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Java 14 Features Intro

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🎉 Java 14: The Fun Ride of New Features! 🚀​

Java 14 officially hit the scene on March 17, 2020, bringing a fresh wave of exciting features! Buckle up as we take a joyful ride through some of the 16 new goodies added to our beloved Java programming language. ☕😃

You can grab the JDK 14 binaries here. Now, let’s get started! 🏎️💨

1️⃣ JEP 305 – Pattern Matching for instanceof (Preview)​

Ever felt like Java made you write too many boring type checks? Well, Java 14 is here to rescue you! 🦸‍♂️

Now, instanceof has been upgraded with pattern matching, allowing us to avoid redundant casting. Here’s how it works:

if (obj instanceof String s) {
    // No need for explicit casting, s is already a String!
} else {
    // Sorry, obj is not a String 😔
}

✅ No more manual casting! If obj is a String, Java automatically assigns it to s.

💡 But be careful! This only works if obj is not null.

👉 Read More

2️⃣ JEP 368 – Text Blocks (Second Preview)​

Tired of escaping quotes and string concatenation nightmares? 🥴

Text Blocks to the rescue! 🦸‍♀️ Say goodbye to messy multi-line strings and embrace the beauty of triple double-quotes (""").

String textBlock = """
    Hello,
    World!
    Welcome to Java 14 🎉
    """;

💡 Cool Fact: Text blocks behave exactly like String literals, so you can use them anywhere!

String string = "Hello";
String textBlock = """
                    World""";
System.out.println(string + textBlock); // HelloWorld

👉 Read More

3️⃣ JEP 358 – Helpful NullPointerExceptions 😱​

Let’s be honest – NullPointerExceptions (NPEs) have haunted every Java developer at some point. 😨 But Java 14 makes debugging them a breeze! 🎉

Enable this magic by running your program with:

-XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages

Now, when an NPE strikes, Java will tell you exactly which variable was null! 🎯

public class HelpfulNPEExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Employee e = null;
        System.out.println(e.getName());
    }
}

🔥 Before: NullPointerException 🔥 Now: Cannot invoke "Employee.getName()" because "e" is null

No more guessing games! 🎯

👉 Read More

4️⃣ JEP 359 – Records (Preview) 📋​

Java 14 introduces Records, a fancy way of saying: “No more boilerplate code for data classes!” 🎉

public record EmployeeRecord(Long id, String firstName, String lastName, String email, int age) {}

💡 No need to manually write getters, equals(), hashCode(), and toString() – Java generates them all! 🎩✨

👉 Read More

5️⃣ JEP 361 – Switch Expressions (Standard) 🎛️​

The Switch Statement just leveled up! Now it returns values and supports multiple case labels. 🎯

public static Boolean isWeekDay(Day day) {
    return switch(day) {
        case MON, TUE, WED, THUR, FRI -> {
            System.out.println("It is a Weekday!");
            yield true;
        }
        case SAT, SUN -> {
            System.out.println("It is the Weekend!");
            yield false;
        }
    };
}

💡 No more break statements! And for enums, default cases are optional!

👉 Read More

6️⃣ Other Cool Features 🛠️​

🔹 JEP 343 – Packaging Tool (Incubator)​

Create native installers for Java applications (MSI, EXE, DMG, RPM, DEB). 🏗️

jpackage --name myapp --input lib --main-jar main.jar

🔹 JEP 345 – NUMA-Aware Memory Allocation for G1​

Better memory management for multi-core processors. ⚡

🔹 JEP 349 – JFR Event Streaming 📊​

Continuous JDK Flight Recorder (JFR) event monitoring.

🔹 JEP 352 – Non-Volatile Mapped Byte Buffers 💾​

Support for persistent memory in MappedByteBuffer.

🔹 JEP 363 – Remove CMS Garbage Collector 🗑️​

CMS is gone! Time to embrace G1 or ZGC.

🔹 JEP 367 – Remove Pack200 API 🚫​

Pack200 compression is history! Java is getting lighter.

🔹 JEP 370 – Foreign-Memory Access API (Incubator)​

Safely access non-heap memory (e.g., native or persistent memory). 🚀

🎉 That’s a Wrap! 🎬​

Java 14 is packed with awesome features to make coding more fun and efficient! Have questions? Drop them in the comments below! 💬👇

** Happy Coding! 🚀☕**