[GROOVY-8320] Support property references in addition to the method references from Java 8

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 2.6.0-alpha-1
• Component/s: parser-antlr2
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: David Kron
• Created: 15/Sep/17 23:35
• Updated: 16/Sep/17 00:12

Description

It would be great if the method reference syntax from Java (Class::method or obj::method) could also be extended to support Groovy properties. The new parser currently already parses the syntax without error, but it gets treated as a method reference.

Potential example usage:

class Test {
    String property
}

def test = new Test(property: 'Hello')
def boundReference = test::property
def unboundReference = Test::property

// getting/setting property using bound reference
println boundReference.get()
boundReference.set('Hello to you!')

// getting/setting property using unbound reference
println unboundReference.get(test)
unboundReference.set(test, 'Hello to you!')

// retrieving meta information
println boundReference.type
println boundReference.name
println boundReference.target