Java 8: The Fundamentals

Get up and running with the most significant Java release in years.

Java 8 has the potential to fundamentally change the way you write Java code. This book is intended to teach existing Java programmers and software engineers the fundamentals of these changes in a couple of afternoons, and leave you with a strong understanding of how you can incorporate these changes into your code.

If you are new to Java and would like to learn Java from scratch - including Java 8 - you may want to search for "A Software Engineer Learns Java and Object Orientated Programming" instead.

This book contains comprehensive information on all the main additions to the language in Java 8, including:

• Lambda expressions: no prior knowledge of lambda expressions are required, this book will walk you through all aspects of lambda expressions, from their construction to their use. 
• The Streams API: the Streams API has the potential to revolutionize the way Java programmers think about processing sets of data. This book will walk you through a variety of use-cases with the Streams API, and look at how the Streams API can be used to perform parallel processing of data. 
• Default methods: Java 8 makes significant changes to interfaces, allowing interfaces to contain implementation details. This change essentially brings a form of multiple-inheritance to Java, and allows legacy interfaces to be changed without breaking backwards compatibility. 
• The Date/Time API: Java 8 introduces a whole new Date and Time API based on Joda-time. You will walk through many examples, and look at how the new API differs from the Date and Calendar API we are all familiar with. 
• The Nashorn JavaScript engine: JavaScript is now officially part of Java with the inclusion of the Nashorn JavaScript engine. The book will walk through a variety of examples with Nashorn, and look at why you may want to run JavaScript code on the Java Runtime. 

In addition, many other minor features will be introduced along the way.


To celebrate the inclusion of a JavaScript engine in Java, this book also contains a bonus chapter teaching Java programmers how to use JavaScript - the right way. This is intended to get Java programmers and software engineers up and running with JavaScript, and avoid the frustrations that many Java programmers encounter when confronted with JavaScript.