Immutable Class in Java

What is immutable class in Java

 Immutable classes are those class, whose object can not be modified once created, it means any modification on immutable object will result in another immutable object. best example to understand immutable and mutable objects are, String and StringBuffer. Since String is immutable class, any change on existing string object will result in another string e.g. replacing a character into String, creating substring from String, all result in a new objects. While in case of mutable object like StringBuffer, any modification is done on object itself and no new objects are created.

 

How to write immutable class in Java

Despite of few disadvantages, Immutable object still offers several benefits in multi-threaded programming and it’s a great choice to achieve thread safety in Java code. here are few rules, which helps to make a class immutable in Java :

1. State of immutable object can not be modified after construction, any modification should result in new immutable object.

2. All fields of Immutable class should be final.
3. Object must be properly constructed i.e. object reference must not leak during construction process.
4. Object should be final in order to restrict sub-class for altering immutability of parent class.

By the way, you can still create immutable object by violating few rules, like String has its hashcode in non final field, but its always guaranteed to be same. No matter how many times you calculate it, because it’s calculated from final fields, which is guaranteed to be same.

 

Benefits of Immutable Classes in Java

 

1) Immutable objects are by default thread safe, can be shared without synchronization in concurrent environment.

2) Immutable object simplifies development, because its easier to share between multiple threads without external synchronization.

3) Immutable object boost performance of Java application by reducing synchronization in code.
4) Another important benefit of Immutable objects is reusability, you can cache Immutable object and reuse them, much like String literals and Integers.  You can use static factory methods to provide methods like valueOf(), which can return an existing Immutable object from cache, instead of creating a new one.

Apart from above advantages, immutable object has disadvantage of creating garbage as well. Since immutable object can not be reused and they are just a use and throw. String being a prime example, which can create lot of garbage and can potentially slow down application due to heavy garbage collection, but again that's extreme case and if used properly Immutable object adds lot of value.