How can I write an anonymous function in Java?

Is it even possible?

if you mean an anonymous function, and are using a version of Java before Java 8, then in a word, no. (Read about lambda expressions if you use Java 8+)

However, you can implement an interface with a function like so :

Comparator<String> c = new Comparator<String>() {
    int compare(String s, String s2) { ... }
};

and you can use this with inner classes to get an almost-anonymous function :)

Here's an example of an anonymous inner class.

System.out.println(new Object() {
    @Override public String toString() {
        return "Hello world!";
    }
}); // prints "Hello world!"

This is not very useful as it is, but it shows how to create an instance of an anonymous inner class that extends Object and @Override its toString() method.

See also

• JLS 15.9.5 Anonymous Class Declarations

Anonymous inner classes are very handy when you need to implement an interface which may not be highly reusable (and therefore not worth refactoring to its own named class). An instructive example is using a custom java.util.Comparator<T> for sorting.

Here's an example of how you can sort a String[] based on String.length().

import java.util.*;
//...

String[] arr = { "xxx", "cd", "ab", "z" };
Arrays.sort(arr, new Comparator<String>() {
    @Override public int compare(String s1, String s2) {
        return s1.length() - s2.length();
    }           
});
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(arr));
// prints "[z, cd, ab, xxx]"

Note the comparison-by-subtraction trick used here. It should be said that this technique is broken in general: it's only applicable when you can guarantee that it will not overflow (such is the case with String lengths).

See also

• Java Integer: what is faster comparison or subtraction?
  • Comparison-by-subtraction is broken in general
• Create a Sorted Hash in Java with a Custom Comparator
• How are Anonymous (inner) classes used in Java?

With the introduction of lambda expression in Java 8 you can now have anonymous methods.

Say I have a class Alpha and I want to filter Alphas on a specific condition. To do this you can use a Predicate<Alpha>. This is a functional interface which has a method test that accepts an Alpha and returns a boolean.

Assuming that the filter method has this signature:

List<Alpha> filter(Predicate<Alpha> filterPredicate)

With the old anonymous class solution you would need to something like:

filter(new Predicate<Alpha>() {
   boolean test(Alpha alpha) {
      return alpha.centauri > 1;
   }
});

With the Java 8 lambdas you can do:

filter(alpha -> alpha.centauri > 1);

For more detailed information see the Lambda Expressions tutorial

Anonymous inner classes implementing or extending the interface of an existing type has been done in other answers, although it is worth noting that multiple methods can be implemented (often with JavaBean-style events, for instance).

A little recognised feature is that although anonymous inner classes don't have a name, they do have a type. New methods can be added to the interface. These methods can only be invoked in limited cases. Chiefly directly on the new expression itself and within the class (including instance initialisers). It might confuse beginners, but it can be "interesting" for recursion.

private static String pretty(Node node) {
    return "Node: " + new Object() {
        String print(Node cur) {
            return cur.isTerminal() ?
                cur.name() :
                ("("+print(cur.left())+":"+print(cur.right())+")");
        }
    }.print(node);
}

(I originally wrote this using node rather than cur in the print method. Say NO to capturing "implicitly final" locals?)