are other interesting changes in this build that are summarized here (with links to more details and quotes from the change descriptions):

• Enhancement JDK-8215038: Add a page that lists all system properties
  • "new page that lists all system properties"
  • This new page also shows what accesses each defined system property.
• Enhancement JDK-8235334: Deprecate jcmd GC.class_stats
  • "The output of this jcmd GC.class_stats is lengthy and not well suited to understanding memory used by metaspace objects, nor is it a GC specific facility. It also has some open bugs."
  • Only looks deprecated in JDK 14, but may be removed altogether in JDK 15: "We should deprecate this in 14 and remove in 15."
  • "-Xlog:cds during -Xshare:dump is an example of a better utility that uses a newer better mechanism in the source code."
• Enhancement JDK-8222756: Plural support in CompactNumberFormat
  • Changes to ContactNumberFormat's support for plurals for German and Italian
• Sub-Task JDK-8234542: Remove Pack200 Tools and API
  • Associated with JEP 367 ("Remove the Pack200 Tools and API") [JDK-8232022].
  • Three main motivations listed for removing the Pack200 compression scheme for JAR files:
    1. Download issues historically associated with JDK have been overcome by events and the JDK itself has used compression alternatives instead of Pack200 since JDK 9.
    2. Applets in web browsers (a significant use case for Pack200 compression) are largely unsupported now.
    3. The "complex and elaborate technology" of Pack200 has a "file format is tightly coupled to the class file format and the JAR file format, both of which have evolved in ways unforeseen by JSR 200. ... Overall, the cost of maintaining Pack200 is significant, and outweighs the benefit of including it in Java SE and the JDK."
• Enhancement JDK-8234370: Implementation of JEP 362: Deprecate the Solaris and SPARC Ports
  • Associated with JEP 362 ("Deprecate the Solaris and SPARC Ports") [JDK-8231554]
  • "Deprecate the Solaris/SPARC, Solaris/x64, and Linux/SPARC ports, with the intent to remove them in a future release."
  • Deprecation typically signals the beginning of the end and some will miss these ports when/if they are eventually removed.
• Sub-Task JDK-8233319: Deprecate MulticastSocket methods that operate on java.net.InetAddress
  • Associated CSR JDK-8235330 ("Deprecate MulticastSocket methods that operate on java.net.InetAddress") states that the following methods on class java.net.MulticastSocket are to be deprecated (but not yet removed and superior alternatives are shown for each):
    • getInterface()
      • Favor class's getNetworkInterface() method
    • setInterface(InetAddress inf)
      • Favor class's setNetworkInterface​(NetworkInterface)
    • joinGroup(InetAddress mcastaddr)
      • Favor class's joinGroup​(SocketAddress, NetworkInterface)
    • leaveGroup(InetAddress mcastaddr)
      • Favor class's leaveGroup​(SocketAddress, NetworkInterface)
    • getLoopbackMode()
      • Favor DatagramSocket's (parent class's) method getOption​(SocketOption), passing StandardSocketOptions.html.IP_MULTICAST_LOOP to it
    • setLoopbackMode(boolean disable)
      • Favor DatagramSocket's (parent class's) method setOption​(SocketOption<T> name, T value), passing StandardSocketOptions.html.IP_MULTICAST_LOOP and true to it

In addition to the changes that I called out above, other changes associated with JDK 14 Early Access Build 27 include changes to areas that have changes in many JDK 14 builds (Shenandoah garbage collector, Z garbage collector [ZGC], Java Flight Recorder, and the Java packaging tool).

The JDK 14 Early Access Build 27 Release Notes state that "SSLv2Hello and SSLv3 have been removed from the default enabled TLS protocols." The release notes add that "If a client or server still needs to use the SSLv3 protocol they can do so by enabling it via the jdk.tls.client.protocols or jdk.tls.server.protocols system properties or with the SSLSocket.setEnabledProtocols(), SSLServerSocket.setEnabledProtocols() and SSLEngine.setEnabledProtocols() APIs."

I am excited about Records in Java 14 and look forward to playing with them via the OpenJDK 14 Early Access Build 27.

JDK 14: Records, Text Blocks, and More

Today's Mark Reinhold post "JEPs proposed to target JDK 14: 305, 343, 359, 366, & 368" proposes targeting five more JEPs to JDK 14. Some highly anticipated features are among this group, although all but one are proposed to be in "preview" or "incubating":

• JEP 305: Pattern Matching for instanceof (Preview)
• JEP 343: Packaging Tool (Incubator)
• JEP 359: Records (Preview)
• JEP 366: Deprecate the ParallelScavenge + SerialOld GC Combination
• JEP 368: Text Blocks (Second Preview)

The Java SE 13 Java Language Updates document describes preview features (JEP 12): "A preview feature is a new feature whose design, specification, and implementation are complete, but which is not permanent, which means that the feature may exist in a different form or not at all in future JDK releases."

JEP 11 ("Incubator Modules") describes "incubator modules" as "a means of putting non-final APIs and non-final tools in the hands of developers, while the APIs/tools progress towards either finalization or removal in a future release."

Four of the five JEPs proposed today for targeting JDK 14 are "preview" or "incubator" and so will be subject to potentially "not exist .... at all in future JDK releases" or potential "removal in a future release." However, the opportunity to take these features for a spin is welcome and there seems likely that these features will eventually become permanent even if they have some modifications. We could have these JEPs officially targeted for JDK 14 by Thanksgiving!

Additional Resources

• /r/java Discussion: Records Proposed to Target JDK14
• /r/java Discussion: JEP 305: Pattern Matching for 'instanceof' (Preview) is now proposed to target JDK 14

JDK 14: CMS GC is OBE

JDK 14 Early Access Build #23 (2019/11/13) is now available. One of the more noteworthy changes with this build is the removal of the Concurrent Mark Sweep garbage collector. JEP 291 ["Deprecate the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector"] deprecated the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) garbage collector back in 2017 with JDK 9 and JEP 363 ["Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector"] has been targeted for JDK 14 to remove the CMS garbage collector altogether.

The next screen snapshot demonstrates that the CMS garbage collector was still available with JDK 14 Early Access Build #22.

With that JDK 14 Early Access Build #22, we see that specifying -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC is allowed with only a deprecation warning shown: "Option UseConcMarkSweepGC was deprecated in version 9.0 and will likely be removed in a future release."

The next screen snapshot demonstrates that CMS cannot be specified as a garbage collector as of JDK 14 Early Access Build #23:

When trying to run the Java application with -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC, the error message now shown states, "Ignoring option UseConcMarkSweepGC; support was removed in 14.0".

Although the removal of the CMS garbage collector was the biggest change I noticed in JDK 14 Early Access Build #23, there were a few other changes that I found to be somewhat interesting. These include:

• JDK-8226297: Dual-pivot quicksort improvements
  • Lengthy list of changes in the bug report.
• JDK-8232684: Make switch expressions final
  • Transitions switch expressions feature from "preview" to "final" (JEP 361).
• JDK-8233884: Avoid looking up standard charsets in security libraries
  • Reminder to take advantage of constants defined as public fields in the StandardCharsets class.

Six More JEPs Proposed for JDK 14

A recent Mark Reinhold message announces six new "JEPs proposed to target JDK 14": JEP 345, JEP 361, JEP 363, JEP 364, JEP 365, and JEP 367. Assuming no objections are made by November 7, these JEPs will be targeted to JDK 14 along with previously targeted JEPs JEP 349 ("JFR Event Streaming"), JEP 352 ("Non-Volatile Mapped Byte Buffers"), and JEP 358 ("Helpful NullPointerExceptions"). This post summarizes each of these six JEPs proposed for targeting JDK 14.

JEP 345: NUMA-Aware Memory Allocation for G1

The succinct "Summary" of JEP 345 states, "Improve G1 performance on large machines by implementing NUMA-aware memory allocation." Two important "non-goals" of this JEP indicate that the JEP is only intended to add NUMA (non-uniform memory access) support to the G1 garbage collector and only for Linux. However, the JEP also points out that "the parallel collector, enabled by by -XX:+UseParallelGC, has been NUMA-aware for many years."

JEP 361: Switch Expressions (Standard)

JEP 361 moves switch expressions from their JEP 325 "preview" status to "standard" status. Along the way, JEP 354 (targeted at JDK 13) made this change to the preview switch expressions feature: "To yield a value from a switch expression, the break with value statement is dropped in favor of a yield statement." The "History" section of JEP 361 discusses switch expressions support in preview status in JDK 12 and JDK 13 and explains why it is proposed for standard status with JDK 14: "Feedback on JDK 13 suggests that this feature is now ready to be made final and permanent in JDK 14."

JEP 363: Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector

JEP 363's concise "Summary" states, "Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) garbage collector." The Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) garbage collector was deprecated with JEP 291 (JDK 9) and this JEP aims to remove it altogether with JDK 14.

JEP 364: ZGC on macOS / JEP 365: ZGC on Windows

The goals of JEP 364 and JEP 365 are to "port the ZGC garbage collector" to macOS and Windows operating systems respectively.

JEP 364's "Motivation" section states, "While we expect users that require the scalability of ZGC to use Linux-based environments, it is not uncommon that developers use Macs for local development and testing, before deploying applications." Although JEP 365 lacks an explicit "Motivation" section, its motivation is probably similar to that for JEP 364.

JEP 365's "Non-Goals" section states, "It is not a goal to support Windows 10 and Windows Server older than version 1803, since older versions lack the required API for placeholder memory reservations."

JEP 367: Remove the Pack200 Tools and API

The "Summary" section of JEP 367 begins with this statement, "Remove the pack200 and unpack200 tools, and the Pack200 API in the java.util.jar package." This removal of these tools and APIs was advertised in Java SE 11 via JEP 336 when they were deprecated.

The "Motivation" sections of both the deprecation JEP 336 and the removal JEP 367 list three reasons for deprecating and removing Pack200 and conclude with this statement, "Overall, the cost of maintaining Pack200 is significant, and outweighs the benefit of including it in Java SE and the JDK."

The "Risks and Assumptions" section of JEP 336 includes this statement, "We assume that developers who use pack200 to shrink application JARs can switch to either the jlink tool or the jpackage tool to create application-specific runtimes with an optimized form factor." There is discussion regarding the suitability of jlink and jpackage on the r/java sub-reddit.

Java SE Specification Impacts

Iris Clark has posted that two of these JEPs have Java SE scope. She writes that JEP 361 (switch expressions standard) and JEP 367 (removing Pack200) are "of scope 'SE' [and] have been Proposed to Target for Java SE 14."

Conclusion

If all six of these JEPs proposed for JDK 14 get targeted for JDK 14, there will be nine JEPs associated with JDK 14. Two that I'm particularly looking forward to are the standardizing the switch expressions feature with JEP 361 and better NPE messages with JEP 358.

Better NPE Messages in JDK 14

My March 2019 blog post "Better Default NullPointerException Messages Coming to Java?" was written when the draft JEP for better NullPointerException messages had not yet been targeted to a particular JDK release. Since then, that draft JEP became JEP 358 ("Helpful NullPointerExceptions"), which has been targeted for JDK 14. Even better, the initial implementation (JDK-8218628) is already in the JDK 14 branch and is available to play with in JDK 14 Early Access Builds Build 20 (2019/10/23).

In this post, I will run the example code introduced in my previous post against the JDK 14 Early Access Build 20 to demonstrate the additional details now provided. To see that example code that was written to intentionally introduce a variety of situations resulting in NullPointerExceptions, see that earlier post or view the source code on GitHub.

With the JDK 14 Early Access Build 20 downloaded and pointed to by my path, I see the following when I run java -version:

openjdk version "14-ea" 2020-03-17
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 14-ea+20-879)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 14-ea+20-879, mixed mode, sharing)

With the JDK 14 Early Access Build 20 configured appropriately, I rebuilt the source code mentioned previously and then re-ran the code with the java launcher without any new options. The output from this (shown below) is not materially different from the output with previous JDK versions.

=========================================
| #1: Element [0] on null boolean array |
=========================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateFirstExampleIndexAccessOnNullBooleanArray(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=================================
| #2: .length on null boolean[] |
=================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateSecondExampleLengthOnNullBooleanArray(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=======================================
| #3: Assigning float to null float[] |
=======================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateThirdExampleAssigningValueToElementOfNullFloatArray(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

======================================
| #4: Accessing field on null object |
======================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateFourthExampleAccessInstanceFieldOfNullObject(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

===================
| #5: throw null; |
===================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateFifthExampleThrowingConstantNull(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

================================================
| #6: Method invocation on null instance field |
================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateSixthExampleMethodInvocationOnNullInstanceField(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=============================================
| #7: synchronized() on null instance field |
=============================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateSeventhExampleSynchronizedNullInstanceField(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

==========================================================================
| >>> Null Lost in Long Series of Method Invocations in Single Statement |
==========================================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateNullLostInSeriesOfMethodInvocationsInSingleStatement(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=======================================================
| >>> Null Lost in Dereferenced Constructor Arguments |
=======================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateNullLostInConstructorAcceptingMultiplePotentiallyNullArgumentsDereferenced(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

==================================================
| >>> Null Lost in Dereferenced Method Arguments |
==================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateNullLostInMethodAcceptingMultiplePotentiallyNullArgumentsDereferenced(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

As the above output demonstrates, even with the new JDK 14 Early Access Build 20, I don't see any new detailed information regarding NullPointerExceptions when I run my application as normal. I included this output to show that a special flag is needed to enable the more detailed NullPointerExceptions and to make it more convenient to compare the output without and with the extra details. The next output listing shows the additional details provided when the java launcher is passed the flag -XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages:

=========================================
| #1: Element [0] on null boolean array |
=========================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot load from byte/boolean array because "<local1>" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateFirstExampleIndexAccessOnNullBooleanArray(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=================================
| #2: .length on null boolean[] |
=================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot read the array length because "<local1>" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateSecondExampleLengthOnNullBooleanArray(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=======================================
| #3: Assigning float to null float[] |
=======================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot store to float array because "<local1>" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateThirdExampleAssigningValueToElementOfNullFloatArray(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

======================================
| #4: Accessing field on null object |
======================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot read field "nullInstanceField" because "<local1>" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateFourthExampleAccessInstanceFieldOfNullObject(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

===================
| #5: throw null; |
===================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot throw exception because "null" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateFifthExampleThrowingConstantNull(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

================================================
| #6: Method invocation on null instance field |
================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "String.isEmpty()" because "this.nullInstanceField" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateSixthExampleMethodInvocationOnNullInstanceField(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=============================================
| #7: synchronized() on null instance field |
=============================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot enter synchronized block because "this.nullInstanceField" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateSeventhExampleSynchronizedNullInstanceField(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateJdk8218628Examples(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

==========================================================================
| >>> Null Lost in Long Series of Method Invocations in Single Statement |
==========================================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "dustin.examples.npe.DysfunctionalLocation$Province.getCity()" because the return value of "dustin.examples.npe.DysfunctionalLocation$Nation.getProvince()" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateNullLostInSeriesOfMethodInvocationsInSingleStatement(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

=======================================================
| >>> Null Lost in Dereferenced Constructor Arguments |
=======================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.lang.Long.longValue()" because "<local6>" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateNullLostInConstructorAcceptingMultiplePotentiallyNullArgumentsDereferenced(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

==================================================
| >>> Null Lost in Dereferenced Method Arguments |
==================================================

java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.lang.Long.longValue()" because "<local6>" is null
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.demonstrateNullLostInMethodAcceptingMultiplePotentiallyNullArgumentsDereferenced(Unknown Source)
 at dustin.examples.npe.NpeDemo.main(Unknown Source)

JEP 358 explains the use of this flag for seeing additional NullPointerException details: "The feature can be toggled with the new boolean command-line option -XX:{+|-}ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages. The option will first have default 'false' so that the message is not printed. It is intended to enable code details in exception messages by default in a later release." As we see, this feature is initially turned off by default, but there is a plan to enable the more detailed NullPointerException messages in the future.

A recent Tweet asked the question, "How it will work if bytecode doesn’t contain variable names?" The question continued by providing a specific example: "Suppose we have code like Object a = ....; a.getName(); //NPE What kinds of message NPE would have?" Although an example of this is included in my battery of tests shown earlier, I thought I'd provide a more focused example here in response to that question. The next code listing (which is also available on GitHub) shows code adapted from the example used in the Tweet.

package dustin.examples.npe;

/**
 * Simple demonstration to answer Tweet-ed question
 * "How it will work if bytecode doesn't contain variable names?"
 * (https://twitter.com/2doublewhiskey/status/1180365953240055809).
 */
public class TwoDoubleWhiskeyTweetExample
{
   public static void main(final String[] arguments)
   {
      final Person person = null;
      person.getName(); //NPE
   }
   
   public static class Person
   {
      private String name;

      public Person(final String newName)
      {
         name = newName;
      }

      public String getName()
      {
         return name;
      }
   }
}

The next screen snapshot shows the result of running this simple application with the JDK 14 Early Access Build 20 without and then with the java launcher flag -XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages.

As the screen snapshot indicates, using the -XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages flag with the JDK 14 Early Access Build 20 provides this additional detail related to this simple NullPointerException example: "Cannot invoke "dustin.examples.npe.TwoDoubleWhiskeyTweetExample$Person.getName()" because "<local1>" is null"

An example that is simpler and even closer to the original example provided in the Tweet-ed question is available on GitHub.

JEP 358 ("Helpful NullPointerExceptions") may not be as flashy as some other JEPs that come to new JDK releases, but it may be one that in the end provides more value to Java developers on a daily basis than some of its flashier peers. There are numerous examples where this will be helpful and many of those example situations are spelled out in the JEP itself and in my code examples referenced in this post.

Draft JEP to Remove Deprecated CMS Garbage Collector

In the 10 April 2017 post "Java Garbage Collectors: When Will G1GC Force CMS Out?," I discussed JEP 291 ("Deprecate the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector") and provided a summary of some of the feedback for and against deprecating (and ultimately removing) the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector (GC). Earlier this month, a draft JEP called "Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep Garbage Collector" was created.

The "Summary" section of this draft JEP states, "Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) garbage collector from the set of usable garbage collection algorithms." Although the "draft" status of this JEP means it's not targeted to any specific release, the "Non-Goals" section reassures us that the draft JEP is not intended to remove CMS from any releases prior to the release in which CMS is removed. The post "RFC: JEP: Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep Garbage Collector" states that the current plan is to target CMS removal for JDK 14.

The draft JEP states in the "Risks and Assumptions" section that this draft to remove CMS GC "might be withdrawn" if another "interested credible contributor in the community will step up for maintenance." However, in the 2+ years since JEP 291 deprecated CMS, no such "interested credible contributor" has offered to maintain CMS. Thomas Schatzl's post related to this JEP describes this better:

There has also always been the option to organize maintenance of CMS in the community, but nobody even stepped up starting to fix the long-standing existing known minor issues CMS (to get contributors to know CMS code and to give us confidence that these persons can take over maintenance of such a large component).

The draft JEP for removing CMS specifically mentions three recommend alternative garbage collectors: the now-default garbage-first (G1), Oracle-provided ZGC, and Red Hat-provided Shenandoah.

There were multiple objections to deprecating CMS when JEP 291 was under review and there are objections now to the idea of removing CMS altogether. Kirk Pepperdine has written that he and others have observed that "CMS overheads are no where near the level of those seen with G1" and they are "now recommending that customers consider Parallel GC as it offers a far better experience than G1."

It looks likely that CMS will be removed as a garbage collection option in a forthcoming JDK release (perhaps even as early as JDK 14). As Kirk Pepperdine expressed in another post on the subject, "At the end of the day, if we want CMS we're going to have to step up and do something about it." So far, it doesn't look like anyone's wanted CMS badly enough to do something about it (which might include working with their preferred JDK provider to have it supported in that provider's JDK).

JEP 358: Helpful NullPointerExceptions

In the post "Better Default NullPointerException Messages Coming to Java?", I summarized background details related to a draft JEP (at that time) regarding making some types of NullPointerException's (NPE's) messages more useful. It was nice to see last week that this JEP is now a candidate JEP (JEP 358: "Helpful NullPointerExceptions"). In this post, I highlight aspects of JEP 358 that I find particularly interesting.

What is JEP 358?

JEP 358's current "Summary" succinctly describes this JEP: "Improve the usability of NullPointerExceptions generated by the JVM by describing precisely which variable was null."

The "Motivations" section of JEP 358 includes this paragraph: "The entire Java ecosystem would benefit if the JVM could give the information needed to pinpoint the source of an NPE and then identify its root cause, without using extra tooling or shuffling code around. SAP's commercial JVM has done this since 2006, to great acclaim from developers and support engineers."

Example of Community Contribution to OpenJDK

One aspect of JEP 358 that interests me is its background. The "Testing" section of JEP 358 currently states that "a predecessor implementation has been in SAP's commercial JVM since 2006 and has proven to be stable." The intention of this statement is to demonstrate that some testing has already taken place for the feature, but it also points out that SAP and its personnel are the major contributors of this proposed JDK enhancement. The authors of the JEP, Goetz Lindenmaier and Ralf Schmelter (credited as original author), are or have been affiliated with SAP. My understanding is that the SAP OpenJDK release (SapMachine) does not include this feature yet, but the commercial SAP does. This proposed JDK enhancement is a nice example of how having multiple vendors delivering implementations of OpenJDK might benefit OpenJDK for everyone in the future.

The Downside of More Details

JEP 358 addresses a potential security risk introduced by more detailed NPEs. It states that "the null-detail message may contain variable names from the source code ... if debug information is included in the class file (javac -g)" and "these have not previously been available to other programs via Java's reflection APIs."

Enabling Detailed Null Messages

The "Alternatives" section of JEP 358 outlines three reasons that one might not want the newer more detailed NPE messages (performance, security, and compatibility). It states, "The null-detail message is switched off per default and can be enabled by command-line option -XX:+SuppressCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages." That section adds that "there is no way to specify that only some NPE-raising bytecodes are of interest" (in other words, it's an all-or-nothing option). The section concludes with this statement, "We intend to enable the null-detail message by default in a future release."

More Detailed Messages Are Not for All NullPointerExceptions

JEP 358 points out types of NullPointerExceptions to which the more detailed messages will apply and contrasts that with the types to which the more detailed messages will not apply. It states (I added emphasis), "Only NPEs that are created and thrown directly by the JVM will include the null-detail message. NPEs that are explicitly created and/or explicitly thrown by programs running on the JVM are not subject to the bytecode analysis and null-detail message creation described below. In addition, the null-detail message is not reported for NPEs caused by code in hidden methods, which are special-purpose low-level methods generated and called by the JVM to, e.g., optimize string concatenation. A hidden method has no filename or line number that could help to pinpoint the source of an NPE, so printing a null-detail message would be futile." As the text states, there is no reason to attempt to provide details for "hidden methods." As for NPEs our own code explicitly throws, we have the ability to add useful context to those exceptions' messages already when we construct them.

Conclusion

The responses to this JEP have been enthusiastic and I think there are many Java developers who look forward to the availability of more detailed NullPointerException messages in future OpenJDK distributions. JDK-8218628 ("Add detailed message to NullPointerException describing what is null.") is associated with JEP 358 (JDK-8220715) and is currently associated with JDK 14 as the "Fix Version." Here's hoping for JEP 358 to be officially targeted to JDK 14!

Signs of JDK 14 Beginning to Appear

JDK 13 is currently in Rampdown Phase 1 (RDP 1), is scheduled to enter Rampdown Phase 2 (RDP 2) in a little over one week (on 18 July 2019), and is tentatively scheduled for General Availability on 17 September 2019. What this means, of course, is that it's time to start thinking about JDK 14! This post references and summarizes some of the online resources related to JDK 14 that are starting to appear.

Project JDK 14

The main OpenJDK JDK 14 page is the best place to start when wishing to see an overview of the release and its progress. Besides a reference to its associated specification (JSR 389: "Java SE 14 Platform"), the only other information available on this page as of this writing is a simple "Status" paragraph that references development repositories and the JDK Enhancement Proposal (JEP) process.

JDK 14 Early Access Builds

JDK 14 Early Access Builds are already available! As of this writing, the latest is Build 4 (2019/7/3). Not surprisingly, the commits in the JDK 14 early access builds at this time are fixes made to earlier JDK versions that will also be available in JDK 14.

Proposed JEP 352

The Mark Reinhold e-mail message "JEP proposed to target JDK 14: 352: Non-Volatile Mapped Byte Buffers" proposes that JEP 352 ("Non-Volatile Mapped Byte Buffers") be targeted to JDK 14.

JDK 14 Speculations

It's really far too early to recklessly speculate on what might land in JDK 14, but I won't let that stop me. It seems that the two JDK 13 "preview" JEPs [JEP 354 ("Switch Expressions") and JEP 355 ("Text Blocks")] could potentially become "permanent" in JDK 14. JEP 343 ("Packaging Tool") is another that could potentially be targeted for JDK 14.