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This article is about the programming language. For the software platform, see Java (software
platform). For the software package downloaded from java.com, see Java Platform, Standard
Edition. For other uses, see Java (disambiguation).
"Java language" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Javanese language.
Not to be confused with JavaScript.

Java Programming Language

Paradigm Multi-paradigm: generic, object-oriented (class-

based), imperative, reflective

Designed by James Gosling

Developer Oracle Corporation et al.

First appeared May 23, 1995; 25 years ago[1]

Stable release Java SE 15[2] / September 15, 2020; 8 days ago

Typing Static, strong, safe, nominative, manifest

discipline

Filename .java, .class, .jar

extensions

Website oracle.com/java/
 Influenced by

CLU,[3] Simula67,[3] LISP,[3] SmallTalk,[3] Ada 83, C++,[4] C#,[5] Eiffel,
[6]
 Mesa,[7] Modula-3,[8] Oberon,[9] Objective-C,[10] UCSD Pascal,[11]
[12]
 Object Pascal[13]

Influenced

Ada 2005, BeanShell, C#, Chapel,
[14]
 Clojure, ECMAScript, Fantom, Gambas,[15] Groovy, Hack,[16] Haxe, J

#, Kotlin, PHP, Python, Scala, Seed7, Vala

  Java Programming at Wikibooks

Java is a class-based, object-oriented programming language that is designed to have as few

implementation dependencies as possible. It is a general-purpose programming language
intended to let application developers write once, run anywhere (WORA),[17] meaning
that compiled Java code can run on all platforms that support Java without the need for
recompilation.[18] Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode that can run on any Java
virtual machine (JVM) regardless of the underlying computer architecture. The syntax of Java is
similar to C and C++, but it has fewer low-level facilities than either of them. As of 2019, Java was
one of the most popular programming languages in use according to GitHub,[19][20] particularly
for client-server web applications, with a reported 9 million developers.[21]
Java was originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which has since been
acquired by Oracle) and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java
platform. The original and reference implementation Java compilers, virtual machines, and class
libraries were originally released by Sun under proprietary licenses. As of May 2007, in
compliance with the specifications of the Java Community Process, Sun had relicensed most of
its Java technologies under the GNU General Public License. Oracle offers its own HotSpot Java
Virtual Machine, however the official reference implementation is the OpenJDK JVM which is free
open source software and used by most developers including the Eclipse IDE and is the default
JVM for almost all Linux distributions.
The latest versions are Java 14, released in March 2020, and Java 11, a currently
supported long-term support (LTS) version, released on September 25, 2018; Oracle released for
the legacy Java 8 LTS the last free public update in January 2019 for commercial use, while it will
otherwise still support Java 8 with public updates for personal use up to at least December 2020.
Oracle (and others) highly recommend uninstalling older versions of Java because of serious
risks due to unresolved security issues.[22] Since Java 9, 10, 12 and 13 are no longer supported,
Oracle advises its users to immediately transition to the latest version (currently Java 14) or an
LTS release.

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Principles
o 1.2Versions
 2Editions
 3Execution system
 o 3.1Java JVM and bytecode
 3.1.1Performance
o 3.2Non-JVM
o 3.3Automatic memory management
 4Syntax
o 4.1Hello world example
o 4.2Example with methods
 5Special classes
o 5.1Applet
o 5.2Servlet
o 5.3JavaServer Pages
o 5.4Swing application
o 5.5JavaFX application
o 5.6Generics
 6Criticism
 7Class libraries
 8Documentation
 9Implementations
 10Use outside the Java platform
o 10.1Android
 10.1.1Controversy
 11See also
o 11.1Comparison of Java with other languages
 12References
 13Works cited
 14External links

History[edit]
See also: Java (software platform) §  History

Duke, the Java mascot

James Gosling, the creator of Java, in 2008

The TIOBE programming language popularity index graph from 2002 to 2018. Java has been steadily on
the top since mid-2015.

James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton initiated the Java language project in June
1991.[23] Java was originally designed for interactive television, but it was too advanced for the
digital cable television industry at the time.[24] The language was initially called Oak after
an oak tree that stood outside Gosling's office. Later the project went by the name Green and
was finally renamed Java, from Java coffee, the coffee from Indonesia.[25] Gosling designed Java
with a C/C++-style syntax that system and application programmers would find familiar. [26]
Sun Microsystems released the first public implementation as Java 1.0 in 1996. [27] It
promised Write Once, Run Anywhere (WORA) functionality, providing no-cost run-times on
popular platforms. Fairly secure and featuring configurable security, it allowed network- and file-
access restrictions. Major web browsers soon incorporated the ability to run Java applets within
web pages, and Java quickly became popular. The Java 1.0 compiler was re-written in
Java by Arthur van Hoff to comply strictly with the Java 1.0 language specification. [28] With the
advent of Java 2 (released initially as J2SE 1.2 in December 1998 – 1999), new versions had
multiple configurations built for different types of platforms. J2EE included technologies and APIs
for enterprise applications typically run in server environments, while J2ME featured APIs
optimized for mobile applications. The desktop version was renamed J2SE. In 2006, for
marketing purposes, Sun renamed new J2 versions as Java EE, Java ME, and Java SE,
respectively.
In 1997, Sun Microsystems approached the ISO/IEC JTC 1 standards body and later the Ecma
International to formalize Java, but it soon withdrew from the process. [29][30][31] Java remains a de
facto standard, controlled through the Java Community Process.[32] At one time, Sun made most
of its Java implementations available without charge, despite their proprietary software status.
Sun generated revenue from Java through the selling of licenses for specialized products such as
the Java Enterprise System.
On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of its Java virtual machine (JVM) as free and open-
source software (FOSS), under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On May 8,
2007, Sun finished the process, making all of its JVM's core code available under free
software/open-source distribution terms, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not
hold the copyright.[33]
Sun's vice-president Rich Green said that Sun's ideal role with regard to Java was as
an evangelist.[34] Following Oracle Corporation's acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2009–10,
Oracle has described itself as the steward of Java technology with a relentless commitment to
fostering a community of participation and transparency.[35] This did not prevent Oracle from filing
a lawsuit against Google shortly after that for using Java inside the Android SDK (see
the Android section).
On April 2, 2010, James Gosling resigned from Oracle.[36]
In January 2016, Oracle announced that Java run-time environments based on JDK 9 will
discontinue the browser plugin. [37]
Java software runs on everything from laptops to data centers, game consoles to
scientific supercomputers.[38]
Principles[edit]
There were five primary goals in the creation of the Java language: [18]

1. It must be simple, object-oriented, and familiar.

2. It must be robust and secure.
3. It must be architecture-neutral and portable.
4. It must execute with high performance.
5. It must be interpreted, threaded, and dynamic.

Versions[edit]
As of September 2020, Java 8 and 11 are supported as Long Term Support (LTS) versions, and
one later non-LTS version is supported [39]. Major release versions of Java, along with their release
dates:

Version Date

JDK Beta 1995

JDK1.0 January 23, 1996 [40]

JDK 1.1 February 19, 1997

J2SE 1.2 December 8, 1998

J2SE 1.3 May 8, 2000

J2SE 1.4 February 6, 2002

J2SE 5.0 September 30, 2004

 Java SE 6 December 11, 2006

Java SE 7 July 28, 2011

Java SE 8 March 18, 2014

Java SE 9 September 21, 2017

Java SE
March 20, 2018
10

Java SE
September 25, 2018 [41]
11

Java SE
March 19, 2019
12

Java SE
September 17, 2019
13

Java SE
March 17, 2020
14

Java SE
September 15, 2020
15

Editions[edit]
See also: Free Java implementations §  Class library

Java platform editions

 Java Card
  Micro Edition (ME)

 Standard Edition (SE)

 Enterprise Edition (EE)

 JavaFX (bundled in JRE from 8 to 10 but separately for

JavaFX 1.x, 2.x and 11)

 PersonalJava (Discontinued)

 v
 t
 e

Sun has defined and supports four editions of Java targeting different application environments
and segmented many of its APIs so that they belong to one of the platforms. The platforms are:

 Java Card for smart-cards.[42]

 Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) – targeting environments with limited resources.[43]
 Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) – targeting workstation environments.[44]
 Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) – targeting large distributed enterprise or
Internet environments.[45]
The classes in the Java APIs are organized into separate groups called packages. Each package
contains a set of related interfaces, classes, subpackages and exceptions.
Sun also provided an edition called Personal Java that has been superseded by later, standards-
based Java ME configuration-profile pairings.

Execution system[edit]
Java JVM and bytecode[edit]
Main articles: Java (software platform) and Java virtual machine
One design goal of Java is portability, which means that programs written for the Java platform
must run similarly on any combination of hardware and operating system with adequate run time
support. This is achieved by compiling the Java language code to an intermediate representation
called Java bytecode, instead of directly to architecture-specific machine code. Java bytecode
instructions are analogous to machine code, but they are intended to be executed by a virtual
machine (VM) written specifically for the host hardware. End users commonly use a Java
Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on their machine for standalone Java applications, or in a
web browser for Java applets.
Standard libraries provide a generic way to access host-specific features such as
graphics, threading, and networking.
The use of universal bytecode makes porting simple. However, the overhead
of interpreting bytecode into machine instructions made interpreted programs almost always run
more slowly than native executables. Just-in-time (JIT) compilers that compile byte-codes to
machine code during runtime were introduced from an early stage. Java itself is platform-
independent and is adapted to the particular platform it is to run on by a Java virtual
machine (JVM) for it, which translates the Java bytecode into the platform's machine language. [46]
Performance[edit]
Main article: Java performance
Programs written in Java have a reputation for being slower and requiring more memory than
those written in C++ .[47][48] However, Java programs' execution speed improved significantly with
the introduction of just-in-time compilation in 1997/1998 for Java 1.1,[49] the addition of language
features supporting better code analysis (such as inner classes, the StringBuilder class, optional
assertions, etc.), and optimizations in the Java virtual machine, such as HotSpot becoming the
default for Sun's JVM in 2000. With Java 1.5, the performance was improved with the addition of
the java.util.concurrent package, including lock free implementations of the ConcurrentMaps and
other multi-core collections, and it was improved further with Java 1.6.
Non-JVM[edit]
Some platforms offer direct hardware support for Java; there are micro controllers that can run
Java bytecode in hardware instead of a software Java virtual machine, [50] and some ARM-based
processors could have hardware support for executing Java bytecode through
their Jazelle option, though support has mostly been dropped in current implementations of ARM.
Automatic memory management[edit]
Java uses an automatic garbage collector ( AGC ) to manage memory in the object lifecycle. The
programmer determines when objects are created, and the Java runtime is responsible for
recovering the memory once objects are no longer in use. Once no references to an object
remain, the unreachable memory becomes eligible to be freed automatically by the garbage
collector. Something similar to a memory leak may still occur if a programmer's code holds a
reference to an object that is no longer needed, typically when objects that are no longer needed
are stored in containers that are still in use. If methods for a non-existent object are called, a null
pointer exception is thrown.[51][52]
One of the ideas behind Java's automatic memory management model is that programmers can
be spared the burden of having to perform manual memory management. In some languages,
memory for the creation of objects is implicitly allocated on the stack or explicitly allocated and
deallocated from the heap. In the latter case, the responsibility of managing memory resides with
the programmer. If the program does not deallocate an object, a memory leak occurs. If the
program attempts to access or deallocate memory that has already been deallocated, the result is
undefined and difficult to predict, and the program is likely to become unstable or crash. This can
be partially remedied by the use of smart pointers, but these add overhead and complexity. Note
that garbage collection does not prevent logical memory leaks, i.e. those where the memory is
still referenced but never used.
Garbage collection may happen at any time. Ideally, it will occur when a program is idle. It is
guaranteed to be triggered if there is insufficient free memory on the heap to allocate a new
object; this can cause a program to stall momentarily. Explicit memory management is not
possible in Java.
Java does not support C/C++ style pointer arithmetic, where object addresses can be
arithmetically manipulated (e.g. by adding or subtracting an offset). This allows the garbage
collector to relocate referenced objects and ensures type safety and security.
As in C++ and some other object-oriented languages, variables of Java's primitive data types are
either stored directly in fields (for objects) or on the stack (for methods) rather than on the heap,
as is commonly true for non-primitive data types (but see escape analysis). This was a conscious
decision by Java's designers for performance reasons.
Java contains multiple types of garbage collectors. By default, HotSpot uses the parallel
scavenge garbage collector.[53] However, there are also several other garbage collectors that can
be used to manage the heap. For 90% of applications in Java, the Concurrent Mark-
Sweep (CMS) garbage collector is sufficient. [54] Oracle aims to replace CMS with the Garbage-
First Collector (G1).[55]
Having solved the memory management problem does not relieve the programmer of the burden
of handling properly other kinds of resources, like network or database connections, file handles,
etc., especially in the presence of exceptions. Paradoxically, the presence of a garbage collector
has faded the necessity of having an explicit destructor method in the classes, thus rendering the
management of these other resources more difficult. [citation needed]

Syntax[edit]
Main article: Java syntax

Dependency graph of the Java Core classes (created with jdeps and Gephi)

The syntax of Java is largely influenced by C++ and C. Unlike C++, which combines the syntax
for structured, generic, and object-oriented programming, Java was built almost exclusively as an
object-oriented language.[18] All code is written inside classes, and every data item is an object,
with the exception of the primitive data types, (i.e. integers, floating-point numbers, boolean
values, and characters), which are not objects for performance reasons. Java reuses some
popular aspects of C++ (such as the  printf  method).
Unlike C++, Java does not support operator overloading[56] or multiple inheritance for classes,
though multiple inheritance is supported for interfaces.[57]
Java uses comments similar to those of C++. There are three different styles of comments: a
single line style marked with two slashes ( // ), a multiple line style opened with  /*  and closed
with  */ , and the Javadoc commenting style opened with  /**  and closed with  */ . The Javadoc
style of commenting allows the user to run the Javadoc executable to create documentation for
the program and can be read by some integrated development environments (IDEs) such
as Eclipse to allow developers to access documentation within the IDE.
Hello world example[edit]
The traditional Hello world program can be written in Java as:[58]

public class HelloWorldApp {

public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello World!"); // Prints the string to the
console.
}
}

All source files must be named after the public class they contain, appending the suffix  .java ,
for example,  HelloWorldApp.java . It must first be compiled into bytecode, using a Java
compiler, producing a file with the  .class  suffix ( HelloWorldApp.class , in this case). Only
then can it be executed or launched. The Java source file may only contain one public class, but
it can contain multiple classes with a non-public access modifier and any number of public inner
classes. When the source file contains multiple classes, it is necessary to make one class
(introduced by the  class  keyword) public (preceded by the  public  keyword) and name the
source file with that public class name.
A class that is not declared public may be stored in any  .java  file. The compiler will generate a
class file for each class defined in the source file. The name of the class file is the name of the
class, with .class appended. For class file generation, anonymous classes are treated as if their
name were the concatenation of the name of their enclosing class, a $, and an integer.
The keyword  public  denotes that a method can be called from code in other classes, or that a
class may be used by classes outside the class hierarchy. The class hierarchy is related to the
name of the directory in which the .java file is located. This is called an access level modifier.
Other access level modifiers include the keywords  private  (a method that can only be
accessed in the same class) and  protected  (which allows code from the same package to
access). If a piece of code attempts to access private methods or protected methods, the JVM
will throw a  SecurityException
The keyword  static [19] in front of a method indicates a static method, which is associated only
with the class and not with any specific instance of that class. Only static methods can be invoked
without a reference to an object. Static methods cannot access any class members that are not
also static. Methods that are not designated static are instance methods and require a specific
instance of a class to operate.
The keyword  void  indicates that the main method does not return any value to the caller. If a
Java program is to exit with an error code, it must call System.exit() explicitly.
The method name  main  is not a keyword in the Java language. It is simply the name of the
method the Java launcher calls to pass control to the program. Java classes that run in managed
environments such as applets and Enterprise JavaBeans do not use or need a  main()  method.
A Java program may contain multiple classes that have  main  methods, which means that the
VM needs to be explicitly told which class to launch from.
The main method must accept an array of  String  objects. By convention, it is referenced
as  args  although any other legal identifier name can be used. Since Java 5, the main method
can also use variable arguments, in the form of  public static void main(String...
args) , allowing the main method to be invoked with an arbitrary number of  String  arguments.
The effect of this alternate declaration is semantically identical (to the  args  parameter which is
still an array of  String  objects), but it allows an alternative syntax for creating and passing the
array.
The Java launcher launches Java by loading a given class (specified on the command line or as
an attribute in a JAR) and starting its  public static void main(String[])  method. Stand-
alone programs must declare this method explicitly. The  String[] args  parameter is
an array of  String  objects containing any arguments passed to the class. The parameters
to  main  are often passed by means of a command line.
Printing is part of a Java standard library: The  System  class defines a public static field
called  out . The  out  object is an instance of the  PrintStream  class and provides many
methods for printing data to standard out, including  println(String)  which also appends a
new line to the passed string.
The string  "Hello World!"  is automatically converted to a String object by the compiler.

Example with methods[edit]

// This is an example of a single line comment using two slashes

/*
* This is an example of a multiple line comment using the slash and
asterisk.
* This type of comment can be used to hold a lot of information or
deactivate
* code, but it is very important to remember to close the comment.
*/
package fibsandlies;

import java.util.Map;
import java.util.HashMap;

/**
* This is an example of a Javadoc comment; Javadoc can compile
documentation
* from this text. Javadoc comments must immediately precede the class,
method,
* or field being documented.
* @author Wikipedia Volunteers
*/
public class FibCalculator extends Fibonacci implements Calculator {
private static Map<Integer, Integer> memoized = new HashMap<>();

/*
* The main method written as follows is used by the JVM as a starting
point
* for the program.
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
memoized.put(1, 1);
memoized.put(2, 1);
System.out.println(fibonacci(12)); // Get the 12th Fibonacci number
and print to console
}

/**
* An example of a method written in Java, wrapped in a class.
* Given a non-negative number FIBINDEX, returns
* the Nth Fibonacci number, where N equals FIBINDEX.
*
* @param fibIndex The index of the Fibonacci number
* @return the Fibonacci number
*/
public static int fibonacci(int fibIndex) {
if (memoized.containsKey(fibIndex)) return memoized.get(fibIndex);
else {
int answer = fibonacci(fibIndex - 1) + fibonacci(fibIndex - 2);
memoized.put(fibIndex, answer);
return answer;
}
}
}

Special classes[edit]
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Applet[edit]
Main article: Java applet
Java applets were programs that were embedded in other applications, typically in a Web page
displayed in a web browser. The Java applet API is now deprecated since Java 8 in 2017.[59][60]
Servlet[edit]
Main article: Java servlet
Java servlet technology provides Web developers with a simple, consistent mechanism for
extending the functionality of a Web server and for accessing existing business systems. Servlets
are server-side Java EE components that generate responses to requests from clients. Most of
the time, this means generating HTML pages in response to HTTP requests, although there are a
number of other standard servlet classes available, for example for WebSocket communication.
The Java servlet API has to some extent been superseded (but still used under the hood) by two
standard Java technologies for web services:

 the Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS 2.0) useful for AJAX, JSON and REST
services, and
 the Java API for XML Web Services (JAX-WS) useful for SOAP Web Services.
Typical implementations of these APIs on Application Servers or Servlet Containers use a
standard servlet for handling all interactions with the HTTP requests and responses that delegate
to the web service methods for the actual business logic.
JavaServer Pages[edit]
Main article: JavaServer Pages
JavaServer Pages (JSP) are server-side Java EE components that generate responses,
typically HTML pages, to HTTP requests from clients. JSPs embed Java code in an HTML page
by using the special delimiters  <%  and  %> . A JSP is compiled to a Java servlet, a Java
application in its own right, the first time it is accessed. After that, the generated servlet creates
the response.[61]
Swing application