Category: Java

Java Javascript

Java 8 Lambdas limitations: closures

Suppose we want to create a simple thread that only prints something on the console:

int answer = 42;
Thread t = new Thread(
  () -> System.out.println("The answer is: " + answer)
);

What if we changed the value of answer while the thread is executing?

In this article, I would like to answer this question, discussing the limitations of Java lambda expressions and consequences along the way.

The short answer is that Java implements closures, but there are limitations when we compare them with other languages. On the other hand, these limitations can be considered negligible.

To support this claim, I will show how closures play an essential role in a famous language as JavaScript.

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Algorithms Java Windows

Convert a SID to String with Java

A security identifier (SID) is an unique identifier, commonly used in Microsoft’s systems. For example, it’s used to identify users within Windows, or, more generally, within an Active Directory.

The SID is a binary value, with a variable length, that can be also be represented as a string. This conversion is implemented by the function called ConvertSidToStringSid, provided by the library Advapi32.dll, available only in Windows.

Hence, if you need to perform this conversion, you can procede with one of these two paths:

  • Use Advapi32 (only in Windows)
  • Rewrite the conversion
Thus, it’s very useful to have that implementation in a particular language (in our case Java), to be used everywhere. I noticed that, after a research in Internet, all the implementations are wrong, despite they work in general. Therefore, I decided to write my own implementation, thoroughly tested to prove you its correctness.

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