Java 7 is the latest version of Java programming language launched on 7th July 2011 and released on 28th July 2011. There have been some major updates on the older versions of Java Language with the introduction of some extensive new features that makes Java 7.0 even more easy to understand and implement.

Java 7 is the latest version of Java programming language launched on 7th July 2011 and released on 28th July 2011. There have been some major updates on the older versions of Java Language with the introduction of some extensive new features that makes Java 7.0 even more easy to understand and implement. The additional features that characterize Java 7 are listed below.

Java virtual Machine

Support for Dynamically Typed Languages

A Java Virtual Machine is a set of software programs that act like a virtual machine to execute the Java bytecode translated from a Java program. In Java 7, support for dynamically typed languages is provided so that the speed of their execution in JVM is faster. As a part of this addition to JSR 292, a new construct has been added called method handle. For method invocation, a new Java bytecode, invokedynamic, has been added to the language. This bytecode runs much faster in JVM.

Apart from the changes to JVM, Java SE API has also been updated to enhance the performance of dynamically typed languages. Changes have also been made to perform a more rigorous file checking. The virtual machine should ensure that the file is being verified by the type checking verifier.

Language updates

To simplify the most basic features of Java used on a daily basis, some small features have been added to the language.

• Strings in Switch statement: The traditional Java programming allowed only numbers and enums to be used in the Switch statement. Java 7 gives us the freedom to use even strings now in the Switch Case statements.
• Improved type inference for generic instance creation ("diamond"): The code for type inference has been simplified and shortened. It can be best explained with an example. (Example)
• Simplified varargs method invocation: Varargs are the variable arguments different from the regular Java syntax. The compiler for the previous versions of Java generates a warning that says unsafe operation while invoking varargs. Java 7 ensures that there is reasonably lesser number of warnings reported by moving the warning from the lines, which call the method to the method declaration.
• Automatic resource handling: The resource management feature of Java 7 ensures that the try statement can declare one of the resources itself. These resources have a scope within the try block and can be closed automatically.
• Binary Literals: Unlike previous versions of java where representation of numbers was restricted to decimal, octal and hexadecimal, Java 7 introduces the features where we can create binary numbers using 0b prefix.
• Underscores in numbers: Now it is possible to split long numbers by the way of using underscores, both in ints and longs. This makes these numbers easy to read

Architecture of Java Programming Language

Java 7 Programming Language: Upgrading of class-loader architecture

We create classes in a Java program and for loading those classes, we need some object. A class loader is that object which allows us to load a class. The Newly Released Java 7 has introduced some new feature along with some modifications to the ClassLoader and ClassLoader API architecture, so that any deadlocks that may occur in class-loader topologies, that are non-hierarchical, may be avoided.

A Method is created to close a URLClassLoader

Concurrency and collections updates

Tools like ForkJoin Pool, ThreadLocalRandom and java.util.concurrent are introduced.

Increased Scope of Java 7

The feature of Unicode is further upgraded to the version Unicode 6.0. java.util.Locale is upgraded to support IETF BCP 47 and UTR 35.

Separating user locale from user-interface locale

One definition for formatting locales and user-interface language locales caused complexity in the code. So handling of locales has been upgraded by separating the types of locales from one another.

Related Tags for Java 7 Features:

More Tutorials from this section

• Java 7 Features
• Java 7 Language Fundamentals
• Java 7 Features
• Java SE 7
• Features
• What is most important features of Java
• Java Programming: Chapter 7 Index
• New Features of Spring Framework 3.2
• Features of Java
• JDBC 4 Features, JDBC 4.0 Features
• java code 7
• Arrays in java 7
• Data Types in Java 7
• Operators in java 7
• Features of Java - Java Beginners
• Java Features
• java features
• Java Features
• Logical Operators in java 7
• java classpath prbm in windows 7