Difference between Groovy def and Java Object?

Question

I'm trying to figure out the difference between

Groovy:

def name = "stephanie"

Java:

Object name = "stephanie"

as both seem to act as objects in that to interact with them i have to cast them to their original intended type.

I was originally on a search for a java equivalent of C#'s dynamic class ( http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3935832/java-equivalent-to-c-dynamic-class-type ) and it was suggested to look at Groovy's def

for example my impression of groovy's def is that I could do the following:

def DOB = new Date(1998,5,23);
int x = DOB.getYear();

however this wont build

thanks,steph

Solution edit: Turns out the mistake iw as making is I had a groovy class wtih public properties (in my example above DOB) defined with def but then was attemping to access them from a .java class(in my example above calling .getYear() on it). Its a rookie mistake but the problem is once the object leaves a Groovy file it is simply treated as a Object. Thanks for all your help!

Answer 1

Per se, there is not much difference between those two statements; but since Groovy is a dynamic language, you can write

def name = "Stephanie"
println name.toUpperCase() // no cast required

while you would need an explicit cast in the Java version

Object name = "Stephanie";
System.out.println(((String) name).toUpperCase());

For that reason, def makes much more sense in Groovy than unfounded use of Object in Java.

Answer 2

You can experiment with groovy in the groovy web console http://groovyconsole.appspot.com/

Your initial groovy date example works.