According to JavaDocs the Stream map function takes a Function<? super T,? extends R> mapper as an argument.
The mapper parameter is described as:
a non-interfering, stateless function to apply to each element
I understand why stateless, but why Non-interfering?
Edit: Including Non-interfering JavaDoc link:
Streams enable you to execute possibly-parallel aggregate operations over a variety of data sources, including even non-thread-safe collections such as ArrayList. This is possible only if we can prevent interference with the data source during the execution of a stream pipeline. Except for the escape-hatch operations iterator() and spliterator(), execution begins when the terminal operation is invoked, and ends when the terminal operation completes. For most data sources, preventing interference means ensuring that the data source is not modified at all during the execution of the stream pipeline. The notable exception to this are streams whose sources are concurrent collections, which are specifically designed to handle concurrent modification. Concurrent stream sources are those whose Spliterator reports the CONCURRENT characteristic. Accordingly, behavioral parameters in stream pipelines whose source might not be concurrent should never modify the stream's data source. A behavioral parameter is said to interfere with a non-concurrent data source if it modifies, or causes to be modified, the stream's data source. The need for non-interference applies to all pipelines, not just parallel ones. Unless the stream source is concurrent, modifying a stream's data source during execution of a stream pipeline can cause exceptions, incorrect answers, or nonconformant behavior. For well-behaved stream sources, the source can be modified before the terminal operation commences and those modifications will be reflected in the covered elements. For example, consider the following code:
List<String> l = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList("one", "two"));
Stream<String> sl = l.stream();
l.add("three");
String s = sl.collect(joining(" "));
First a list is created consisting of two strings: "one"; and "two". Then a stream is created from that list. Next the list is modified by adding a third string: "three". Finally the elements of the stream are collected and joined together. Since the list was modified before the terminal collect operation commenced the result will be a string of "one two three". All the streams returned from JDK collections, and most other JDK classes, are well-behaved in this manner; for streams generated by other libraries, see Low-level stream construction for requirements for building well-behaved streams.
