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A categorized list of all Java and JVM features since JDK 8 to 17

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A categorized list of all Java and JVM features since JDK 8 to 17

From Java 8 to 17

Last updated on 2021/09/16 to include changes up to JDK 17.

This article is also available in Chinese by Alex Tan.

Since the release of version 8, up to version 17, Java is shaped by 194 JDK Enhancement Proposals (JEPs), each of which brings some improvement to the platform. This page is a categorized and curated list of the most important improvements.

JDK timeline

Contents of this page:

The full list of JEPs can be found on the OpenJDK website under the jdk and jdk9 projects.

We write articles like this regularly. Join our mailing list and let's keep in touch.

All features are generally available and enabled by default, except if they are labelled with one of the following:

  • Preview 🔍 features are fully specified and implemented, but not yet considered to be final. They are considered to be almost complete, waiting for an additional round of real-world feedback. They have to be explicitly enabled.
  • Experimental 💥 features are less stable, and more likely to change. They also have to be explicitly enabled.
  • Incubator 🥚 modules are non-final tools and API’s, and are distributed in separate modules.

New Language Features

Since Java 8 lots of improvements were made to the language. This section is a quick recap on what happened in the last years. For a more in-depth guide, see New language features since Java 8.

Related
Enhancements to the Java language you should know
  • Sealed Classes can restrict which other classes may extend them
    JDK 17 (Preview 🔍 in JDK 16 JDK 15) 
    public abstract sealed class Shape
    permits Circle, Rectangle {...}

public class Circle extends Shape {...} // OK
public class Rectangle extends Shape {...} // OK
public class Triangle extends Shape {...} // Compile error

// No need for default case if all permitted types are covered
double area = switch (shape) {
    case Circle c    -> Math.pow(c.radius(), 2) * Math.PI
    case Rectangle r -> r.a() * r.b()
};
  • Pattern Matching for switch supporting type patterns and guarded patterns (Preview 🔍)
    JDK 17 
    String formatted = switch (o) {
    case Integer i && i > 10 -> String.format("a large Integer %d", i);
    case Integer i -> String.format("a small Integer %d", i);
    case Long l    -> String.format("a Long %d", l);
    default        -> o.toString();
};

    → Related: Inside Java - Episode 17 “Pattern Matching for switch” with Gavin Bierman

  • Record Classes, terse syntax to define immutable DTOs
    JDK 16 (Preview 🔍 in JDK 15 JDK 14) 
    record Point(int x, int y) { }
  
var point = new Point(1, 2);
point.x(); // returns 1
point.y(); // returns 2

    → Related: Inside Java - Episode 14 “Records Serialization” with Julia Boes and Chris Hegarty

  • Pattern Matching for instanceof to eliminate the need for explicit casts after a type check
    JDK 16 (Preview 🔍 in JDK 15 JDK 14) 
    if (obj instanceof String s && s.length() > 5) {
    System.out.println("obj is a String with more than 5 characters: " + s.toUpperCase());
}
  • Text Blocks
    JDK 15 (Preview 🔍 in JDK 14 JDK 13) 
    String html = """
            <html>
                <body>
                    <p>Hello, world</p>
                </body>
            </html>
            """;
  • Helpful NullPointerExceptions describing precisely which variable was null
    JDK 15 (Enabled with -XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages in JDK 14) 
    a.b.c.i = 99;
---
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException:
      Cannot read field "c" because "a.b" is null
  • Switch Expressions
    JDK 14 (Preview 🔍 in JDK 12 JDK 13) 
    int numLetters = switch (day) {
    case MONDAY, FRIDAY, SUNDAY -> 6;
    case TUESDAY                -> 7;
    default      -> {
      String s = day.toString();
      int result = s.length();
      yield result;
    }
};
  • Introduction of var to make local variable declarations less ceremonious
    JDK 11 (Without lambda support in JDK 10) 
    var greeting = "Hello World!";
  • Opt-in and backwards-compatible Module System to avoid ClassDefNotFoundErrors at runtime and create internal APIs
    JDK 9 (Project Jigsaw) 
    module hu.advancedweb.helloworld {
    requires hu.advancedweb.somedependency;
    exports hu.advancedweb.hello
}

  • Private methods in interfaces
    JDK 9 (Milling Project Coin)

  • Diamond operator for anonymous inner classes
    JDK 9 (Milling Project Coin)

  • Try-with-resources allows effectively final variables
    JDK 9 (Milling Project Coin)

  • @SafeVargs on private instance methods
    JDK 9 (Milling Project Coin)

  • No deprecation warnings on import statements
    JDK 9

New APIs

Let’s continue with the Java Standard Library, focusing on the new features that we can use in day-to-day coding.

If you are curious about all the API level differences between Java 8 later versions, check the AdoptOpenJDK/jdk-api-diff on GitHub or the The Java Version Almanac.

General

  • Process::inputReader, Process::outputWritter, Process::errorReader to access the standard input, output and error streams of the process
    JDK 17

  • java.time.InstantSource, an interface that provides the current instant, an abstraction from java.time.Clock that only focuses on the current instant and does not refer to the time zone
    JDK 17

  • HexFormat to encode and decode of hexadecimal strings
    JDK 17 
    HexFormat.of().toHexDigits(123);
//  ==> "0000007b"
HexFormat.of().fromHexDigits("0000007b");
// ==> 123

  • Vector API to express computations that compile to optimal hardware instructions (Incubator 🥚)
    JDK 17 JDK 16

  • Foreign linker API for statically-typed, pure-Java access to native code (Incubator 🥚)
    JDK 17 JDK 16

  • Foreign memory access API to access memory outside of the Java heap (Incubator 🥚)
    JDK 17 JDK 16

  • Align random generators (Random, ThreadLocalRandom, and SplittableRandom) by providing common interfaces making it easier to use PRNG algorithms interchangeably, provide random Streams.
    JDK 17 
    new Random().ints()
    .limit(10)
    .forEach(System.out::println);
  • Stream.toList as convenience for the most typical collection method (instead of relying on .collect(Collectors.toList()))
    JDK 16 
    List<String> result =
  Stream.of("one", "two", "three").stream()
    .filter(s -> s.length() == 3)
    .toList();
  • Stream.mapMulti to replace each element of this stream with zero or more elements, an alternative to flatMap
    JDK 16 
    Stream.of(1, 2, 3, 4)
    .mapMulti((number, downstream) -> downstream.accept(number))
    .forEach(System.out::print); // prints 1234

    → Related: Faster flatMaps with Stream::mapMulti in Java 16

  • New builder to HTTP client that specifies a header filter
    JDK 16

  • DateTimeFormatterBuilder.html#appendDayPeriodText to support other day periods than AM/PM
    JDK 16

  • Unix-domain socket channels and server socket channels
    JDK 16

  • @Serial to indicate fields and methods that are part of the serialization mechanism (e.g. serialVersionUID and readObject)
    JDK 14

  • Support Non-Volatile Mapped Byte Buffers in the FileChannel API
    JDK 14

  • Files.mismatch: find the first mismatched byte in the content of two files
    JDK 12

  • Collectors.teeing to create a Collector that is a composite of two downstream collectors
    JDK 12

  • String enhancements: indent and transform
    JDK 12

  • Standard HTTP Client featuring HTTP/2, WebSocket support and non-blocking API
    JDK 11 (Incubator 🥚 in JDK 9) 
    HttpClient httpClient = HttpClient.newBuilder().build();

HttpRequest request =
  HttpRequest.newBuilder()
    .uri(URI.create("https://advancedweb.hu/"))
    .GET()
    .build();

HttpResponse<String> response =
  httpClient.send(request, BodyHandlers.ofString());

  • String enhancements, like isBlank, lines, repeat and strip
    JDK 11

  • Convenience Factory Methods for Collections to ease the pain of not having collection literals
    JDK 9 
    Set<Integer> mySet = Set.of(1, 2, 3);
List<Integer> myList = List.of(1, 2, 3);
Map<String, Integer> myMap = Map.of("one", 1, "two", 2);

  • Reactive Streams publish-subscribe framework for asynchronous stream processing with non-blocking backpressure
    JDK 9

  • Time-based enhancements to CompletableFuture (timeout, delay)
    JDK 9

  • More options to transform (dropWhile, takeWhile) and generate (iterate, ofNullable) streams; readonly collectors (toUnmodifiableList); optionals can be transformed to streams
    JDK 9

  • Arrays.mismatch: find the first mismatching element between two arrays
    JDK 9

  • System.Logger API providing a common mechanism to handle platform logs, allowing JDK platform classes to use the same logging framework as the application
    JDK 9

  • Stack-Walking API that allows laziness and stack-frame filtering
    JDK 9

  • Process API provides more info and control (e.g. process ID, arguments, CPU time, parent/child processes), enhance ProcessBuilder to aid the creation of process pipelines
    JDK 9

  • VarHandle API to replace the field and array related operations of java.util.concurrent.atomic and sun.misc.Unsafe in order to and provide low-level access mechamisms, e.g. atomic write.
    JDK 9

  • New combinators and lookup methods for MethodHandle
    JDK 9

  • Enhanced Deprecation policy. @Deprecated can be marked with forRemoval, which emits a new warning.
    JDK 9

  • OASIS Standard XML Catalog API to manage external resources in XMLs in a secure and performant manner
    JDK 9

  • Update JDK’s XML parser, Xerces, to version 2.11.0
    JDK 9

  • TIFF Support for Image I/O Framework
    JDK 9

Internationalization

  • Unicode 10.0, adding roughly 27,000 characters, 10 blocks, and more than 30 scripts
    JDK 11 (Unicode 8.0 support in JDK 9)

  • java.util.Locale and related APIs support currency type, time zone and more
    JDK 10

  • ResourceBundle loads properties files in UTF-8 instead of ISO-8859-1
    JDK 9

  • CLDR Locale Data Enabled by Default
    JDK 9

Graphics and Desktop Applications

  • Desktop features for all platforms like login/logout/lock event listener and task bar interactions
    JDK 9

  • MultiResolutionImage that makes easy to retrieve a resolution-specific image for a DPI
    JDK 9

  • HiDPI Graphics on Windows and Linux
    JDK 9

  • Enable GTK 3 on Linux for JavaFX, Swing, and AWT
    JDK 9

  • Replace @beaninfo Javadoc tags with @BeanInfo annotations for Swing
    JDK 9

  • Update GStreamer included in JavaFX/Media to version 1.4.4
    JDK 9

  • Replace the existing ICU OpenType font-layout engine with HarfBuzz
    JDK 9

Performance Improvements

General

  • Elastic metaspace to return unused HotSpot class-metadata memory to the operating system more promptly
    JDK 16

  • Foreign-Memory Access API to safely and efficiently use off-heap memory (Incubator 🥚)
    JDK 15 JDK 14

  • Enable dynamic archiving of classes at the end of Java application execution
    JDK 13

  • Class-Data Sharing archive of the default class list is enabled by default to improve out-of-the-box startup time
    JDK 12

  • Application Class-Data Sharing to improve startup time and reduce footprint by sharing class metadata between Java processes.
    JDK 10

  • Space-efficient, Compact Strings that stores Latin-1 only Strings more efficiently
    JDK 9

  • Code caches of profiled and non-profiled compiled code is separated, resulting in improved performance and memory footprint
    JDK 9

  • Store Interned Strings in Class-Data Sharing archives to reduce memory consumption
    JDK 9

Library

  • New internal macOS rendering pipeline that supports Apple’s new Metal Framework for the Java 2D API, replacing the old rendering pipeline that targets OpenGL which was deprecated by Apple in macOS 10.14
    Performance comparision: JDK-8261408
    JDK 17

  • Improved intrinsics for java.lang.Math sin, cos and log functions on AArch64 processors
    JDK 11

  • Security Manager performance improvements
    JDK 9

  • Spin-Wait Hint (Thread#onSpinWait) to optimize busy-waiting style loops
    JDK 9

  • Use Marlin Renderer in Java 2D as the default graphics rasterizer instead of Pisces
    JDK 9

  • Improved GHASH and RSA performance by leveraging recently-introduced SPARC and Intel x64 CPU instructions
    JDK 9

Concurrency

  • Thread-Local Handshakes to stop individual threads
    JDK 10

  • Improved performance of contended object monitors
    JDK 9

  • Extra space on thread stack for critical sections, mitigating the risk of a deadlock in java.util.concurrent locks in case of a stack overflow
    JDK 9

Compiler

  • Java based JVM compiler interface (JVMCI) (Experimental 💥)
    JDK 9 (JVM Compiler Interface)

  • Performance improvement in javac: new strategy for type checking poly expressions
    JDK 9

G1 Garbage Collector (default)

  • NUMA-Aware Memory Allocation
    JDK 14

  • Abortable mixed collections to meet user-supplied pause goals
    JDK 12

  • Automatically return heap memory to the operating system when idle
    JDK 12

  • Parallel Full GC to improve worst-case latencies
    JDK 10

  • G1 Garbage Collector is now the default instead of Parallel GC
    JDK 9

Other Garbage Collectors

  • Z Garbage Collector, offering very low pause times on large heaps
    JDK 16 JDK 15 (Experimental 💥 in JDK 14 (Windows) JDK 14 (OS X) JDK 11 (Linux) )

  • Shenandoah Garbage Collector, offering similar benefits as ZGC but based on a different algorithm
    JDK 15 (Experimental 💥 in JDK 12 )

  • Epsilon Garbage Collector, which does not implement actual memory reclamation, striving for the lowest overhead possible
    JDK 11

  • XX:AllocateHeapAt=<path> to support Alternative Memory Devices
    JDK 10

Diagnostic and Tools

  • Flight Recorder Event Streaming: profiling data is available via an API, making it suitable for continuous monitoring
    JDK 14

  • Microbenchmark Suite based on JMH
    JDK 12

  • Flight Recorder is part of OpenJDK
    JDK 11

  • Low-Overhead Heap Profiling via JMTI
    JDK 11

  • Run-time manageable and method specific control of the C1 and C2 compilers that enables contained tests
    JDK 9

  • Fine-grained, easy-to-configure Logging System for all components of the JVM
    JDK 9 (Unified JVM Logging) JDK 9 (Unified GC Logging)

  • Allow the application to provide logger implementation to be used by platform classes
    JDK 9

Security Improvements

  • Validate Incoming Serialization Data
    JDK 17 JDK 9

  • Default set of root Certification Authority (CA) certificates are provided with the JDK, so TLS connections are working out of the box
    JDK 10

  • Default keystore type is the standard PKCS12 instead of the proprietary JKS
    JDK 9

  • DRBG-Based SecureRandom
    JDK 9

  • Disable X.509 certificate chains with SHA-1 based signatures
    JDK 9

  • SHA-3 Hash Algorithms
    JDK 9

  • TLS 1.3 support
    JDK 11

  • API for Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS)
    JDK 9

  • OCSP stapling TLS to improve performance of certificate status checking
    JDK 9

  • TLS Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN) Extension which enables protocol negotiation without additional round trips; ALPN is a requirement for HTTP/2 connections
    JDK 9

Crypto

  • Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA) - RFC8032
    JDK 15

  • Key Agreement with Curve25519 and Curve448
    JDK 11

  • ChaCha20 and Poly1305 Cryptographic Algorithms
    JDK 11

Launching

  • Launch Single-File Source-Code Programs, including support for shebang (#!) line on Unix
    JDK 11

  • jshell: the Java REPL
    JDK 9 (Project Kulla)
    → Related: Prototyping with JShell

  • Compile for Older Platform Versions with --release, which configures --source and --target and links against the appropriate platform version
    JDK 9

  • Early validatation of JVM Command-Line Flags to avoid crashes
    JDK 9

Packaging

  • Packaging Tool to create self-contained applications, also supporting native package formats: msi, exe, pkg, dmg, deb and rpm
    JDK 16 (Incubator 🥚 in JDK 14)
    → Related: Inside Java - Episode 12 “jpackage” with Kevin Rushforth

  • jlink Java Linker that can build an optimized, slim run-time image for a modular Java application that contains only the required parts of the JDK
    JDK 9 - [2], [3], [4], [4], [5]

  • Multi-Release JAR Files to allow multiple, Java-release-specific versions of class in a single archive
    JDK 9

Javadoc

  • The Javadoc tool now emits HTML5 markup instead of a frame-based layout and the documentation contains a search box to ease navigation
    JDK 9 - [2], [3]

Bytecode

  • Replace Unsafe::defineAnonymousClass() with Lookup::defineHiddenClass(), intended for frameworks to dynamically generate Hidden Classes that can’t be discovered, linked, and used directly by other classes. JDK 15

  • java.lang.invoke.constant package to allow easy description of loadable constants (operands for the ldc instruction), which is less error-prone than relying on ad-hoc String representation
    JDK 12

  • CONSTANT_Dynamic constant-pool entry which uses bootstrapping to perform the resolution, similarly to INVOKEDYNAMIC calls
    JDK 11

  • Introduction of the Nest access-control context that wraps classes in the same code entity - such as nested classes - and eliminates the need for compiler to insert bridge methods to the generated bytecode.
    JDK 11

  • Bytecode generated for static String-concatenation uses invokedynamic rather than directly creating StringBuilder#append chains. This will enable future optimizations of String concatenation without requiring bytecode changes.
    JDK 9

  • INVOKEDYNAMIC can express high-level operations on object properties and or collections
    JDK 9

New supported platforms

New Version Scheme

Deprecation and removal

  • Strongly encapsulate internal API’s (sun.*) except for critical APIs such as sun.misc.Unsafe.
    Remove the option for relaxed strong encapsulation via the --illegal-access launcher option
    JDK 17 (Strong encapsulation is the default in JDK 16 with the ability to opt-out with --illegal-access,
    Relaxed strong encapsulation (--illegal-access=permit) is the default in JDK 9 - [2] that warns on the first illegal reflective-access operation.)
    → Related: Inside Java - Episode 18 “Java’s steady march towards strong encapsulation” with Alan Bateman

  • Make floating-point operations consistently strict by default, warn when the strictfp modifier is used
    JDK 17
    → Related: Wikipedia article explaining what strictfp

  • Remove RMI Activation, affecting the java.rmi.activation package and the rmid tool, does not affect Java RMI in general
    JDK 17 (Deprecated in JDK 15)

  • Deprecate Applet API (java.applet.*, javax.swing.JApplet and java.beans.AppletInitializer) for removal
    JDK 17 (Deprecated in JDK 9)

  • Deprecate the Security Manager for Removal
    Work ongoing to consider use cases where the Security Manager is useful and provide alternatives (e.g. JDK-8199704)
    JDK 17

  • Remove the Experimental AOT and JIT compiler due to lack of interest.
    JDK 17

  • Deprecate the constructors of primitive wrapper classes, disallow synchronization on wrapper objects
    (Byte, Short, Integer, Long, Float, Double, Boolean, and Character)
    JDK 16

  • Remove the Nashorn Javascript Engine and the jjs tool
    JDK 15 (Deprecated in JDK 11)

  • Remove the Solaris and SPARC Ports
    JDK 15 (Deprecated in JDK 14)

  • Disable Biased Locking by default, deprecate related command-line flags
    JDK 15

  • Deprecate Unsafe::defineAnonymousClass()
    JDK 15

  • Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector
    JDK 14

  • Deprecate the ParallelScavenge + SerialOld GC Combination
    JDK 14

  • Remove the Pack200 Tools and API
    JDK 14

  • Deprecate the Pack200 Tools and API
    JDK 11

  • Remove Java EE
    JDK 11

  • Remove CORBA
    JDK 11

  • Remove Thread#destroy and Thread#stop
    JDK 11

  • var is no longer a valid class name
    JDK 10

  • Remove the javah tool
    JDK 10

  • Underscore is no longer a valid identifier
    JDK 9

  • Remove apple.applescript and com.apple packages
    JDK 9

  • Disable X.509 certificate chains with SHA-1 based signatures
    JDK 9

  • Remove Launch-Time JRE Version Selection directives: JRE-Version manifest entry and -version: cli option
    JDK 9

  • Remove the jhat tool
    JDK 9

  • Remove the JVM TI hprof Agent
    JDK 9

  • Remove GC Combinations Deprecated in JDK 8
    JDK 9

  • Deprecate the Concurrent Mark Sweep Garbage Collector
    JDK 9

  • Deprecate Object.finalize()
    JDK 9

  • Remove the Endorsed Standards Override (lib/endorsed) and Extensions (lib/ext) mechanisms from the JRE
    JDK 9

  • Remove rt.jar from the JRE
    JDK 9

If you are curious about all the API level differences between Java 8 and 14, check the Java Almanac project. Also check out jdeps, the Java class dependency analyzer to find out if your project is still using an old internal API.

Summary

JDK 8 was released in 2014. We had to wait for three and a half years for JDK 9. But since then things accelerated. Java has a new release structure that aims to deliver a new version in every six months.

While Java 8 is still supported, migrating to the latest version brings considerable amount of improvements to the table.


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