Java 17 Features — What’s New for Beginners?

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Introduction

Java is a versatile language that has been around for more than two decades, consistently updated and innovated to adapt to the evolving demands of developers around the world. The latest release, Java 17, was rolled out with a lot of enhancements, feature updates, and removals. In this article, we’re going to delve into the new features that are particularly valuable for beginners.

Sealed Classes

Java 17 introduces the concept of sealed classes and interfaces. This is an exciting feature for beginners as it allows you to limit the extensibility of a class or an interface. It means you can specify which other classes or interfaces are permitted to extend or implement them.

Here is a basic example:

public sealed class Shape
    permits Circle, Square, Rectangle {}

The Shape class is sealed, so it can only be extended by Circle, Square, or Rectangle. Any attempts to extend Shape with any other class will result in a compile-time error. This allows for increased control over your code and prevents misuse or unexpected behavior.

Pattern Matching for switch

Java 17 enhances the switch statement with pattern matching capabilities. This feature…