JDK 23: The new features in Java 23

Java Development Kit (JDK) 23, the latest update of standard Java, is now generally available. Major features and changes range from previews of module import declarations, stream gatherers, structured concurrency, scoped values, and a class-file API to the deprecation of memory access methods in sun.misc.Unsafe. 

The feature set for JDK 23 was finalized at an even dozen, but there are actually thousands of improvements when factoring in bug fixes and lesser capabilities, according to Oracle. A proposed third preview of string templates, which was previewed in JDK 22 and JDK 21, was dropped from JDK 23. Developers can download JDK 23 from oracle.com.

JDK 23 includes third previews of scoped values, structured concurrency, and implicitly declared classes and instance methods, and second previews of flexible constructor bodies, stream gatherers, and a class-file API. JDK 23 also includes module import declarations, Markdown documentation comments, an eighth incubation of a vector API, and a preview of primitive types in patterns, instanceof, and switch. The release deprecates the memory access methods in sun.misc.UnSafe and makes the generational mode of the Z Garbage collector the default mode.