Why does lambda translation need generation of a static method?

Question

Lambda translation is a two step process, One: desugaring the lambda into a static method in same class.

public class Main {
    public stat         


        

Answer 1

Because this way it's actually cheaper. Generating a lambda from the method on the fly during the first invocation is better than loading a separate class via class loader. Internally it uses UNSAFE.defineAnonymousClass which is more light-weight class than normal. Such "lambda-class" is not bound to any class loader, so can be easily garbage-collected when it's no longer necessary. Also I guess there are plans to make this mechanism even more light-weight and faster. For normal anonymous class this would not be possible as from the point of JVM such classes don't differ from usual classes and much more heavy.