forEach not modify java(8) collection

Question

Say I have an Integer list and I'm using Java 8 forEach method on the list to double its values. Say I have the following code:

List<Integer> l = Arrays.asList(2,3,6,1,9);
l.forEach(p->p*=2);

As forEach method take Consumer and calls it accept methos. I print the list after runnig the above code and the original list doesn't change.

As far as I understand Stream doesn't alter the source but here I just call accept method on each element...

Thank u in advace

Answer 1

The method forEach only iterates through the elements of the list without changing them, If you want to change the elements, you can use the method replaceAll:

List<Integer> l = Arrays.asList(2,3,6,1,9);
l.replaceAll(p->p*2);

Answer 2

The reason that forEach does not mutate the list comes down to the specification:

The javadoc for forEach says:

default void forEach(Consumer<? super T> action)

..... The default implementation behaves as if:

     for (T t : this)
         action.accept(t);

As you can see:

• The action is a Consumer; i.e. it doesn't generate a value.
• The semantics don't allow for the this collection to be updated.