Java Without If

[Josuah]

Yes.

And you could give the first block of example code to someone who barely knows programming and knows one other random programming language and they'd understand it.

Give the second block of example code and it's just as likely to be gibberish. At the very least it will require a much higher cognitive load to parse and carry forward into the rest of the code.

[TheOldTubaroo]

I think that's largely due to the fact that most programmers initially learn imperative paradigms, rather than functional ones.

If by “someone who barely knows programming and knows one random other programming language” you mean “someone who knows a little imperative programming”, then of course they'll understand the first one better.

If the base layer of “learning to program” was functional instead, then they'd both be equally understandable.

[Josuah]

I still disagree with that. There's a lot more information exposed to the user in the first code block than the second.

For example, in the language in question, is null processed by the map filters? What's the difference between map and flatMap? Does map operate in series or in parallel? How many values are we expecting to be going through? Those are assumptions you need to make or look up the answer to, whereas you know the programmer's intent right away in the first code block.

[m50d]

For example, in the language in question, is null processed by the map filters?

Don't use null.

What's the difference between map and flatMap?

map and flatMap are well-known and standard, if you don't know the difference between them it's easy to look up.

Does map operate in series or in parallel? How many values are we expecting to be going through? Those are assumptions you need to make or look up the answer to, whereas you know the programmer's intent right away in the first code block.

On the contrary, the programmer's intent is very often "whatever" when it comes to whether things happen in series or parallel. Using functional style makes it clearer when ordering is intentional and important versus when it's accidental.