What are the new features introduced in Java 8?
There are dozens of features added to Java 8, the most significant ones are mentioned below -
Lambda expression - Adds functional processing capability to Java.
Method references - Referencing functions by their names instead of invoking them directly. Using functions as parameter.
Default method - Interface to have default method implementation.
New tools - New compiler tools and utilities are added like 'jdeps' to figure out dependencies.
Stream API - New stream API to facilitate pipeline processing.
Date Time API - Improved date time API.
Optional - Emphasis on best practices to handle null values properly.
Nashorn, JavaScript Engine - A Java-based engine to execute JavaScript code.
Along with these new featuers, lots of feature enhancements are done under-the-hood, at both compiler and JVM level.
