Java 8: Where is TriFunction (and kin) in java.util.function? Or what is the alternative?

If you need TriFunction, just do this:

@FunctionalInterface
interface TriFunction<A,B,C,R> {

    R apply(A a, B b, C c);

    default <V> TriFunction<A, B, C, V> andThen(
                                Function<? super R, ? extends V> after) {
        Objects.requireNonNull(after);
        return (A a, B b, C c) -> after.apply(apply(a, b, c));
    }
}

Following small program shows how it can be used. Remember that result type is specified as a last generic type parameter.

  public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        BiFunction<Integer, Long, String> bi = (x,y) -> ""+x+","+y;
        TriFunction<Boolean, Integer, Long, String> tri = (x,y,z) -> ""+x+","+y+","+z;


        System.out.println(bi.apply(1, 2L)); //1,2
        System.out.println(tri.apply(false, 1, 2L)); //false,1,2

        tri = tri.andThen(s -> "["+s+"]");
        System.out.println(tri.apply(true,2,3L)); //[true,2,3]
    }
  }

I guess if there was practical use for TriFunction in java.util.* or java.lang.* it would have been defined. I would never go beyond 22 arguments, though ;-) What I mean by that, all new code that allows to stream collections never required TriFunction as any of the method parameters. So it was not included.

UPDATE

For completeness and following the destructive functions explanation in another answer (related to currying), here is how TriFunction can be emulated without additional interface:

Function<Integer, Function<Integer, UnaryOperator<Integer>>> tri1 = a -> b -> c -> a + b + c;
System.out.println(tri1.apply(1).apply(2).apply(3)); //prints 6

Of course, it is possible to combine functions in other ways, e.g.:

BiFunction<Integer, Integer, UnaryOperator<Integer>> tri2 = (a, b) -> c -> a + b + c;
System.out.println(tri2.apply(1, 2).apply(3)); //prints 6
//partial function can be, of course, extracted this way
UnaryOperator partial = tri2.apply(1,2); //this is partial, eq to c -> 1 + 2 + c;
System.out.println(partial.apply(4)); //prints 7
System.out.println(partial.apply(5)); //prints 8

While currying would be natural to any language that supports functional programming beyond lambdas, Java is not built this way and, while achievable, the code is hard to maintain, and sometimes read. However, it is very helpful as an exercise, and sometimes partial functions have a rightful place in your code.

As far as I know, there are only two kinds of functions, destructive and constructive.

While constructive function, as the name implies, constructs something, a destructive one destroys something, but not in the way you may think now.

For example, the function

Function<Integer,Integer> f = (x,y) -> x + y  

is a constructive one. As you need to construct something. In the example you constructed the tuple (x,y). Constructive functions have the problem, of being not able to handle infinite arguments. But the worst thing is, you can't just leave an argument open. You can't just say "well, let x := 1" and try out every y you may like to try. You have to construct every time the whole tuple with x := 1. So if you like to see what the functions return for y := 1, y := 2, y := 3 you have to write f(1,1) , f(1,2) , f(1,3).

In Java 8, constructive functions should be handled (most of the time) by using method references because there's not much advantage of using a constructive lambda function. They are a bit like static methods. You can use them, but they have no real state.

The other type is the destructive one, it takes something and dismantles it as far as needed. For example, the destructive function

Function<Integer, Function<Integer, Integer>> g = x -> (y -> x + y) 

does the same as the function f which was constructive. The benefits of a destructive function are, you can handle now infinite arguments, which is especially convenient for streams, and you can just leave arguments open. So if you again want to see what would the result be like if x := 1 and y := 1 , y := 2 , y := 3 , you can say h = g(1) and h(1) is the result for y := 1, h(2) for y := 2 and h(3) for y := 3.

So here you have a fixed state! That's quite dynamic and that's most of the time that what we want from a lambda.

Patterns like Factory are a lot easier if you can just put in a function which does the work for you.

Destructive ones are easily combined with each other. If the type is right you can just compose them as you like. Using that, you can easily define morphisms which make (with immutable values) testing a lot easier!

You can do that too with a constructive one, but destructive composition looks nicer and more like a list or a decorator, and the constructive one looks a lot like a tree. And things like backtracking with constructive functions are just not nice. You can just save the partial functions of a destructive one (dynamic programming), and on "backtrack" just use the old destructive function. That makes code a lot smaller and better readable. With constructive functions you have more or less to remember all arguments, which can be a lot.

So why is there a need for BiFunction should be more of question than why there is no TriFunction?

First of all, a lot of time you just have a few values (less than 3) and need just a result, so a normal destructive function would not be needed at all, a constructive one would do fine. And there are things like monads which really needs a constructive function. But aside from that, there are not really a lot of good reasons why there is a BiFunction at all. Which doesn't mean it should be removed! I fight for my Monads until I die!

So if you have a lot of arguments, which you can't combine into a logical container class, and if you need the function to be constructive, use a method reference. Otherwise try to use the new gained ability of destructive functions, you may find yourself doing a lot of things with a lot less code lines.

Alternative is, add the below dependency,

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.vavr</groupId>
    <artifactId>vavr</artifactId>
    <version>0.9.0</version>
</dependency>

Now, you can use Vavr Function, like below upto 8 arguments,

3 arguments:

Function3<Integer, Integer, Integer, Integer> f = 
      (a, b, c) -> a + b + c;

5 arguments:

Function5<Integer, Integer, Integer, Integer, Integer, Integer> f = 
      (a, b, c, d, e) -> a + b + c + d + e;