- 01Getting Started
- 02Your First Output (System.out.println)
- 03Working with Variables
- 04Conditionals (if statements)
- 05Loops (for statements)
- 06Writing a Method (Function)
- 07Working with Arrays
- 08Loops (while statements)
- 09Classes (Object-Oriented Programming)
- 10Error Handling (try-catch)
- 11Sorting an Array
- 12Recursive Functions
- 13Using the Standard Library
- 14The switch Statement
- 15The Ternary Operator
- 16Inheritance (Extending a Class)
- 17Writing Comments
- 18Logical Operators (&&, ||, !)
- 19Constants (final)
- 20Splitting and Joining Strings (split, join)
- 21Writing Null-Safe Code
- 22Searching a Collection (contains)
- 23Transforming an Array (Stream map)
- 24Two-Dimensional Arrays (Tabular Data)
- 25Writing a Custom Exception Class
- 26Method Overloading
- 27Working with HashSet (Sets)
- 28Checking Correctness with assert (Your First Step into Testing)
- 29Higher-Order Functions (Passing a Function as an Argument)
- 30Stacks and Queues (Basic Data Structures)
- 31Type Conversion (Casting) Basics
- 32Intro to Regular Expressions (Pattern Matching)
- 33The Binary Search Algorithm
- 34Building a Caesar Cipher (a Character-Shifting Cipher)
- 35Understanding How Bubble Sort Works
- 36Building and Displaying Dates (Basic Year/Month/Day Operations)
- 37Writing Multiple Test Cases Together
- 38Speeding Up Calculations with Memoization (Caching)
- 39Normalizing Strings (trim, Unifying Case)
- 40Shallow Copy vs. Deep Copy
- 41Enum (Enumerated Types) Basics
- 42Flattening a List
- 43Reversing a String and Checking for Palindromes
- 44Pairing Up Two Lists (the zip operation)
- 45Rounding Numbers (floor, ceil, round)
- 46Multi-Line Strings (Text Blocks)
- 47Functions That Return Multiple Values (record)
- 48Finding the GCD and LCM (the Euclidean Algorithm)
- 49Formatting Numbers (Padding Digits, Decimal Places)
- 50Cleanup Logic with try/catch/finally
- 51Writing Generic Functions
- 52File Reading and Writing Basics
- 53Generating Random Numbers
- 54Bitwise Operators (AND, OR, XOR, shifts)
- 55Reading Command-Line Arguments
- 56Waiting for a Fixed Amount of Time (Thread.sleep)
- 57Watch Out for Floating-Point Rounding Errors
- 58Reading from Standard Input
- 59FizzBuzz (the Classic Practice Problem)
- 60Checking Whether a Number Is Prime
- 61Set Operations (Union, Intersection, Difference)
- 62Converting Number Bases (Binary, Hex)
- 63Checking Balanced Parentheses (an Application of Stacks)
- 64Checking Whether Two Words Are Anagrams
- 65Checking Whether a Year Is a Leap Year
- 66Converting Temperature (Celsius to Fahrenheit)
- 67Prime Factorization
- 68[Applied] Build a Simple Inventory Management Tool
Higher-Order Functions (Passing a Function as an Argument)
This lesson covers passing a function as an argument to another function in Java, so you can treat logic itself as a component. It's for anyone searching "Java higher-order function lambda usage."
Passing another function (a lambda expression) as an argument is called a higher-order function. It's like "specifying only the method to use, and leaving the actual work to whoever receives it." Passing a rule to Arrays.sort() is a classic example.
The example sorts in descending order by passing the sorting rule as a lambda expression, Arrays.sort(nums, (a, b) -> b - a). (a, b) -> b - a is a comparison rule defined right on the spot.
A common early mistake is not being used to lambda syntax. It's a relatively recent addition, introduced in Java 8, so it can feel unfamiliar next to a regular method definition at first.
In real projects, being able to define your own higher-order functions lets you turn shared logic into a reusable component, boosting code reuse.
๐งช This site can't compile or run Java directly, so it checks on the spot whether what you typed matches the reference code (scoring happens entirely in your browser โ nothing is sent anywhere).