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javapredicatejava-11functional-interface

Predicate in Java11 filters all elements


I am moving to use Java11. Learning a new method Predicate.not, I found my current code to find only cat family as:

List<String> animals = List.of("cat", "leopard", "dog", "lion", "horse");
Predicate<String> cats = a -> !a.equals("dog") && !a.equals("horse");
Set<String> filterCat = animals.stream().filter(cats).collect(Collectors.toSet());
System.out.println(filterCat);

output is :

leopard, cat, lion

Now I am trying to use the new method and the output is coming incorrect. How do I correct it? What did I do wrong?

My later code:

Predicate<String> updatedCatFilter = Predicate.not(a -> a.equals("dog") && a.equals("horse"));
Set<String> catFamily = animals.stream().filter(updatedCatFilter).collect(Collectors.toSet());
System.out.println(filterCat);

But this outputs all my list now.

horse, leopard, cat, dog, lion


Solution

  • What did I do wrong?

    You seem to be missing the basic De-morgan's laws which states that

    !(a || b) == !a && !b
    

    and

    !(a && b) == !a || !b
    

    How do I correct it?

    So you should change your code to use

    Predicate.not(a -> a.equals("dog") || a.equals("horse")); // !(a || b)
    

    which shall be equivalent to your existing code

    Predicate<String> cats = a -> !a.equals("dog") && !a.equals("horse");
    

    that can also be looked upon as:

    Predicate<String> notDog = a -> !a.equals("dog");
    Predicate<String> notHorse =  a -> !a.equals("horse");
    Predicate<String> cats = notDog.and(notHorse); // !a && !b