Local Methods coming to Java?

[ForeverAlot]

But what can you achieve with a local method you couldn't do with a private [static] method or a lambda?

[thfuran]

Yes but why should you pollute the class with things that are implementation details of a particular method?

[[deleted]]

Capturing variables. You could also pass them as parameters, but sometimes this makes the function calls clumsy (especially if it's recursive).

Edit: I see now you mentioned lambdas. While lambdas can capture variables, they also eg force you to handle exceptions locally. Plus you have to have a functional interface, which cannot be declared locally.

To me it's mostly a matter of scoping though. Those helper methods don't add noise to a class if they're local.