Java 8 is a major release of the Java programming language, which was first released in March 2014. It introduced several new features, such as lambda expressions, functional interfaces, and the Stream API, that aimed to make Java more expressive, functional and easier to use.
One of the most significant features introduced in Java 8 was the lambda expressions. A lambda expression is a way to represent a function as an object, which can be passed as an argument or returned as a value. This allows for functional programming constructs such as map, filter and reduce to be used in Java. For example, the following is a lambda expression that adds two numbers:
(int x, int y) -> x + y
Another important feature introduced in Java 8 is the Stream API. The Stream API allows for functional-style operations on collections of data, such as filtering and mapping, without the need for explicit loops. This makes it easier to write parallel and concurrent code, since the API takes care of partitioning and parallelization. For example, the following code uses the Stream API to filter a list of strings that contains “a” and then prints them:
List<String> list = Arrays.asList("apple", "banana", "cat");
list.stream().filter(s -> s.contains("a")).forEach(System.out::println);
Another feature introduced in Java 8 is the functional interfaces. A functional interface is an interface that has exactly one abstract method. Java 8 introduced several functional interfaces, such as Predicate, Function and Consumer, that can be used in lambda expressions.
Java 8 also introduced several other features, such as the Date and Time API, which provides a more powerful and expressive way to work with dates and times, and the Nashorn JavaScript Engine, which allows for running JavaScript code within Java applications.
In summary,
- Java 8 is a major release of the Java programming language, which was first released in March 2014.
- It introduced several new features, such as lambda expressions, functional interfaces, and the Stream API, that aimed to make Java more expressive, functional and easier to use.
- The lambda expressions allow for functional programming constructs such as map, filter and reduce to be used in Java.
- The Stream API allows for functional-style operations on collections of data, such as filtering and mapping, without the need for explicit loops
- Java 8 also introduced several other features, such as the Date and Time API, and the Nashorn JavaScript Engine.