The Java Version Almanac
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Java 7

Status End of Life
Release Date 2011-07-11
EOL Date 2021-07-20
Latest Version 7u351
Codename Dolphin
Class File Version 51.0
API Changes Compare to 6 - 5 - 1.4 - 1.3 - 1.2 - 1.1
Documentation Release Notes, Language Spec, VM Spec, JavaDoc
SCM hg

After Java 6 it took almost five years to create a new Java major release. In the meantime the original Java inventor Sun Microsystems have been acquired in 2010. Java 7 is the first release under new owner Oracle.

One of the reasons for the long delay of Java 7 was the long design and development time for a lambda syntax for the Java language. While this feature was finally dropped from Java 7 the required mechanics under the hood like INVOKEDYNAMIC and method handles have been added to the Java runtime with this release.

New Features

JVM

Language

API

Downloads

Vendor Product License Platform Downloads
Azul Systems Zulu Builds of OpenJDK 7 GPLv2+CE
IBM IBM SDK, Java Technology Edition, Version 7 Release 1 Commercial
Oracle Java SE Development Kit 7 Commercial