Using records

In Java, records are a type of static class, which hold an immutable set of final fields. With StrokkCommands, you can use records to add arguments to a group of inner executor methods.

An example command with normal classes

The standard approach to making a command /fillblock <pos1> <pos2> <block_state> could look like this:

@Command("fillblock")
class FillBlockCommand {

  @Executes
  void execute(CommandSender sender, BlockPosition pos1, BlockPosition pos2, BlockState state) {
    // ...
  }
}

This is perfectly fine an acceptable. The issues here start when you want to add more arguments. For example, if you want to add another int argument, which limits the number of placed blocks per ticks, the command would quickly grow to this:

@Command("fillblock")
class FillBlockCommand {

  @Executes
  void execute(CommandSender sender, BlockPosition pos1, BlockPosition pos2, BlockState state) {
    execute(sender, pos1, pos2, state, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
  }

  @Executes
  void execute(CommandSender sender, BlockPosition pos1, BlockPosition pos2, BlockState state, int perTick) {
    // ...
  }
}

And suddenly you got a lot of code repetition which seems unnecessary. So what is the solution?

The solution are records!

Using records

Generally, records behave the same way as normal classes. They can be used as a drop in replacement:

@Command("fillblock")
class FillBlockCommand {
record FillBlockCommand() {

  @Executes
  void execute(CommandSender sender, BlockPosition pos1, BlockPosition pos2, BlockState state) {
    execute(sender, pos1, pos2, state, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
  }

  @Executes
  void execute(CommandSender sender, BlockPosition pos1, BlockPosition pos2, BlockState state, int perTick) {
    // ...
  }
}

But that’s boring. The real fun starts with the fact that you can offload common arguments to the components of the record, like this:

@Command("fillblock")
record FillBlockCommand(BlockPosition pos1, BlockPosition pos2, BlockState state) {

  @Executes
  void execute(CommandSender sender) {
    execute(sender, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
  }

  @Executes
  void execute(CommandSender sender, int perTick) {
    // ...
  }
}

It is (hopefully) not hard to see how much power records hold. You can avoid a lot of code repetition, primarily when working with commands with a lot of arguments and one or two optional arguments.