Write C-Style Local Static Variables in Java 16

Java 16 includes an improvement that makes the language a bit more regular via JEP 395. The JEP says:

Static members of inner classes

It is currently specified to be a compile-time error if an inner class declares a member that is explicitly or implicitly static, unless the member is a constant variable. This means that, for example, an inner class cannot declare a record class member, since nested record classes are implicitly static.

We relax this restriction in order to allow an inner class to declare members that are either explicitly or implicitly static. In particular, this allows an inner class to declare a static member that is a record class.

What sounds like a minor necessary evil to make a new feature (record classes) more versatile actually has a life of its own. We can use it to emulate C-style local static variables, i.e. local variables that are:

• Initialised only once (and lazily at that)
• Shared among multiple executions of a method

This sounds like a rather hairy feature, global variables that are visible only locally. But in fact, it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time, especially when I wanted to cache regular expression patterns without polluting the class namespace.

Consider this code:

package p;

import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        check("a");
        check("b");
    }
    
    static Pattern compile(String pattern) {
        System.out.println("compile(" + pattern + ")");
        return Pattern.compile(pattern);
    }
    
    static void check(String string) {
        // Re-compiling the pattern every time: Bad
        // Keeping the pattern local to the method: Good
        System.out.println("check(" + string + "): " 
            + compile("a").matcher(string).find());
    }
}

It prints:

compile(a)
check(a): true
compile(a)
check(b): false

Compiling a pattern can be costly if done frequently, so we better cache it. We used to do that like this:

package p;

import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        check("a");
        check("b");
    }
    
    static Pattern compile(String pattern) {
        System.out.println("compile(" + pattern + ")");
        return Pattern.compile(pattern);
    }
    
    // Compiling the pattern only once: Good
    // Placing the pattern in a class namespace: Bad
        static final Pattern P_CHECK = compile("a");
        
    static void check(String string) {
        System.out.println("check(" + string + "): " 
            + P_CHECK.matcher(string).find());
    }
}

This now prints a more optimal output:

compile(a)
check(a): true
check(b): false

I.e. the regular expression pattern is compiled only once. But unfortunately, we had to pollute the entire class’s namespace, which can quickly become cumbersome if we have dozens of such regular expressions. Can we scope the P_CHECK variable to the check() method only? We now can!

package p;

import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        check("a");
        check("b");
    }
    
    static Pattern compile(String pattern) {
        System.out.println("compile(" + pattern + ")");
        return Pattern.compile(pattern);
    }
    
    static void check(String string) {

        // Compiling the pattern only once: Good
        // Keeping the pattern local to the method: Good
        // Capturing scope: Egh...
        var patterns = new Object() { 
            static final Pattern P_CHECK = compile("a");
        };
        
        System.out.println("check(" + string + "): " 
            + patterns.P_CHECK.matcher(string).find());
    }
}

This again prints the desired, optimal output:

compile(a)
check(a): true
check(b): false

The combination of using var to use a non-denotable type (whose members we can dereference) along with the ability of putting static members in inner classes effectively emulates local static variables, just like in C!

Since the inner class is unlikely to escape its scope, the fact that it may be capturing scope isn’t that big of a risk as illustrated previously in a criticism of the double curly brace anti pattern. You’re still creating an extra class and a use-less object that escape analysis hopefully prevents from allocating, so it’s not exactly a very clean solution, but nice to know this is now possible.

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