Features of Java

Last Updated: 05 October 2023

Java is an object-oriented programming language (OOP). It has many powerful features that make Java one of the most popular, useful, high-performance, and secure programming language. Java is widely recognized for its object-oriented capabilities, platform independence, high performance, security, etc.

In this tutorial, we will talk about the features of Java in detail. These features play a crucial role in Java application development.

These are the following features of Java that contribute to its wide use and popularity:

📝  The features of Java are also known as Java buzzwords.

Let's see each feature of Java in detail.

👉  Simple and Familiar

Java syntax and concepts are easy and simple to learn and work with, which makes Java a simple programming language.

To make Java simple, all the complex and difficult features were removed, such as pointers, operator overloading, goto statements, multiple inheritance, etc.

👉  Object-Oriented

Java is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language. Java programs are developed using classes and objects. Java treats everything as an object. Object-oriented programming is a methodology that simplifies software development and maintenance by providing some rules.

Java strongly supports the concepts of OOPs:

• Class and Object
• Abstraction
• Encapsulation
• Inheritance
• Polymorphism

👉  Platform Independent

Java is a platform-independent language, which means we can develop and compile Java programs on any platform (machine or OS) that can be executed on the same or different platforms. It is also called an Architecture Neutral Language.

Java supports the WORA mechanism (Write Once, Run Anywhere), which means writing Java applications on one platform and running them on the same or different platforms.

📝  In Java, the compiler is responsible for compiling Java source code. During the compilation process, if it finds any errors, it throws the respective error message; else it compiles successfully and generates an intermediate code called the byte code. The JVM (Java Virtual Machine) further converts this code into machine-dependent form. The JVM can execute byte code on any platform or operating system on which it is present.

👉  Portable

As Java is platform-independent, we can easily carry Java byte codes (.class files) from one machine to another. After running, we will get the same result on any platform.

👉  Secured

Security is one of the strong features of Java. In order to provide strong security features, Java has provided the following mechanisms and removed security violations:

• Java supports access modifiers to ensure control over accessibility, and developers can restrict the scope of a class and its properties.
• There is no explicit pointer.
• Java reduces the chances of memory leaks.
• Java provides automatic memory management.
• Java ensures that no viruses enter an applet.
• Java’s bytecode verifier checks the code blocks for any illegal code that violates the access right.

Overall, Java provides virus-free and secure Java applications.

👉  Robust

Java is a robust and reliable programming language. Java handles compile-time and run-time errors as it checks the code during the compile and runtime. If any compile-time or run-time errors are identified by the compiler or JVM, it immediately terminates the program and stops further processing..

Java also has an automatic garbage collection mechanism, exception handling, and a type-checking mechanism.

👉  Architecture neutral

Java is an architecture-neutral programming language because it does not depend on the architecture of a computer, like processors, memory, input/output, the size of primitive types, etc. Java can be run on any computer architecture, as it is platform-independent.

👉  Compiled and Interpreted

When we write a Java program, the Java compiler (javac) compiles the Java source code (.java file) and generates the intermediate byte code (.class). The JVM serves as an interpreter that converts byte code to machine code, which is portable and can be executed on any platform.

👉  High Performance

Java provides high performance as it uses the JIT (Just In Time) compiler. The JIT compiles only the method that is being called. By caching interpretations, the JIT makes byte-code interpretations faster.

👉  Multithreaded

Java is a multi-threaded programming language. Multithreading is the process of executing multiple threads simultaneously for maximum utilization of the CPU. A program can be divided into a number of small processes, and every small process is represented as a single thread (a lightweight process). Multithreading allows a single program to perform two or more tasks simultaneously and increases the application's performance.

👉  Distributed

Java has a distributed programming language. For better management of large Java applications, we can divide and distribute application parts on different machines. RMI (Remote Method Invocation) and EJB (Enterprise Java Beans) are used to develop distributed Java applications.

👉  Dynamic

Java is a dynamic language. It can adapt to its evolving environment. Dynamically linking class libraries, objects, and methods is possible with this feature. Java programs can have a large amount of run-time information that can be used to resolve access to objects. Java classes are loaded on demand. It also supports the functions of native languages like C and C++.