Oracle released a new version of Java as Java 8 in March 18, 2014. It was a revolutionary release of the Java for software development platform. It includes various upgrades to the Java programming, JVM, Tools and libraries.
Java 8 provides following features for Java Programming:
- Lambda expressions,
- Method references,
- Functional interfaces,
- Stream API,
- Default methods,
- Base64 Encode Decode,
- Static methods in interface,
- Optional class,
- Collectors class,
- ForEach() method,
Lambda expression
Lambda expression helps us to write our code in functional style. It is very useful in collection library in which it helps to iterate, filter and extract data.
forEach
Java provides a new method forEach() to iterate the elements. It is defined in Iterable and Stream interfaces.
Optional
Java introduced a new class Optional in Java 8. It is a public final class which is used to deal with NullPointerException in Java application.
Method reference
Java 8 Method reference is used to refer method of functional interface . It is compact and easy form of lambda expression.
Stream API
Java 8 java.util.stream package consists of classes, interfaces and an enum to allow functional-style operations on the elements.
Collectors
Collectors is a final class that extends Object class. It provides reduction operations, such as accumulating elements into collections, summarizing elements according to various criteria etc.
Base64
Java provides a class Base64 to deal with encryption and decryption.
DateTime API
Java has introduced a new Date and Time API since Java 8. The java.time package contains Java 8 Date and Time classes.
Static methods in interface
Default methods
Java provides a facility to create default methods inside the interface.
