Can Groovy do everything Java can?

Question

I tend to think that Groovy is a super-set of Java... But I would like to hear opinions of more seasoned developers.

Is there anything that you can do in Java, but not in Groovy?

Java EE specs are fairly complex and maybe some of them are not accessible via Groovy?

As Will mentioned, here is something in place of [do..while](http://stackoverflow.com/a/20921949/2051952) — dmahapatro, Jan 27 '14 at 18:36

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 27 '14 at 17:20

2

do { ... } while() comes to mind. You can emulate it using closures or whatever.

...

We are currently working on a Java EE 6 coded mostly in Groovy. No problems whatsoever. CDI, transactions, jsf's managed beans, all work flawlessly. Of course we are kinda restricted when it comes to metaprogramming, so we usually use it for tests, mocks and when there are only groovy objects talking.

answered Jan 27 '14 at 17:20

Will

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Encapsulation and inheritance can get a little freaky also – tim_yates Jan 27 '14 at 21:53
@tim_yates with `@CompileStatic` as well? – dmahapatro Jan 28 '14 at 02:03

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 27 '14 at 17:29

You can do everything with Groovy you can do with Java. The only complication is when you want the two to interact.

You can also use all the popular frameworks like Spring. In fact, Spring even lets you configure your beans with a Groovy bean definition DSL.

Can Groovy do everything Java can?

2 Answers2