Is it possible to cast a Stream in Java 8?

Solution 1:

I don't think there is a way to do that out-of-the-box. A possibly cleaner solution would be:

Stream.of(objects)
    .filter(c -> c instanceof Client)
    .map(c -> (Client) c)
    .map(Client::getID)
    .forEach(System.out::println);

or, as suggested in the comments, you could use the cast method - the former may be easier to read though:

Stream.of(objects)
    .filter(Client.class::isInstance)
    .map(Client.class::cast)
    .map(Client::getID)
    .forEach(System.out::println);

Solution 2:

Along the lines of ggovan's answer, I do this as follows:

/**
 * Provides various high-order functions.
 */
public final class F {
    /**
     * When the returned {@code Function} is passed as an argument to
     * {@link Stream#flatMap}, the result is a stream of instances of
     * {@code cls}.
     */
    public static <E> Function<Object, Stream<E>> instancesOf(Class<E> cls) {
        return o -> cls.isInstance(o)
                ? Stream.of(cls.cast(o))
                : Stream.empty();
    }
}

Using this helper function:

Stream.of(objects).flatMap(F.instancesOf(Client.class))
        .map(Client::getId)
        .forEach(System.out::println);

Solution 3:

Late to the party, but I think it is a useful answer.

flatMap would be the shortest way to do it.

Stream.of(objects).flatMap(o->(o instanceof Client)?Stream.of((Client)o):Stream.empty())

If o is a Client then create a Stream with a single element, otherwise use the empty stream. These streams will then be flattened into a Stream<Client>.