The Benefits of Java 14 Records vs. Lombok

Java 14 Record vs. Lombok

The release of Java 14 brought us the new record keyword, which provides a modern and concise way to define simple value objects. It can also be used to as an alternative to the popular Lombok library for seamless value object creation.

When using Lombok, you don't need to write any extra code to generate your value types. It automatically generates getters, setters, equals, hashcode and toString methods for you. This eliminates a lot of boilerplate code, making it easier and faster to develop applications.

Java 14 record offers similar benefits, but with a different approach. Records are immutable and behave like regular classes, but with less code. All fields defined in the record become final and getters are automatically generated. Additionally, you can add custom methods and override the automatically generated methods like equals, hashCode and toString.

Both Lombok and records provide the same benefits of reducing boilerplate code, but they come with different tradeoffs. Lombok requires additional runtime processing and requires an annotation processor or plugin support in your IDE and build tool. Records, on the other hand, have an compile time performance overhead as all methods must be generated and verified by the compiler.

At the end it comes down to preference. If you like being able to control more of the internals of your objects, then Lombok is probably a better fit. If you want something that is more concise and has less code, then records might be the way to go.