View source | Edit

Static references

A static reference is an "unbound" reference to an attribute, method, or member class.

Usage 

// static attribute reference
Integer(String) stringSize = String.size;

// static method reference
Integer(Integer)(Integer) intPlus = Integer.plus;

class Foo() {
    shared class Bar(String s) {}
}
// static member class reference
Foo.Bar(String)(Foo) fooBar = Foo.Bar;

Description

Type

The type of a static reference is a higher order Callable:

  • A static expression referring to an attribute with type A of a type T has the type X(T).
  • A static expression referring to a method with callable type M(P1, P2, ..., Pn) of a type T has type M(P1, P2, ..., Pn)(T)
  • A static expression referring to a member class with callable type C(P1, P2, ..., Pn) of a type T has type C(P1, P2, ..., Pn)(T)

A static reference to an attribute is also known as a static value reference and a static reference to a method or member class is also known as a static callable reference.

Invocation

The first invocation of the Callable resulting from a static callable reference (that is, a reference to a method or member class) "binds" it to the instance used as the argument. Such an invocation returns a "bound" Callable instance that is equivalent to the callable reference we would have obtained using that instance as the receiver.

Continuing the above example:

Integer(Integer) plusOne = intPlus(1);
Integer(Integer) plusTwo = intPlus(2);

Here plusOne is equivalent to the callable reference 1.plus, and plusTwo is equivalent to the callable reference 2.plus.

Similarly:

Foo foo = Foo()
Foo.Bar(String) bar = fooBar(foo);

Here bar is equivalent to the callable reference foo.Bar.

Obviously, we could also invoke the result immediately, by supplying two argument lists, like this:

Integer three = intPlus(1)(2);
Foo.Bar bar = fooBar(Foo())("bar");

See also