--- title: Getting Rid Of Unused Variables (Finally) | daily.dev description: JEP 443 introduces unnamed variables and patterns to Java, allowing developers to replace unused variables with a single underscore (_). This applies to lambda... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/getting-rid-of-unused-variables-finally--frrim0sqv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Getting Rid Of Unused Variables (Finally) | daily.dev og:description: JEP 443 introduces unnamed variables and patterns to Java, allowing developers to replace unused variables with a single underscore (_). This applies to lambda... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/getting-rid-of-unused-variables-finally--frrim0sqv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/frrim0sqv.png og:image:alt: Getting Rid Of Unused Variables (Finally) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Getting Rid Of Unused Variables (Finally) **[nipafx \(Nicolai Parlog\)](https://daily.dev/sources/nipafx)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary JEP 443 introduces unnamed variables and patterns to Java, allowing developers to replace unused variables with a single underscore (_). This applies to lambda parameters, catch block exceptions, try-with-resources, for-loop variables, and destructured record components. Since _ doesn't place a name in scope, it can be reused multiple times within the same scope. A key benefit beyond convenience is enabling maintainable switch expressions over sealed types: unnamed patterns allow grouping multiple subtypes in one case label (e.g., `case Triangle _, Rectangle _ ->`) without a default branch, so the compiler will flag missing cases when new subtypes are added. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Design Patterns Update to JDK25](https://daily.dev/posts/design-patterns-update-to-jdk25-os3gwhnxf) · Foojay.io · 23 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#java](https://daily.dev/tags/java) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/getting-rid-of-unused-variables-finally--frrim0sqv) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Getting Rid Of Unused Variables (Finally)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/getting-rid-of-unused-variables-finally--frrim0sqv","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/getting-rid-of-unused-variables-finally--frrim0sqv"},"datePublished":"2026-03-16T08:13:55.264Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T08:23:16.111Z","description":"JEP 443 introduces unnamed variables and patterns to Java, allowing developers to replace unused variables with a single underscore (_). 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