What´s New for Developers Moving from Java 11 to 17?

Java SE 17 was released in September 2022 as the next long-term supported

version from Oracle. Therefore, it is expected that many of us will quite soon migrate

from Java 11 to 17.

In this lecture, we will go through the new APIs available in Java 17, compared to the

ones available in Java 11. We will focus on changes that are most relevant for

developers. Other new features like security enhancements, garbage collector

updates or performance improvements are not in scope of this lecture.

We will cover the following new APIs:

• Text Blocks – make our multiline strings more readable
• Pattern Matching – create variables with instance-of checks
• Records - create immutable data classes with ease
• Sealed Classes - finer control of our class extendibility
• Stream toList Method – reduce boilerplate for the most common collector
• NullPointerExceptions – helpful messages that ease debugging
• Switch Expressions – using arrow functions and getting rid of breaks
• Pattern Matching for Switch – unfortunately only in preview mode

At the end of this lecture, we should be familiar with the latest Java APIs and be

ready to start using Java 17 on your next project assignment.