G1Joshi Groovy
Groovy v4 adds Switch Expressions, Records, and Sealed Types. It remains the key to Gradle and Jenkins Pipelines.
When to Use
- Build Automation: Writing
build.gradlescripts. - CI/CD: Writing Jenkinsfiles.
- Scripting JVM: Interacting with Java libraries dynamically.
Core Concepts
Closures
{ item -> item.name }. The core functional primitive.
Dynamic Typing
def x = 1. (Though @CompileStatic can force types).
Builders
JsonBuilder, MarkupBuilder for generating hierarchical data.
Best Practices (2025)
Do:
- Use
@CompileStatic: For performance critical code (production logic). - Use Spock: The best testing framework on the JVM (written in Groovy).
- Use
defsparingly: Type your variables if you know them.
Don't:
- Don't mix logic in Gradle: Keep build scripts declarative. Move logic to
buildSrc.