The Evolution of Java
<p>Java was first released, and over the years, it has undergone significant changes. I started working with Java in the early 2000s, using J2SE 1.3, which lacked features that are now commonplace. Java 5 introduced generics, “for each” loops, annotations, autoboxing, and unboxing, resulting in more modern Java code.</p>
<p>Back then Java code looked like this:</p>
<pre>
List users = new ArrayList();
users.add(new User("John"));
users.add(new User("Mary"));
for (Iterator iterator = users.iterator(); iterator.hasNext(); ) {
User user = (User) iterator.next();
System.out.println(user.getName());
}</pre>
<p>Java 5 finally brought us generics, for each, annotations, autoboxing and unboxing, so todays java code looks normally more like this:</p>
<pre>
List<User> users = new ArrayList<>();
users.add(new User("John"));
users.add(new User("Mary"));
for (User user : users) {
System.out.println(user.getName());
}</pre>
<p>Though I haven’t used Java as my primary language in the past six years, I recently returned to it and have familiarized myself with the changes and new APIs that have been integrated mostly since Java 8. In this post, I will highlight some of the most significant language enhancements that have been added to Java in the last 20 years.</p>
<h1>Optionals</h1>
<p>Optionals were introduced in Java 8 as a way to handle null values in a more robust and safer way. Prior to Java 8, handling null values in Java code could be error-prone and could lead to NullPointerExceptions.</p>
<p>An Optional in Java is a container object that may or may not contain a value. It is used to represent the case where a value might not be present, instead of using a null reference. The Optional class provides a set of methods for working with the value it contains or for handling the case where the value is not present.</p>
<p>By using Optional, Java developers can write cleaner, more expressive code that is easier to read and maintain. Optionals can also help to reduce the risk of <code>NullPointerExceptions</code>, which can be a common source of bugs in Java code.</p>
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