What’s New In Java 13 Programming Language for Developers?

October 14, 2019

What’s New In Java 13 Programming Language for Developers?

Tech giant Oracle has recently announced Java 13 and Java Development Kit (JDK) 13 for enterprise development work. Oracle has promised the developers that it will release regular feature updates in every six-month cycle. Like every other Java release, it was available for early access than the official release. This early access give developers an opportunity to try the latest version before implementing it in their production code.

Let’s dig in deep to have a look at the new features and improvements. The most popular features are switch expressions and the text blocks that were originally intended for the Java 12. These features will play a vital role in Java web application development.

1. Switch Expressions Enhancements

Switch expressions were available for Java 12 as a preview feature. However, the community was demanding some improvements and with the release of Java 13, they’ve made some major. Let’s quickly check the Java 12 switch expressions and then discuss the improvements that Oracle has made for the latest release.
Switch always had a bad reputation for being an error-prone component and rarely used these days. The most annoying situation for the developer is to type break; at the end of every case. Java 12 resolved this problem by doing two things: first switch was used as an expression, which means a value is returned that can be assigned to a variable, or work as a return statement. The second thing was to get rid of the break; by making sure switch not appear between the cases when new syntax case -> instead of case: is used.

Every new Java version is compatible with the earlier version, implementing old syntax gives you old functionality. None of the legacy code has changed behavior.

// Legacy Switch Statement
private String javaReleaseDate(int version) {
  String result = "TBD";
  switch (version){
    case 12:
      result = "19.3";
      break;
    case 13:
      result = "19.9";
      break;
  };

  return result;
}
// Arrow Syntax Switch Expression // no fall-through
private String javaReleaseDate(int version) {
  return switch (version) {
    case 12 -> "19.3";
    case 13 -> "19.9";
    default -> "TBD";
  };
}

Due to the demand for improvement on switch expressions, in Java 13 switch is used as an expression and not a statement, and for implementing colon syntax, the keyword yield is used instead of keyword brake. This change removes the confusion and makes it clear if you are using the switch as an expression or as a statement. Earlier Java development company has to use it which they didn’t want. The yield statement has similar functionality like the return statement; when the case is matched it returns the current branch result.


// Switch Expression using yield over brake
private String javaReleaseDate(int version) {
return switch (version){
case 12: yield "19.3";
case 13: yield "19.3";
default: yield "TBD";
};
}

This feature is still in preview, so, in coming Java releases we might see further changes and improvements.

2. Text Blocks

Text blocks are basically a small part of the upcoming renowned feature “Raw String Literals” that was planned to release for Java 12, but with the pressure of community feedback, the feature was postponed. With Text blocks developer has a better way of writing, and reading, multi-line text inside the Java code. This was very lengthy for Java, because other languages running on JVM, like Kotlin, support multi-line text without any trouble.

The main issue text blocks fix is writing the code inside Java code from other languages. Previously, it was needed /n for the line breaks at the end of every line, which makes the code error-prone and difficult to understand.

Text blocks provide a better method to writing the multi-line text in Java 13. They use the triple quotation marks as the delimiters that can be implemented anywhere like a regular string.

// Multi line text with regular String
String html = "<html>\n" +
            "   <title>\n" +
            "     Text Blocks\n" +
            "   </title>\n" +
            "   <body>\n" +
            "     <p>...</p>\n" +
            "   </body>\n" +
            "</html>\n";
// With Text Blocks  
String html = """
              <html>
                <title>
                  <p>Text Blocks</p>
                </title>
                <body>
                  <p>...</p>
                </body>
              </html>""";

The compiler will compile this like a regular string and there will be no hint if it was originally a string or a text block. It is important to note that the text blocks cannot be implemented on a single line: the opening quotes must be followed by a line terminator else it will not compile.

Conclusion:

There are plenty of changes in Java 13 and the most prominent ones are mentioned above. If you see the official press release, you will come to know a big list of features. For developers, the two features mentioned are in the preview status and might change in the upcoming releases. If you are looking to implement these latest features in your enterprise application development, simply hire Java developer from a reputed development company. Java India is a renowned company, contact them to build an engaging Java application for your enterprise.