Tips on writing concise and elegant Java

Question

Please share your tricks for making your Java code concise, still readable.

Coming from Python I'm suffering from "oh, this looks so verbose", it's sometimes hard to fit even in 100-character long lines. I understand Java is a bit more verbose and there's no way around it, but sure there must be small little things that can save some bloat here and there...

If Java has any LINQ like libraries, they will help to produce more compact code. — Schultz9999, Jan 08 '11 at 00:14
Java has extensive libraries and you can add your own. The more code you hide away in self contained libraries, the shorter your code will be. — Peter Lawrey, Jan 08 '11 at 01:44

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 08 '11 at 00:10

5

Read Bob Martin's Clean Code. It's a book full of tips on exactly this subject: writing well-organised, very readable code, with Java as the example language.

answered Jan 08 '11 at 00:10

GaryF

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+1 for that. Also remember (I don't think this merits an answer of its own) that you can break complicated expressions across lines - unlike python. – Jan 08 '11 at 02:06
Started reading it, it indeed looks like a jumbo-pack of answers to my question. Thanks! – Pēteris Caune Jan 12 '11 at 13:00
Old thread but Python expressions can be broken with the '\' character if by 'lines' we mean lines of text. – Erik Reppen Aug 26 '11 at 15:50
Please read "Clean Code" with some skepticism. The ideas are great, but I find some examples too dogmatic. E.g. "extracting [methods] till you drop" will make your code less concise and (in my opinion, because of much more indirections and hidden dependencies) less readable. – DaveFar Aug 27 '11 at 23:14

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 08 '11 at 05:50

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The Ternary Operator (shorthand for if-then-else statement) can be handy.

String value = {condition} ? "Was true" : "Was false";

answered Jan 08 '11 at 05:50

jzd

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 27 '11 at 23:08

You can achieve this to some extent on different levels:

the language itself: use all features the language offers, e.g. the ternary operator (though some think it's not very readable) and Java7's elvis and diamond operator
how you implement: use all the libraries and their features! don't optimize prematurely!
the design: use design patterns and the suggestions in Josh Bloch's Effective Java. Precisely document your design decisions by referencing them (e.g. "Visitor" or "Bloch Item 7").

Tips on writing concise and elegant Java

3 Answers3