Is there a java equivalent of the python eval function?

Question

Is there a java equivalent of the python eval function?

This would be a function which takes an arbitrary string and attempts to execute it in the current context.

Answer 1

The Java Scripting API is probably the closest to a standard way to execute strings as code in the JVM. JavaScript is supported in the Sun JVM out of the box, but isn't guaranteed to be supported by all JVM implementations.