Chapter 6. Collections and Streams

Collections and Streams form the backbone of data processing in Java, offering powerful abstractions for working with groups of objects. Modern Java provides enhanced APIs that make collection manipulation more concise and functional.

Key Topics

This chapter covers essential collection and stream processing concepts:

• Modern Collections APIs: Enhanced interfaces and factory methods for creating immutable collections
• Stream Processing: Functional approach to transforming and filtering data
• Collectors: Building blocks for stream reduction and aggregation operations
• Performance Considerations: Lazy evaluation and optimization opportunities
• Functional Composition: Chaining operations for elegant data transformations

Collections and streams enable developers to write declarative, composable code that clearly expresses intent while benefiting from modern performance optimizations.