5 Advanced Java Techniques for Better Code

Advance but useful design patterns

Java’s got some hidden tricks that can make your life a whole lot easier. In this article, we cut through the noise and dive into five underused practices that help you write cleaner, safer, and smarter code.

Type-Safe Heterogeneous Container

A pattern that lets you store and retrieve objects of various types from a single container without losing type safety. It uses a map keyed by Class<T> so that the correct type is enforced at compile time.

Importance:

• Safety: Avoids unchecked casts and runtime errors.
• Clarity: Makes your intent explicit by tying stored values to their classes.
• Flexibility: Useful when you want to attach metadata or “favorites” to different types.

When to Use It:

• Imagine you’re building a plugin system where each plugin can register its own settings or metadata of different types (e.g., Integer for a timeout, String for a file path). A type-safe heterogeneous container allows you to store and retrieve these values without guessing their types.

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Objects;

public class Favorites {…