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Java Versions and Features

Java versions

A curated list of the Java versions and features across all releases of Java, including the latest Java version.

New features in Java 20 (latest Java version)

Java 20 (JDK 20) version, the latest Java version, contemplates 7 features and was released on March 2023. Structured Concurrency (Second Incubator) and Virtual Threads (Second Preview) are two examples of what is new in Java 20. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 19

Java 19 (JDK 19) version, the latest Java version, contemplates 7 features and was released on September 2022. Structured Concurrency and Virtual Threads are two examples of what is new in Java 19. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 18

Java 18 (JDK 18) version contemplates 9 features and was released on March 2022. Simple Web Server and UTF-8 By Default are two examples of what is new in Java 18. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 17

Java 17 (JDK 17) version contemplates 14 features and was released on September 2021. Sealed Classes and Pattern Matching for switch (Preview) are two examples of what is new in Java 17. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 16

Java 16 (JDK 16) version contemplates 17 features and was released on March 2021. Records and Pattern Matching for instanceof are two examples of what is new in Java 16. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 15

Java 15 (JDK 15) version contemplates 14 features and was released on September 2020. Hidden Classes and Text Blocks are two examples of what is new in Java 15. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 14

Java 14 (JDK 14) version contemplates 16 features and was released on March 2020. The first preview of Records and the first preview of Pattern Matching for instanceof are two examples of what is new in Java 14. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 13

Java 13 (JDK 13) version contemplates 5 features and was released on September 2019. The first preview of Text Blocks and the first preview of Switch Expressions are two examples of what is new in Java 13. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 12

Java 12 (JDK 12) version contemplates 8 features and was released on March 2019. The first preview of Switch Expressions and Microbenchmark Suite are two examples of what is new in Java 12. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 11

Java 11 (JDK 11) version contemplates 17 features and was released on September 2018. The Flight Recorder and support for TLS 1.3 and Unicode 10 are three examples of what is new in Java 11. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 10

Java 10 (JDK 10) contemplates 12 features and was released on March 2018. The Local-Variable Type Inference (var) and the Parallel Full GC for G1 are two examples of what is new in Java 10. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 9

Java 9 (JDK 9) contemplates 91 features and was released on September 2017. The Modular JDK and the jshell are two examples of what is new in Java 9. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 8

Java 8 (JDK 8) contemplates 55 features and was released on March 2014. The Date & Time API and the Lambda Expressions are two examples of what is new in Java 8. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 7

Java 7 (JDK 7) contemplates 24 features and was released on July 2011. The New I/O APIs (NIO.2) and the Small Language Enhancements (Project Coin), which includes Strings in switch statements and the automatic resource management try-with-resources, are examples of what is new in Java 7. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 6

Java 6 (JDK 6) contemplates 11 features and was released on December 2006. The Java Compiler API and the JDBC 4.0 are examples of what is new in Java 6. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 5

Java 5 (JDK 5) contemplates 15 features and was released on September 2004. The Generics Types, Enumerations, Autoboxing, Enhanced for loops and Static Import are examples of what is new in Java 5. The complete list of features is:

  • JSR-003: JavaTM Management Extensions (JMXTM) Specification
  • JSR-013: Decimal Arithmetic Enhancement
  • JSR-014: Add Generic Types to the JavaTM Programming Language
  • JSR-028: JavaTM SASL Specfication
  • JSR-114: JDBC Rowset Implementations
  • JSR-133: JavaTM Memory Model and Thread Specification Revision
  • JSR-163: JavaTM Platform Profiling Architecture
  • JSR-166: Concurrency Utilities
  • JSR-174: Monitoring and Management Specification for the JavaTM Virtual Machine
  • JSR-175: A Metadata Facility for the JavaTM Programming Language
  • JSR-199: JavaTM Compiler API
  • JSR-200: Network Transfer Format for JavaTM Archives
  • JSR-201: Extending the JavaTM Programming Language with Enumerations, Autoboxing, Enhanced for loops and Static Import
  • JSR-204: Unicode Supplementary Character Support
  • JSR-206: JavaTM API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.3

New features in Java 4

Java 4 (JDK 4) contemplates 10 features and was released on May 2002. The New I/O API (NIO.1) and JDBC 3.0 are examples of what is new in Java 4. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 3

Java 3 (JDK 3) contemplates 10 features and was released on May 2000. The JDNI and Java Sound are examples of what is new in Java 3. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 2

Java 2 (JDK 2) contemplates 8 features and was released on December 1998. The Collections Framework and the Java Foundation Classes are examples of what is new in Java 2. The complete list of features is:

New features in Java 1.1

Java 1.1 (JDK 1.1) contemplates 6 features and was released on February 1997. The JDBC and the Java JavaBeans API are examples of what is new in Java 1.1. The complete list of features is:

  • JavaBeans API
  • Improved AWT
  • JDBC
  • RMI for remote object access
  • Additional Java Security APIs
  • Global language support based on Unicode 2.0 standards

New features in Java 1

Java 1.0 was released on January 1996

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