Features of Java Programming Language

Java is one of the most frequently used programming languages, which was also one of the most popular languages for server-side programming in the past. Despite losing popularity over time, it is widespread in cross-platform development due to its architectural neutrality. Java has survived over a decade and received love and support from the programming community.   

According to statistics by Oracle, over 45 billion Java Virtual Machines (JVM) are used globally. Read this blog further to learn about the key Features of Java that make it popular among Programmers, Developers, and Data Science Professionals.   

Table of Contents

1) What makes Java so popular?  

2) What are the Features of Java?  

3) Object Oriented Programming in Java  

   a) Encapsulation  

   b) Inheritance  

   c) Abstraction  

   d) Polymorphism 

8) Conclusion 

What makes Java so popular? 

Java has gained popularity over time for its simple language and detailed syntax. Java’s verbose syntax often intimidates new programmers, but it allows you to build stable codes. These codes are less likely to encounter failure with time as they are statically typed.    

Java has a moderately difficult learning curve due to its statically typed nature, making it extremely verbose. However, it follows the Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concept. You'll learn Java quite easily if you have worked on other OOPs-based languages such as C++, making it a relatively simple language to learn.   

Java is also a worthwhile investment despite its time-consuming syntax and steep learning curve. Where Java asks you to declare its data type for it, thus taking your time, it makes up for it with its compilation speed. It is very high-performance thanks to using JVM as a platform to interpret its program into byte codes.    

The conversion of high-level programming language to machine-level language allows your system to compile and run a program much faster than its counterparts. Java uses the Just in Time (JIT) compiler as a part of its environment to compile the bytecode to machine code. This makes Java one of the fastest programming languages, as it gets both, interpreted and compiled during run time.   Java also benefits a lot from its Multithreading feature. This refers to Java's ability to process multiple threads simultaneously, where each thread is an instance of a process. This would mean that a programming language will normally process one thread at a time, while Java can process multiple them. This allows you to write an efficient Java program capable of multitasking. 

What are the Features of Java? 

Java has certain traits that make it an excellent choice as a programming language for development. It is commonly utilised in mobile development, chatbots and DevOps. Some common features in Java that make it so popular with developers are as follows. 


 

Platform Independence 

Java was designed to create a language that can run equally well regardless of platform. Java program uses JVM as its platform, which allows you to bridge the gap between the Operating System (OS) and compiler. This means Java programs can be on your system irrelevant of whether you are using Windows, Linux or MacOS.
    

Portability 

Java programming language follows the concept of Write Once Run Anywhere (WORA) thanks to its platform independence. This means code written in Java which was initially created in a machine Windows can execute on another machine using Linux. This is possible due to the usage of JVM, where a converted bytecode will be adjusted according to the respective OS.  

This makes it very easy for programmers to write a piece of code once and run it later in different systems. This has added benefit of saving a programmer a lot of time, as they don't need to write a fresh piece of code for different machines. 

Robustness 

A well-written program can handle exceptions very well and survive unpredictable errors to a great degree. This is possible due to the “Exception Handling” Feature in Java. This allows a programmer to use keywords like try, catch, finally and throw to prepare for errors and take certain actions when certain errors are detected.   

Additionally, Java can automatically manage its own memory. On the one hand, low-level programming languages make you manually code the destruction of unused variables; on the other, JVM does it automatically on your behalf in Java. This process is called Garbage Collection in Java and makes memory management of the heap extremely efficient.   

Lastly, Java allows you to run code written in the latest version of its run time environment in its oldest version or vice versa. This makes a legacy code within Java survive the migration, increasing its reusability. 

Security 

Java’s biggest advantage and feature is its natural defence against external threats. These natural defences exist in the form of security measures present within Java. It allows you to test its program for malware and viruses. Java also allows for digital signature generation, which has helped developers combat impersonation or data tampering. This is a failsafe in the absence of good development practices.   

Given that Java is not completely invulnerable to external threats, it still greatly reduces its effect. In cases of other programming languages, the absence of security methods leaves a program at the mercy of a programmer abiding by good development practices. 

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Object-Oriented Programming in Java 

Java is part of the Objected Oriented Programming Languages, a programming model built around data, objects and their classes. This differs from commonly found procedural programming languages such as C and Fortran.    

This allows you to classify data in Java, such as a variable as an Object. A collective group of such objects can be classified as a Class. This object-oriented programming model gives you access to certain features: as follows: 

a) Encapsulation:

It is a feature in Java which allows you to categorise similar entities in a programming language as a single unit. A real-life example of this would be dogs, cats, monkeys, etc., considered part of the class “Animal”. Similarly, Encapsulation in Java lets you put data like Objects and Methods in a class. This allows you to protect your data, maintain loose coupling in a program and debug your program with greater ease. 

b) Inheritance:

Another strong Feature in Java is Inheritance. It refers to the ability by which certain classes inherit the properties of a greater class they are part of. This saves a lot of time for developers as it allows you to reuse the properties of previous code rather than specifying them each time you declare a new subclass. 

c) Abstraction:

Abstraction is a feature in Java which lets you omit minor details, thus simplifying a process. It also acts as a security measure, as abstraction with access modifiers can limit the scope of your data’s accessibility.

d) Polymorphism:

It refers to the ability of a term in Java programming to get used again in a different context. This feature helps you get more work done with less code, thus increasing the efficiency of a program. 

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Conclusion 

Java is platform independent programming language known for its security, portability and resilience. It is one of the most popular languages in cross-platform development, chatbots and mobile development. Wherever Java lacks concise language and readability, it makes up for its performance and speed. Hopefully, this blog helped you understand Java's Features responsible for its popularity. Thank you for reading. 

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