Program structure

This chapter covers the program structure of the Groovy programming language.

1. Package names

Package names play exactly the same role as in Java. They allow us to separate the code base without any conflicts. Groovy classes must specify their package before the class definition, else the default package is assumed.

Defining a package is very similar to Java:

// defining a package named com.yoursite
package com.yoursite

To refer to some class Foo in the com.yoursite.com package you will need to use the fully qualified name com.yoursite.com.Foo, or else you can use an import statement as we’ll see below.

2. Imports

In order to refer to any class you need a qualified reference to its package. Groovy follows Java’s notion of allowing import statement to resolve class references.

For example, Groovy provides several builder classes, such as MarkupBuilder. MarkupBuilder is inside the package groovy.xml so in order to use this class, you need to import it as shown:

// importing the class MarkupBuilder
import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder

// using the imported class to create an object
def xml = new MarkupBuilder()

assert xml != null

2.1. Default imports

Default imports are the imports that Groovy language provides by default. For example look at the following code:

new Date()

The same code in Java needs an import statement to Date class like this: import java.util.Date. Groovy by default imports these classes for you.

The below imports are added by groovy for you:

import java.lang.*
import java.util.*
import java.io.*
import java.net.*
import groovy.lang.*
import groovy.util.*
import java.math.BigInteger
import java.math.BigDecimal

This is done because the classes from these packages are most commonly used. By importing these boilerplate code is reduced.

2.2. Simple import

A simple import is an import statement where you fully define the class name along with the package. For example the import statement import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder in the code below is a simple import which directly refers to a class inside a package.

// importing the class MarkupBuilder
import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder

// using the imported class to create an object
def xml = new MarkupBuilder()

assert xml != null

2.3. Star import

Groovy, like Java, provides a special way to import all classes from a package using *, the so-called star import. MarkupBuilder is a class which is in package groovy.xml, alongside another class called StreamingMarkupBuilder. In case you need to use both classes, you can do:

import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder
import groovy.xml.StreamingMarkupBuilder

def markupBuilder = new MarkupBuilder()

assert markupBuilder != null

assert new StreamingMarkupBuilder() != null

That’s perfectly valid code. But with a * import, we can achieve the same effect with just one line. The star imports all the classes under package groovy.xml:

import groovy.xml.*

def markupBuilder = new MarkupBuilder()

assert markupBuilder != null

assert new StreamingMarkupBuilder() != null

One problem with * imports is that they can clutter your local namespace. But with the kinds of aliasing provided by Groovy, this can be solved easily.

2.4. Static import

Groovy’s static import capability allows you to reference imported classes as if they were static methods in your own class:

import static Boolean.FALSE

assert !FALSE //use directly, without Boolean prefix!

This is similar to Java’s static import capability but is a more dynamic than Java in that it allows you to define methods with the same name as an imported method as long as you have different types:

import static java.lang.String.format (1)

class SomeClass {

    String format(Integer i) { (2)
        i.toString()
    }

    static void main(String[] args) {
        assert format('String') == 'String' (3)
        assert new SomeClass().format(Integer.valueOf(1)) == '1'
    }
}

1	static import of method
2	declaration of method with same name as method statically imported above, but with a different parameter type
3	compile error in java, but is valid groovy code

If you have the same types, the imported class takes precedence.

2.5. Static import aliasing

Static imports with the as keyword provide an elegant solution to namespace problems. Suppose you want to get a Calendar instance, using its getInstance() method. It’s a static method, so we can use a static import. But instead of calling getInstance() every time, which can be misleading when separated from its class name, we can import it with an alias, to increase code readability:

import static Calendar.getInstance as now

assert now().class == Calendar.getInstance().class

Now, that’s clean!

2.6. Static star import

A static star import is very similar to the regular star import. It will import all the static methods from the given class.

For example, lets say we need to calculate sines and cosines for our application. The class java.lang.Math has static methods named sin and cos which fit our need. With the help of a static star import, we can do:

import static java.lang.Math.*

assert sin(0) == 0.0
assert cos(0) == 1.0

As you can see, we were able to access the methods sin and cos directly, without the Math. prefix.

2.7. Import aliasing

With type aliasing, we can refer to a fully qualified class name using a name of our choice. This can be done with the as keyword, as before.

For example we can import java.sql.Date as SQLDate and use it in the same file as java.util.Date without having to use the fully qualified name of either class:

import java.util.Date
import java.sql.Date as SQLDate

Date utilDate = new Date(1000L)
SQLDate sqlDate = new SQLDate(1000L)

assert utilDate instanceof java.util.Date
assert sqlDate instanceof java.sql.Date

3. Scripts versus classes

3.1. public static void main vs script

Groovy supports both scripts and classes. Take the following code for example:

Main.groovy

class Main {                                    (1)
    static void main(String... args) {          (2)
        println 'Groovy world!'                 (3)
    }
}

1	define a `Main` class, the name is arbitrary
2	the `public static void main(String[])` method is usable as the main method of the class
3	the main body of the method

This is typical code that you would find coming from Java, where code has to be embedded into a class to be executable. Groovy makes it easier, the following code is equivalent:

Main.groovy

println 'Groovy world!'

A script can be considered as a class without needing to declare it, with some differences.

3.2. Script class

A groovy.lang.Script is always compiled into a class. The Groovy compiler will compile the class for you, with the body of the script copied into a run method. The previous example is therefore compiled as if it was the following:

Main.groovy

import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper
class Main extends Script {                     (1)
    def run() {                                 (2)
        println 'Groovy world!'                 (3)
    }
    static void main(String[] args) {           (4)
        InvokerHelper.runScript(Main, args)     (5)
    }
}

1	The `Main` class extends the `groovy.lang.Script` class
2	`groovy.lang.Script` requires a `run` method returning a value
3	the script body goes into the `run` method
4	the `main` method is automatically generated
5	and delegates the execution of the script on the `run` method

If the script is in a file, then the base name of the file is used to determine the name of the generated script class. In this example, if the name of the file is Main.groovy, then the script class is going to be Main.

3.3. Methods

It is possible to define methods into a script, as illustrated here:

int fib(int n) {
    n < 2 ? 1 : fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
}
assert fib(10)==89

You can also mix methods and code. The generated script class will carry all methods into the script class, and assemble all script bodies into the run method:

println 'Hello'                                 (1)

int power(int n) { 2**n }                       (2)

println "2^6==${power(6)}"                      (3)

1	script begins
2	a method is defined within the script body
3	and script continues

This code is internally converted into:

import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper
class Main extends Script {
    int power(int n) { 2** n}                   (1)
    def run() {
        println 'Hello'                         (2)
        println "2^6==${power(6)}"              (3)
    }
    static void main(String[] args) {
        InvokerHelper.runScript(Main, args)
    }
}

1	the `power` method is copied as is into the generated script class
2	first statement is copied into the `run` method
3	second statement is copied into the `run` method

Even if Groovy creates a class from your script, it is totally transparent for the user. In particular, scripts are compiled to bytecode, and line numbers are preserved. This implies that if an exception is thrown in a script, the stack trace will show line numbers corresponding to the original script, not the generated code that we have shown.

3.4. Variables

Variables in a script do not require a type definition. This means that this script:

int x = 1
int y = 2
assert x+y == 3

will behave the same as:

x = 1
y = 2
assert x+y == 3

However, there is a semantic difference between the two:

if the variable is declared as in the first example, it is a local variable. It will be declared in the run method that the compiler will generate and will not be visible outside of the script main body. In particular, such a variable will not be visible in other methods of the script
if the variable is undeclared, it goes into the groovy.lang.Script#getBinding(). The binding is visible from the methods, and is especially important if you use a script to interact with an application and need to share data between the script and the application. Readers might refer to the integration guide for more information.

Another approach to making a variable visible to all methods, is to use the @Field annotation. A variable annotated this way will become a field of the generated script class and, as for local variables, access won’t involve the script Binding. While not recommended, if you have a local variable or script field with the same name as a binding variable, you can use binding.varName to access the binding variable.