Lambda can be replaced with method reference

Reports lambdas that can be replaced with method references. While often it could be a matter of taste, method references are more clear and readable compared to lambdas.

Example:

Runnable r = () -> System.out.println();

After the quick-fix is applied:

Runnable r = System.out::println;

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

Convert2MethodRef

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

The inspection may suggest method references even if a lambda doesn't call any method, like replacing obj -> obj != null with Objects::nonNull. Use the Settings | Editor | Code Style | Java | Code Generation settings to configure special method references.

This inspection depends on the following Java features:

Lambda expressions
Method references

These features are available since Java 8.

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection Convert2MethodRef

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025