The new Java 17 release contains plenty of new features that will intrigue developers.
Here are the top five Java 17 features that developers will love when they move on from an older version of the Java platform:
- Java Record data type
- Java text blocks;
- NullPointerException guidance;
- Switch statement
- Sealed classes.
Java Record data type
Records are very useful for the immutable data carrier classes. Here we can summarize their major features as below:
- They are immutable.
- Their fields are private and final.
- Record Class defines canonical constructors for all fields.
- All fields have Getters, equals, hashCode, and toString.
Java text blocks
Text Blocks are blocks of String which can be declared by starting with three double quotes “”” which can be followed by a line break and closed by three double quotes again.
Helpfull NullPointerException guidance
In the Java 17 LTS release, developers can take advantage of the new NullPointerException guidance feature. This Java 17 feature improves the usability of an exception’s stack trace by logging the exact name of the variable that was null.
Switch statements
Java switch statements are great for complex conditional logic, but the flood-gate approach to case processing is not intuitive.
Sealed classes
Sealed classes allow a developer to explicitly declare the names of the components that can legally inherit from a class they create. No longer is the inelegant use of an access modifier the only way to restrict the use of a superclass.
