HashMap inline initialization

Updated: 2018-10-08

Create and initialize HashMap inline in a lambda stream

Working with Spring Integration I had the need to create MessageHeaders class in a Lambda expression.The MessageHeaders object requires an HashMap as constructor parameter and the inline initializations of an HashMap is not the most intuitive.
The solution:

@Override 
public List<Message> handleFileRequest() { 
// we create a list from an enumerator 
List<Message> messageList = Arrays.stream(FileType.values()) 
      // we read the file content from an external provider 
      .map(externalProviderService::readFileFromExternalProvider) 
      // for each object we create a new message 
      .map(file -> MessageBuilder.createMessage(file, 
         new MessageHeaders(new HashMap<String, Object>() { { 
        put("fileName", file.getTitle()); 
      } }))) 
      .collect(Collectors.toList()); 
 
  return messageList; 
} 

In detail:

new HashMap<String, Object>() { {put("valueText", Object} } 

The first brace ({ }) creates an Anonymous Inner Class, the second brace initializes a block inside the Anonymous Inner Class.
This Java notation is not new but very unusual.

You can consider to call an external method to generate your hashmap.


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