Understanding Lombok: Simplify Your Java Code with Less Boilerplate

Boilerplate refers to sections of code that are repeated in multiple places with little to no variation. example- Getter and Setters

public class User {
    private String name;
    private String email;
    private int age;

    // Getters and Setters
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getEmail() {
        return email;
    }

    public void setEmail(String email) {
        this.email = email;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }
}

Such codes creates these problems:

1. Time-Consuming: Writing repetitive code takes up time that could be spent on solving actual problems.

2. Error-Prone: Manually adding repetitive code increases the risk of errors, such as typos or logical mistakes.

3. Hard to Maintain: If fields are added or modified, you must update all related boilerplate code.

To solve this problem Lombok is used, Lombok is a library that eliminates boilerplate code by using annotations.

Project Lombok: is a java library that automatically plugs into your editor and build tools, spicing up your java.
Never write another getter or equals method again, with one annotation your class has a fully featured builder, Automate your logging variables, and much more.

For example

import lombok.Data;

@Data
public class Person {
    private String name;
    private int age;
}

Here, the @Data annotation is used, which automatically generates Getters and Setters. This annotation also contains the toString(), equals(), and hashCode() methods and a parameterized constructor. If you want to use only getters and setters, just use @Getters and @Setters.

If you want to use Lombok, first you need to add dependency in project , in pom.xml.

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
   <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
   <version>1.18.36</version>
   <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

After this just reload pom.xml. and add @Data annotation where you want to generate Getters and Setters and other thing automatically.

Here is the code after the use of Lombok

import lombok.Data;

@Data
public class User {
    private String name;
    private String email;
    private int age;
}

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