map和flatMap都可以应用于一个<T>的流，它们都返回一个<R>的流。不同之处在于map操作为每个输入值生成一个输出值，而flatMap操作为每个输入值生成任意数量(零个或多个)值。

这反映在每个操作的参数中。

map操作接受一个函数，该函数针对输入流中的每个值被调用，并产生一个结果值，该结果值被发送到输出流。

The flatMap operation takes a function that conceptually wants to consume one value and produce an arbitrary number of values. However, in Java, it's cumbersome for a method to return an arbitrary number of values, since methods can return only zero or one value. One could imagine an API where the mapper function for flatMap takes a value and returns an array or a List of values, which are then sent to the output. Given that this is the streams library, a particularly apt way to represent an arbitrary number of return values is for the mapper function itself to return a stream! The values from the stream returned by the mapper are drained from the stream and are passed to the output stream. The "clumps" of values returned by each call to the mapper function are not distinguished at all in the output stream, thus the output is said to have been "flattened."

典型的用法是flatMap的mapper函数返回Stream.empty()，如果它想发送零值，或者类似于Stream。(a, b, c)如果它想返回几个值。当然，任何流都可以返回。

Oracle关于Optional的文章强调了map和flatmap的区别:

String version = computer.map(Computer::getSoundcard)
                  .map(Soundcard::getUSB)
                  .map(USB::getVersion)
                  .orElse("UNKNOWN");

Unfortunately, this code doesn't compile. Why? The variable computer is of type Optional<Computer>, so it is perfectly correct to call the map method. However, getSoundcard() returns an object of type Optional. This means the result of the map operation is an object of type Optional<Optional<Soundcard>>. As a result, the call to getUSB() is invalid because the outermost Optional contains as its value another Optional, which of course doesn't support the getUSB() method. With streams, the flatMap method takes a function as an argument, which returns another stream. This function is applied to each element of a stream, which would result in a stream of streams. However, flatMap has the effect of replacing each generated stream by the contents of that stream. In other words, all the separate streams that are generated by the function get amalgamated or "flattened" into one single stream. What we want here is something similar, but we want to "flatten" a two-level Optional into one. Optional also supports a flatMap method. Its purpose is to apply the transformation function on the value of an Optional (just like the map operation does) and then flatten the resulting two-level Optional into a single one. So, to make our code correct, we need to rewrite it as follows using flatMap:

String version = computer.flatMap(Computer::getSoundcard)
                   .flatMap(Soundcard::getUSB)
                   .map(USB::getVersion)
                   .orElse("UNKNOWN");

第一个flatMap确保返回Optional<Soundcard> 而不是一个Optional<Optional<Soundcard>>，和第二个flatMap 实现相同的目的，返回Optional<USB>。注意 第三个调用只需要一个map()，因为getVersion()返回一个 字符串而不是可选对象。

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/java8-optional-2175753.html

流。flatMap，顾名思义，是映射和平面操作的组合。这意味着您首先将一个函数应用到元素上，然后将其压平。流。Map仅将函数应用于流，而不会将流平展。

为了理解流的扁平化是由什么组成的，考虑一个像[[1,2,3]，[4,5,6]，[7,8,9]]这样的结构，它有“两个层次”。扁平化意味着将其转换为“一级”结构:[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]。

这对初学者来说是很困惑的。基本的区别是map为列表中的每个条目发出一个项，而flatMap基本上是一个map + flatten操作。更清楚地说，当你需要多个值时使用flatMap，例如当你期望一个循环返回数组时，flatMap在这种情况下非常有用。

我写了一篇关于这方面的博客，你可以在这里查看。

简单的答案。

映射操作可以生成流的流。前流<流<整数> >

flatMap操作只会产生流。前流<整数>

流操作flatMap和map接受函数作为输入。

flatMap期望该函数为流的每个元素返回一个新的流，并返回一个流，该流结合了该函数为每个元素返回的流的所有元素。换句话说，使用flatMap，对于来自源的每个元素，函数将创建多个元素。http://www.zoftino.com/java-stream-examples#flatmap-operation

Map期望函数返回一个转换后的值，并返回一个包含转换后元素的新流。换句话说，使用map，对于来自源的每个元素，函数将创建一个转换后的元素。 http://www.zoftino.com/java-stream-examples#map-operation