Features of Java Version

Features of Java 5

For-each loop
Varargs
Static Import
Autoboxing and Unboxing
Enum
Covariant Return Type
Annotation
Generics



Features of Java 6

Pluggable Annotation Processing API
Common Annotations
Java API for XML Based Web Services – 2.0
JAXB 2.0
Web Services Metadata
Streaming API for XML
XML Digital Signature
Java Class File Specification Update
Java Compiler API
JDBC 4.0
Scripting in the Java Platform


Features of Java 7 (55 New Features)

String in switch statement
Binary Literals
The try-with-resources
Caching Multiple Exceptions by single catch
Underscores in Numeric Literals
Diamond Operator
Fork and Join
New File System API (NIO 2.0)
Concurrency Utilities


Features of Java 8

• Lambda expression − Adds functional processing capability to Java.

List primeNumbers = ReferenceToStaticMethod.testPredicate(numbers, a -> ReferenceToStaticMethod.isPrime(a));

• Method references − Referencing functions by their names instead of invoking them directly. Using functions as parameter.

List primeNumbers = ReferenceToStaticMethod.testPredicate(numbers, ReferenceToStaticMethod::isPrime);

• Default method − Interface to have default method implementation.
• New tools − New compiler tools and utilities are added like ‘jdeps’ to figure out dependencies.
• Stream API − New stream API to facilitate pipeline processing.
• Date Time API − Improved date time API.
• Optional − Emphasis on best practices to handle null values properly.
• Nashorn, JavaScript Engine − A Java-based engine to execute JavaScript code.