Efficiency of Java “Double Brace Initialization”?

Question

In Hidden Features of Java the top answer mentions Double Brace Initialization, with a very enticing syntax:

Set flavors = new HashSet         


        

Answer 1

Mario Gleichman describes how to use Java 1.5 generic functions to simulate Scala List literals, though sadly you wind up with immutable Lists.

He defines this class:

package literal;

public class collection {
    public static  List List(T...elems){
        return Arrays.asList( elems );
    }
}

and uses it thusly:

import static literal.collection.List;
import static system.io.*;

public class CollectionDemo {
    public void demoList(){
        List slist = List( "a", "b", "c" );
        List iList = List( 1, 2, 3 );
        for( String elem : List( "a", "java", "list" ) )
            System.out.println( elem );
    }
}

Google Collections, now part of Guava supports a similar idea for list construction. In this interview, Jared Levy says:

[...] the most heavily-used features, which appear in almost every Java class I write, are static methods that reduce the number of repetitive keystrokes in your Java code. It's so convenient being able to enter commands like the following:

Map = Maps.newHashMap();

List animals = Lists.immutableList("cat", "dog", "horse");

7/10/2014: If only it could be as simple as Python's:

animals = ['cat', 'dog', 'horse']

2/21/2020: In Java 11 you can now say:

animals = List.of(“cat”, “dog”, “horse”)