Introduction
In this article, we will learn features of Java Programming language in detail.
Java is one of the most used programming language and it has a lot of features to offer.
Java programming language was mainly created to make programming easy and simple.
However, Java is not just limited to these feature. It has lots of other features that makes java a very popular language.
Java features are also known as java buzzwords.
Features of Java
Below are the list of features of Java programming language :
- Simple
- Portable
- Object-Oriented
- Platform independent
- Robust
- Secured
- Multithreaded
- Architecture neutral
- Interpreted
- Distributed
- High Performance
- Dynamic
Let’s learn each in detail:
Java is Simple
Features of java has first feature in the list is Simple. As Java Programming language is very simple to learn.
Its syntax is super easy, clean and very relatable to real life thus makes it very simple to understand.
Java is Simple programming language and there are many aspects which makes Java a simple and easy language.
Some of those aspects are mentioned below :
- Syntax for Java programming language is based on C++ hence programmers can easily adapt this language.
- Java does not have any complicated features such as operator overloading and pointers etc.
- Java has automatic garbage collection feature which simplifies the developers task.
Java is Portable
Java provides feature of portability. Java does not have any implementation dependency. We can move java bytecode into any other platform.
Java is a pure architecture-neutral language.
We are not required to perform any additional implementation to move one byte code into another platform.
Java is Object Oriented
Java is based on Object Oriented Programming concept.
Thus, we can say everything is an object in Java.
Being an object oriented language definitely adds a lot of benefits to Java programming.
Object Oriented programming basically states that every application should be treated as a combination of objects and every object has its own state and behavior.
OOps has many concepts are rules which simplifies the programming development.
Below are the OOPs concepts :
- Object
- Class
- Inheritance
- Abstraction
- Encapsulation
- Polymorphism
Java is Platform independent
Java is a platform independent language. It is better than traditional languages which are platform dependent such as C and C++ etc.
Platform independent feature of Java simple means that we can run a existing program in any platform.
Java supports write once and run anywhere. (WORA)
There are basically two types of platforms in software industry :
- Software-based
- Hardware-based.
Java programming language is a software based platform.
It has mainly two components:
- Application Programming Interface (API)
- Runtime Environment
It is a software based platform so it runs on the top of other hardware based platforms.
We can run the Java code on many various platforms such as Mac, Windows, Linux etc.
How Java is Platform independent?
Java is platform independent because its byte code is platform independent. When we compile java code then compiler converts that code into bytecode.
As the bytecode is platform independent in Java so we can run it anywhere.
Java is Robust
Robust in simple language means strong. Java is considered to be a Robust/strong language.
There are many features of java that makes it a Robust language.
Let’s look at them :
- Java uses very effective and strong memory management.
- As mentioned earlier, Java does not uses explicit pointers so it avoids security issues.
- Java has automatic garbage collection which clears out the unused objects from memory.
- It’s exception handling feature.
Java is Secured
Security is the utmost requirement from any programming language. Good news is that, Java does provide great security features.
Java features provides the facility to create virus free applications. There are several features that makes Java secure.
Let’s look at them:
- Java lacks the explicit pointer.
- Java Programs are being run inside one virtual machine sandbox.
These features of security in Java are provided by default.
However, additional security can be explicitly provided through SSL, Cryptography, JAAS etc.
Java is Multithreaded
Java provides multithreading feature.
Multithreading feature simply allow multiple threads working simultaneously. A thread is a piece of program which has its own execution stack. It executes concurrently.
By using multithreading, we can execute several tasks simultaneously.
Threads do not take any extra memory which makes it very efficient. All threads share common memory area.
See : Multitasking vs multithreading.
Java is Architecture neutral
Java is an architecture neutral programming language.
It is not implementation dependent language hence it makes it an architecture neutral language.
Java is Interpreted
Java is one of the popular interpreted language. Compiler converts java code into byte code.
Java is Distributed
Java is a distributed programming language. We can use RMI and EJB in java to create distributed applications.
Distributed is a great features as it allows to access methods from any machine in the web.
High Performance
Java provides higher performance than any other traditional interpreted languages. However, Java is comparatively slower than C++, which is a compiled language.
Java is an interpreted programming languages and the Bytecode of Java is very closer to native code.
As it is an interpreted language it is bit slower than compiled languages such as C, C++, etc.
Java is Dynamic
One of important feature of Java is Dynamic.
Java supports various dynamic features like class loading dynamically etc. Dynamic loading of class in Java simply means that class will be loaded only when required.
Java also supports the dynamic compilation and automatic garbage collection.
Further Readings:
Conclusion
List of features of java includes security, simple, robust, platform independent etc. The features of Java are the main reasons to make java so popular language.
Thanks for Reading!
