The Stable Values API is a preview feature in Java 25 that allows developers to define immutable objects that are initialized at most once. It combines the flexibility of lazy initialization with the performance advantages of final fields.

In this episode, Ana hosts Per Minborg, a member of the Java Core Library team at Oracle and co-author of JEP 502 on Stable Values. Per explains the concept behind Stable Values and how this approach addresses the drawbacks of eager initialization in Java. By deferring the creation of expensive resources until they are actually needed, Stable Values contribute to more efficient application startup. He also discusses the design process and specifics of the API, highlighting its benefits in multi-threaded environments—particularly its ability to ensure thread-safe, at-most-once initialization without the need for complex synchronization mechanisms.