Java version features & history

Java Version SE 8
Version Name: No specific code name (Name culture dropped and going forward no official code names)
Released on:  18 March 2014.

New features in Java SE 8 :
  • Lambda Expressions
  • Pipelines and Streams
  • Date and Time API
  • Default Methods
  • Type Annotations
  • Nashhorn JavaScript Engine
  • Concurrent Accumulators
  • Parallel operations
  • PermGen Error Removed
  • TLS SNI

Java Version SE 7
Version Name: Dolphin
Released on: July 28, 2011.

New features in Java SE 7 :
  • Strings in switch Statement
  • Type Inference for Generic Instance Creation
  • Multiple EXCEPTION HANDLING
  • Support for Dynamic Languages
  • Try with RESOURCES
  • Java nio Package
  • BINARY Literals, underscore in literals
  • Diamond Syntax
  • Automatic null Handling


Java Version SE 6
Version Name: MUSTANG
Released on: December 11, 2006.

New features in Java SE 6 :
  • Scripting Language Support
  • JDBC 4.0 API
  • Java Compiler API
  • Pluggable Annotations
  • Native PKI, Java GSS, Kerberos and LDAP support.
  • Integrated Web Services.
  • Many more features added.


J2SE Version 5.0
Version Name: Tiger
Released on: September 30, 2004.

New features in J2SE 5.0 :
  • Generics
  • Enhanced for Loop
  • Autoboxing/Unboxing
  • Typesafe Enums
  • Varargs
  • Static Import
  • Metadata (Annotations)
  • Instrumentation

J2SE Version 1.4
Version Name: Merlin
Released on: February 6, 2002.

New features in J2SE 1.4 :
  • XML Processing
  • Java Print Service
  • Logging API
  • Java Web Start
  • JDBC 3.0 API
  • Assertions
  • Preferences API
  • Chained Exception
  • IPv6 Support
  • Regular Expressions
  • Image I/O API

J2SE Version 1.3
Version Name: Kestrel
Released on: May 8, 2000.

New features in J2SE 1.3 :
  • Java Sound
  • Jar Indexing
  • A huge list of enhancements in almost all the java area.

J2SE Version 1.2
Version Name: Playground
Released on: December 8, 1998.

New features in J2SE 1.2 :
  • Collections framework.
  • Java String memory map for constants.
  • Just In Time (JIT) compiler.
  • Jar Signer for signing Java ARchive (JAR) files.
  • Policy Tool for granting access to system resources.
  • Java Foundation Classes (JFC) which consists of Swing 1.0, Drag and Drop, and Java 2D class libraries.
  • Java Plug-in
  • Scrollable result sets, BLOB, CLOB, batch update, user-defined types in JDBC.

JDK Version 1.1
Version Name: 
Released on: February 19, 1997.

New features in JDK 1.1 :
  • JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)
  • Inner Classes
  • Java Beans
  • RMI (Remote Method Invocation)
  • Reflection (introspection only)

JDK Version 1.0 
it is released on January 23, 1996.
Named as  "Oak"