New Features in Java

There are many new features that have been added in java. There are major enhancement made in Java5, Java6 and Java7 like auto-boxing, generics, var-args, java annotations, enum, premain method etc.

Most of the interviewers ask questions from this chapter.

J2SE 4 Features

• Assertion (Java 4)

J2SE 5 Features

• For-each loop (Java 5)

• Varargs (Java 5)

• Static Import (Java 5)

• Autoboxing and Unboxing (Java 5)

• Enum (Java 5)

• Covariant Return Type (Java 5)

• Annotation (Java 5)

• Generics (Java 5)

JavaSE 6 Features

• Instrumentation (premain method) (Java 6)

JavaSE 7 Features

• String in switch statement (Java 7)

• Binary Literals (Java 7)

• The try-with-resources (Java 7)

• Caching Multiple Exceptions by single catch (Java 7)

• Underscores in Numeric Literals (Java 7)

The important feature of J2SE 4 is assertions. It is used for testing.

The important features of J2SE 5 are generics and assertions. Others are auto-boxing, enum, var-args, static import, for-each loop (enhanced for loop) etc.

The important feature of JavaSE 6 is premain method (also known as instrumentation).

The important features of JavaSE 7 are try with resource, catching multiple exceptions etc.