[bkase]

Thanks for the info! I did know that passing lambdas to Java API calls still has to instantiate an anonymous inner class, but the details about what happens in each situation are new to me (and really interesting).

I'm sorry that I didn't make it clearer in my post (I'll edit it), but the thing I really appreciate is that I can use functional methods on objects (like map, fold, filter on iterables or our monadic bind method on optionals) and pass lambdas because I know it will be inlined. The inlining -- which should always happen this particular scenario (please correct me if I'm wrong) -- makes using these methods super cheap!

[badlogic]

Only a look at the resulting bytecode will tell you what happens in your scenarios :)

[mdaniel]

No need for bytecode when a stacktrace will do :-)

    public static void main(String... args) {
        Runnable r = () -> {
            ((Object)null).toString(); // kaboom
        };
        r.run();
    }