What are the pros and cons of using Record Classes for Data Transfer Objects in Java?

All answers to this question.

The biggest pro of Records is "Immutability by Design." A record is a transparent carrier for shallowly immutable data. Unlike Lombok-generated classes, the JVM actually understands that a Record's fields won't change, which allows the JIT compiler to perform better optimizations. From a security standpoint, because records don't allow for setters or custom constructors that bypass the header, they are much safer for deserialization. You avoid a whole class of bugs where an object state is partially modified or inconsistent. It’s the "clean" way to handle data in modern Java.

   Answered 2025-02-17 by Heather Miller

What about the lack of inheritance? We often have a base BaseDTO with fields like id and timestamp. Since Records can't extend other classes, how do you handle common fields without repeating yourself?

   Answered 2025-02-19 by Thomas King

• Thomas, that is the main "con." To handle common fields, we’ve switched to using Interfaces. Since Records can implement interfaces, we define a HasIdentity interface with a getId() method. It’s a slight shift from the "Inheritance" model to the "Composition" model, but it actually leads to more decoupled and testable code. We refactored our 'User Management' module last month, and the reduction in Lombok-related "magic" made our static analysis tools much happier.

     Commented 2025-02-22 by Robert Collins

Records also work perfectly with the new 'Pattern Matching for Switch.' You can deconstruct a record directly in a switch expression, which makes your business logic incredibly expressive.

   Answered 2025-02-24 by Christopher Lee

• I agree with Christopher. Deconstruction is a feature Lombok will never be able to provide as seamlessly as a native language construct.

     Commented 2025-02-27 by Heather Miller