In this article, you will explore the following Java 14 major features with examples

  • Switch Expressions (Standard)

  • Helpful NullPointerException

  • Text Blocks (Second Preview)

  • Records (Preview)

  • Pattern Matching for instanceOf (Preview)

  • Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector

Switch Expressions (Standard)

  • Beside using switch case with break statement, you can also write swith case expression with yield statement by using arrow syntax
public String toWord(int val) {  
    var str = switch (val) {
        case 0 -> "zero";
        case 1 -> "one";
        default -> {
            System.out.println("no fall through and less verbose");
            yield "many";
        }
    };

    return str;
}

@Test
public void testSwitchExpressions() {  
    var str1 = toWord (0);
    var str2 = toWord (1);
    var str3 = toWord (2);

    assertThat(str1).isEqualTo("zero");
    assertThat(str2).isEqualTo("one");
    assertThat(str3).isEqualTo("many");
}
  • In Java 14, Switch Expressions are standard. This was a preview language feature in Java 12 and 13

Helpful NullPointerException

  • JVM describes NullPointerException precisely which variable was null
  • Run the above test before Java 14
java.lang.NullPointerException  
    at com.hellokoding.java.java14.HelpfulNullPointerException.nullString(HelpfulNullPointerException.java:7)
    at com.hellokoding.java.java14.HelpfulNullPointerException.testNullString(HelpfulNullPointerException.java:12)
  • Run with this VM option -XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages since Java 14
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot assign field "field1" because "pojo" is null  
    at com.hellokoding.java.java14.HelpfulNullPointerException.nullString(HelpfulNullPointerException.java:7)
    at com.hellokoding.java.java14.HelpfulNullPointerException.testNullString(HelpfulNullPointerException.java:12)
  • This feature might be enabled by default in a future Java version

Text Blocks (Second Preview)

  • A text block is a multi-line string literal that avoids the need for most escape sequences, formats the string in a predictable way

  • The verbose multiple lines strings

String html = "<html>\n" +  
              "    <body>\n" +
              "        <p>Hello, world</p>\n" +
              "    </body>\n" +
              "</html>\n";

String query = "SELECT `EMP_ID`, `LAST_NAME` FROM `EMPLOYEE_TB`\n" +  
               "WHERE `CITY` = 'INDIANAPOLIS'\n" +
               "ORDER BY `EMP_ID`, `LAST_NAME`;\n";
  • The clean multiple lines strings with text blocks
String html = """  
              <html>
                  <body>
                      <p>Hello, world</p>
                  </body>
              </html>
              """;

String query = """  
               SELECT `EMP_ID`, `LAST_NAME` FROM `EMPLOYEE_TB`
               WHERE `CITY` = 'INDIANAPOLIS'
               ORDER BY `EMP_ID`, `LAST_NAME`;
               """;

Records (Preview)

Records provide a compact syntax for declaring classes, reduce the POJO boilerplate by providing the default implementation for constructors, accessors, equals(), hashCode() and toString()

You can think record as Lombok @Value

record Book(int id, String title) {  
}

@Test
public void testRecord() {  
    Book b = new Book(1, "Java 14");
    int id = b.id();
    String title = b.title();

    assertThat(id).isEqualTo(1);
    assertThat(title).isEqualTo("Java 14");
}

The Book record is compiled as the following

final class Book extends java.lang.Record {  
    private final int id;
    private final java.lang.String title;

    public Book(int id, java.lang.String title) { /* compiled code */ }

    public java.lang.String toString() { /* compiled code */ }

    public final int hashCode() { /* compiled code */ }

    public final boolean equals(java.lang.Object o) { /* compiled code */ }

    public int id() { /* compiled code */ }

    public java.lang.String title() { /* compiled code */ }
}

Pattern Matching for instanceOf (Preview)

Pattern matching allows conditional extraction of components from objects to be expressed more concisely and safely

Remove the Concurrent Mark Sweep (CMS) Garbage Collector

Trying to use CMS via the -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC option will result in the following warning message:

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM warning: Ignoring option UseConcMarkSweepGC; \  
support was removed in <version>

and the VM will continue execution using the default collector

Java
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Van N.

Van N. is a software engineer, creator of HelloKoding. He loves coding, blogging, and traveling. You may find him on GitHub and LinkedIn