Beginning Java 8 Language Features

Beginning Java 8 Language Features covers essential and advanced features of the Java programming language such as the new lambda expressions (closures), inner classes, threads, I/O, Collections, garbage collection, streams, and more. Author Kishori Sharan provides over 60 diagrams and 290 complete programs to help you visualize and better understand the topics covered in this book.

The book starts with a series of chapters on the essential language features provided by Java, including annotations, inner classes, reflection, and generics. These topics are then complemented by details of how to use lambda expressions, allowing you to build powerful and efficient Java programs. The chapter on threads follows this up and discusses everything from the very basic concepts of a thread to the most advanced topics such as synchronizers, the fork/join framework, and atomic variables.

This book contains unmatched coverage of Java I/O, including NIO 2.0, the Path API, the FileVisitor API, the watch service and asynchronous file I/O. With this in-depth knowledge, your data- and file-management programs will be able to take advantage of every feature of Java’s powerful I/O framework.

Finally, you’ll learn how to use the Stream API, a new, exciting addition to Java 8, to perform aggregate operations on collections of data elements using functional-style programming. You’ll examine the details of stream processing such as creating streams from different data sources, learning the difference between sequential and parallel streams, applying the filter-map-reduce pattern, and dealing with optional values.

What you’ll learn

• How to use essential and advanced features of the Java language
• How to code Java annotations and inner classes
• How to work with reflection, generics, and threads
• What is Java I/O vs. NIO and NIO 2.0
• How to work with the garbage collector
• How to manage streams with the Stream API

Who this book is for

This book is for those new to Java programming and continues the learning Java journey; it is recommended that you read an introductory Java programming book first, such as Beginning Java Fundamentals, from Apress.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Annotations
Chapter 2. Inner Classes
Chapter 3. Reflection
Chapter 4. Generics
Chapter 5. Lambda Expressions
Chapter 6. Threads
Chapter 7. Input Output
Chapter 8. Working with Archive Files
Chapter 9. New Input Output NIO
Chapter 10. New Input Output 2.0
Chapter 11. Garbage Collection
Chapter 12. Collections
Chapter 13. Streams