I will also highlight how these features can reduce the cognitive complexity for developers. I’ll cover what these features are, why you might need them, and how you can start using them in IntelliJ IDEA. In this blog post, I will limit the coverage of Java 17 to its language features – Sealed Classes and Pattern Matching for switch. If you have been waiting to move on from Java 8 or 11, now is the time to weigh its advantages. Given that Java 17 is also an LTS release, it’s not just the developers but enterprises also noticing it. Stronger code analysis with closed list of subclassesĪ new Java release every six months can be exciting, overwhelming, or both.Revisiting processing of Plant types in class Gardener.

Define secure hierarchies with sealed classes.Need for creating restricted hierarchies.Sealed classes and interfaces (now a standard feature).Running the “if can be replaced with switch” inspection on your code base.Freedom from defining code that might never execute.Using sealed classes as type patterns – are they treated differently to non-sealed classes?.Should you care about handling all possible values for the selector expression in switch?.Pattern dominance – handling general types before specific types in case labels.Guarded patterns – conditions that follow test patterns.When do missing break statements in a switch statement become a compilation error?.Type pattern – case labels with a data type.Does IntelliJ IDEA convert your if-statement to a switch expression or a switch statement?.Yay! You can now handle nulls within a switch construct.Reducing cognitive complexity with pattern matching for switch.Replace if-else statement chains with concise switch constructs – that test types beyond int integrals, String, or enums.Switch expressions – what benefits do they bring to the table?.Pattern matching for switch (a preview feature).

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