Java 8 lambda expression and first-class values

Question

Are Java 8 closures really first-class values or are they only a syntactic sugar?

Answer 1

Yes, they are first class values (or will be, once Java 8 is released...)

In the sense that you can pass them as arguments, compose them to make higher order functions, store them in data structures etc. You will be able to use them for a broad range of functional programming techniques.

See also for a bit more definition of what "first class" means in this context:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-class_citizen