Java 8 for beginners - Part 1
Shanker
Posted on December 1, 2021
Introduction
JAVA 8 is a major feature release of Java programming language. It was initially released on 18 March 2014. Java 8 provides support for functional programming, new JavaScript engine, new APIs for date time manipulation, new streaming API, etc.
Below are some of the new features in Java 8 :
1) Lambda expression − Adds functional processing capability to Java.
2) Method references − Referencing functions by their names instead of invoking them directly. Using functions as parameter.
3) Default method − Interface to have default method implementation.
4) New tools − New compiler tools and utilities are added like ‘jdeps’ to figure out dependencies.
5) Stream API − New stream API to facilitate pipeline processing.
6) Date Time API − Improved date time API.
7) Optional − Emphasis on best practices to handle null values properly.
8) Nashorn, JavaScript Engine − A Java-based engine to execute JavaScript code.
Check out below program to sort names in Java 7 vs Java 8 to understand how lambda help us write a clean and elegant code in java.
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> names1 = new ArrayList<String>();
names1.add("Sam ");
names1.add("James ");
names1.add("Wilson ");
names1.add("Edward ");
names1.add("Ramesh ");
List<String> names2 = new ArrayList<String>();
names2.add("Sam ");
names2.add("James ");
names2.add("Wilson ");
names2.add("Edward ");
names2.add("Ramesh ");
Main tester = new Main();
System.out.println("Sort using Java 7 syntax: ");
tester.sortByJava7(names1);
System.out.println(names1);
System.out.println("Sort using Java 8 syntax: ");
tester.sortByJava8(names2);
System.out.println(names2);
}
//sort by java 7
private void sortByJava7(List<String> names) {
Collections.sort(names, new Comparator<String>() {
@Override
public int compare(String s1, String s2) {
return s1.compareTo(s2);
}
});
}
//sort by java 8
private void sortByJava8(List<String> names) {
Collections.sort(names, (s1, s2) -> s1.compareTo(s2));
}
}
Output :
Sort using Java 7 syntax:
[Edward , James , Ramesh , Sam , Wilson ]
Sort using Java 8 syntax:
[Edward , James , Ramesh , Sam , Wilson ]
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Posted on December 1, 2021
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