Lambdas and Execute-around Pattern

There are several good examples of using lambdas as a FunctionalInterface in simple scenarios. A fairly common use case that can be improved by lambdas is what is called the Execute-Around pattern. In this pattern, you have a set of standard setup/teardown code that is needed for multiple scenarios surrounding use case specific code. A few common example of this are file io, database io, try/catch blocks.

interface DataProcessor {
    void process( Connection connection ) throws SQLException;;
}

public void doProcessing( DataProcessor processor ) throws SQLException{
    try (Connection connection = DBUtil.getDatabaseConnection();) {
        processor.process(connection);
        connection.commit();
    } 
}

Then to call this method with a lambda it might look like:

public static void updateMyDAO(MyVO vo) throws DatabaseException {
    doProcessing((Connection conn) -> MyDAO.update(conn, ObjectMapper.map(vo)));
}

This is not limited to I/O operations. It can apply to any scenario where similar setup/tear down tasks are applicable with minor variations. The main benefit of this Pattern is code re-use and enforcing DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself).