How Closures are executed? - groovy

Question

I'm very new to Groovy. I wonder how Closures are implemented in Groovy.
Lets say :
def a = { println "Hello" }
a()
when a() is done, what is actually happening behind the scenes? Which method does a() calls to make the closure executable?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Basically:
your closure is a class with specific name
a() invokes doCall() which invokes doCall(Object it) (implicit it in closures)
acallsite contains method names (2 x println) - and are invoked with appropriate arguments
Here you go:
For this Groovy Script:
def a = { println "Hello"; println "Hello2" }
a()
Closure a looks like this:
class Test$_run_closure1 extends Closure
implements GeneratedClosure
{
public Object doCall(Object it)
{
CallSite acallsite[] = $getCallSiteArray();
acallsite[0].callCurrent(this, "Hello");
return acallsite[1].callCurrent(this, "Hello2");
}
public Object doCall()
{
CallSite acallsite[] = $getCallSiteArray();
return doCall(null);
}
protected MetaClass $getStaticMetaClass()
{
if(getClass() != Test$_run_closure1)
return ScriptBytecodeAdapter.initMetaClass(this);
ClassInfo classinfo = $staticClassInfo;
if(classinfo == null)
$staticClassInfo = classinfo = ClassInfo.getClassInfo(getClass());
return classinfo.getMetaClass();
}
public static void __$swapInit()
{
CallSite acallsite[] = $getCallSiteArray();
$callSiteArray = null;
}
private static void $createCallSiteArray_1(String as[])
{
as[0] = "println";
as[1] = "println";
}
private static CallSiteArray $createCallSiteArray()
{
String as[] = new String[2];
$createCallSiteArray_1(as);
return new CallSiteArray(Test$_run_closure1, as);
}
private static CallSite[] $getCallSiteArray()
{
CallSiteArray callsitearray;
if($callSiteArray == null || (callsitearray = (CallSiteArray)$callSiteArray.get()) == null)
{
callsitearray = $createCallSiteArray();
$callSiteArray = new SoftReference(callsitearray);
}
return callsitearray.array;
}
static Class _mthclass$(String s)
{
try
{
return Class.forName(s);
}
catch(ClassNotFoundException classnotfoundexception)
{
throw new NoClassDefFoundError(classnotfoundexception.getMessage());
}
}
private static ClassInfo $staticClassInfo;
public static transient boolean __$stMC;
private static SoftReference $callSiteArray;
static
{
__$swapInit();
}
public Test$_run_closure1(Object _outerInstance, Object _thisObject)
{
CallSite acallsite[] = $getCallSiteArray();
super(_outerInstance, _thisObject);
}
}

Answer 2

It ends up calling one of the Closure.call methods (in this case the one with no args)
There's more info about this in the documentation