Java Versions

YearVersionKey Features
1996JDK 1.0First official release; basic core libraries, applets.
1997JDK 1.1Inner classes, JDBC, JavaBeans, RMI.
1998J2SE 1.2Swing GUI, Collections Framework, JIT compiler.
2000J2SE 1.3HotSpot JVM, Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI).
2002J2SE 1.4assert keyword, NIO (New I/O), logging API, XML parsing.
2004J2SE 5.0Generics, annotations, enhanced for loop, autoboxing, varargs.
2006Java SE 6Scripting API, improvements in web services, compiler API.
2011Java SE 7try-with-resources, diamond operator, NIO.2, fork/join framework.
2014Java SE 8Lambda expressions, Stream API, Date/Time API (java.time), default methods.
2017Java SE 9Module System (Project Jigsaw), JShell REPL.
2018Java SE 10Local-variable type inference (var).
2018Java SE 11 (LTS)HTTP Client API, new String methods, removed Java EE modules.
2019Java SE 12–13Switch expressions (preview), text blocks (preview).
2020Java SE 14Records (preview), pattern matching for instanceof.
2021Java SE 16–17 (LTS)Sealed classes, finalized records, pattern matching, enhanced pseudo-random number generators.
2022–2025Java 18–22Continuous improvements: virtual threads (Project Loom), pattern matching enhancements, structured concurrency.

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