The short answer: I recommend that you go with at least JDK version 17 by Adoptium Eclipse Temurin. Which version of the JDK should I install? For example, if you want to use the newer functional programming features found in Java 8, then you need to install at least the Java 8 JDK. Since the JDK supplies the compiler for your Java programs, the JDK you install determines what Java version you are able to code in. You should see something like this if you have a JDK installed:

You can check if you have a JDK is installed by running the command java -version on the command-line. A JDK is the development environment used for compiling and executing Java applications. To use Java within Visual Studio Code, you need to install a Java Development Kit (JDK) on your computer. Step 1 - Install a Java Development Kit (JDK) However, I will go through how to setup things up from zero, with some beginner-friendly explanation.Īlso, I will see how VS Code fares with Spring Boot applications, and see if you can benefit from using some extensions for this. The VS Code docs has a Java guide that covers things quite well. It should be quick and easy to get up and running, but is it? If you do not know what a JDK is, don’t worry we will get to it! Also you need a Java Development Kit (JDK) installed. To setup VS Code for Java development, you need to install some extensions to provide core language features such as compilation and execution of Java programs, debugging, syntax highlighting, formatting, and code completion.

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