Java 5 New Language Features

The Generics Tutorial from Sun covers the basic knowledge that is necessary for this category.

• Create code that uses Generics.
• Describe the benefits of Generics.
• Develop code which deals with legacy code that is not generified.

• Write code that makes appropriate use of the Enhanced for Loop.
• Identify correct and incorrect usage of the Enhanced for Loop.
• Explain the limitations of the Enhanced for Loop.

• Explain what can be done with Autoboxing / Unboxing.
• Develop code that use Autoboxing / Unboxing.
• Discuss the appropriate use of Autoboxing / Unboxing.
• Know that the values true, false, a byte, a char in the range \u0000 to \u007f, or an int or short number between -128 and 127, have special treatment within boxing conversions. And no assumptions can be made about other values.

Note: Before posting a question about boxing, read paragraph 5.1.7 of the Java Language Specification very carefully (especially the discussion box).

• Identify the goals of Typesafe Enums.
• Create enum constructors and explain how to create Enums.
• Write code that shows the correct and incorrect usage of Typesafe Enums.
• Use the methods in enums.
• Work with EnumSet and EnumMap.

• Determine the notation of Varargs.
• Develop code using Varargs.
• Explain why it is bad practice to overload methods with Varargs.

• Write code that use Static Import.
• Compare the old and new way of using static members.
• Discuss best practices of how to use static import.

An introduction from IBM to Annotations is here.
The definition of Annotations can be found in chapter 9.6 & 9.7 of the Java Language Specification and in the description of the java.lang.annotation package.

• Identify code that use Annotations.
• Create code that use standard Annotations.
• Develop custom Annotations.
• Explain the advantages of Annotations.
• Describe what marker annotations and meta-annotations are and how to use them.

Not covered: EJB 3 specific things!