Learning Java Lambdas

Lambdas vs closures

The terms closure and lambda are often used interchangeably but they are actually distinct. In this section we'll take a look at the differences so you can be clear about which is which.

Below is a table showing the release dates for each major version of Java. Java 5.0 came along in 2004 and included the first major language changes including things like generics support:

Around 2008 to 2010 there was a lot of work going on to introduce closures to Java. It was due to go in to Java 7 but didn't quite make it in time. Instead it evolved into lambda support in Java 8. Unfortunately, around that time, people used the term "closures" ...