Last Updated on October 8th, 2022

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Oracle has released JDK 18 in March 2022 and it’s general availability date is 2022/03/22. JDK 18 will be a short-term feature release that is supported for six months. However, JDK 17 will be a long-term-support (LTS) release, with extended support from Oracle expected for around eight years. Every Java Professional should be curious to know what is new in Java 18. But, how will we test the new features of Java 18 practically in the early days? However, we have a good news for Eclipse users. In this article, we will learn ‘How to add JDK 18 support in Eclipse 2022-03 and other older version of eclipse as well. Thanks to Eclipse community as they provide solution for developers before every new release of JDK version.

In this article, we will learn at least two ways of configuring JDK 18 in our eclipse. Each way will have step by step instructions to do it easily. Let’s start our topic ‘How to add JDK 18 support in Eclipse?’.

Pre-requisite

Before knowing ‘How to add JDK 18 support in Eclipse?’, we need to be sure that the following software are installed in our system.

♦ JDK 18 (you can download JDK 18 from the link)
♦ Eclipse 2022-03: Eclipse IDE for Enterprise Java and Web Developers (You can download Eclipse 2022-03 from the link as per your operating system). If you have lower versions of eclipse also, you can download the features of JDK 18 via a plugin.

Where can we download Java JDK latest version from?

There is an official website to download latest version of JDK. Even we can get the early access of future JDK versions as well from the link. Since we are discussing about JDK 18 in this article, we need to download JDK 18 first. The direct link to download JDK 18 is https://jdk.java.net/18/.

How to install Java/JDK 18?

In order to install JDK 18, you need to download the zip file by clicking the JDK 18 download link according to your operating system. However, you can visit the oracle site and search for the latest build of JDK 18 to get it installed. Then, you need to unzip the zip file and paste the ‘jdk-18’ folder in the directory where other jdk versions exist. However, in my case, it is ‘C:\Program Files\Java’ which is the native place of jdk installation.

Why to use Eclipse 2022-03?

If you download Eclipse 2022-03, you will get the inbuilt feature till JDK 17. Furthermore, you just need to download and install a plugin to get the additional feature of JDK 18. On the other hand, if you already have lower versions of Eclipse in your system, then also you can download & install the specific plugin to get the features of JDK 18.

How to install Eclipse?

Eclipse community also recommends that we should have a specific version of Eclipse installed in our system in order to get the support of JDK 18. The specific version is Eclipse 2022-03. You can directly click on the link ‘Eclipse 2022-03 for Java EE developers‘ to get it. Once you click on the link you will be on the Eclipse download page, then you have to click on the download link appearing on the page or follow the updated steps mentioned there.

Steps to add JDK 18 support in Eclipse (eclipse jdk 18|eclipse java 18)

In order to add JDK 18 support in your eclipse, follow the below steps carefully. However, we are providing two ways to get it done. We also have included step by step images to have a clear understanding of the whole process.

Method#1: Using Install New Software

Let’s follow below steps for the first method ‘Using Install New Software’.

1) Make sure you already installed JDK 18 and Eclipse 2022-03 on your system. If not, kindly visit a section given above for the guidelines in this article.
2) Open your eclipse, click on Help-> Install New Software
3) In the first field(Work with) paste the below URL and hit Enter.
https://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/4.23-P-builds/
4) Multiple values with checkboxes will appear. You have to select ‘Eclipse Java 18 support for 2022-03 development stream’ and then click on ‘Next’ button. A new window will appear with download progress. Click on ‘Finish’ to complete the process.
5) At the end, restart the eclipse. You may also be asked to restart the eclipse to get the new features.
6) Then you need to create one Test Project to check the JDK 18 support.
7) Now click on Project -> Properties. Then select ‘Project Facets’ from the left.
8) Click on ‘Java’ checkbox and then select ’18’ from the drop-down and then click on ‘Apply and Close’ button.

 

 

Method#2: Using Eclipse Marketplace

However, Eclipse 2022-03 comes with Eclipse Marketplace. If you don’t find Marketplace in any particular version, then you can refer our article ‘How to install marketplace in Eclipse‘. Let’s follow below steps for the method ‘Using Eclipse Marketplace’.

1) Make sure you already installed JDK 18 and Eclipse 2022-03 on your system. If not, kindly visit above section.
2) Open your eclipse, click on Help-> Eclipse Marketplace
3) In the search bar type ‘Java 18’ or ‘JDK 18’ and hit enter.
4) You will find one item ‘Java 18 Support for Eclipse 2022-03 (4.23)
5) Now click on ‘Install’ button
6) Next, you will see the next window with heading ‘Confirm Selected Features’. You have to click on ‘Confirm’ button here. Let the checkboxes be selected as it is.
7) Now, a popup window with the message ‘Restart Eclipse IDE to apply the software update’ will appear. Here, you have to click on ‘Restart now’ button.

8) Then, you need to create one Test Project to test the JDK 18 support.
9) Now, click on Project -> Properties. Then select ‘Project Facets’ from the left.
10) Click on ‘Java’ checkbox and then select ’18’ from the drop-down and then click on ‘Apply and Close’ button.

 

 

Method#3: Using Drag & Drop facility provided by Eclipse Community

This is the easiest way to get JDK 18 feature in the eclipse. If this method doesn’t work for you, you may switch to below methods. Also, it is advisable that you should already have Eclipse 2022-03 in your System. Please follow below steps to get it done.

1) Open the browser and search for ‘Java 18 Support for Eclipse 2022-03 (4.23)’. Hover your mouse on ‘Install’ button and you will see that it is draggable. Please note that once new version of eclipse released with inbuilt support for Java 19, they may disable the link to drag & drop feature. In that case you may be able to use this method.

2) Open your eclipse

3) Drop it to the workspace of your eclipse and follow the further instructions. You may see one item ‘Java 18 Support for Eclipse 2022-03 (4.23)’. Select it and click on ‘Install’ button.

4) If you finished it without any error or warnings, you are done. Below screenshot demonstrates the steps.

How to Verify that Eclipse has Java 18 Support in place?

1) Click on Project -> Properties. Then select ‘Java Compiler’ from the left.
2) Uncheck the second checkbox (Use Compliance from execution environment)
3) Now click on the drop down there on the right side. You will see an additional entry for JDK 18, which is ’18’ or ’18 (BETA)’
4) Select ’18’ and click on ‘Apply and close’.

♥ Finally, you are ready to develop a project in Eclipse using Java 18.

 

How to test JDK 18 features in Eclipse?

1) Create a new Java Test Project in Eclipse.
2) Right click on the project and navigate to Build Path -> Configure Build Path
3) Then, click on libraries
4) Now, add libraries from the right
5) Set the installation path for JDK 18
6) Finally, enjoy the testing of JDK 18 features.

That’s all about configuring & testing eclipse java 18| eclipse jdk 18 | eclipse java 18 support environment in your system.

Eclipse not recognzising Java-18

If your eclipse is unable to recognize the Java 18 version, you need to follow above steps of this article.

♠ Here is the link to get to know ‘How to enable JDK 17 support in Eclipse?‘

♥  Also, Here is the link to get to know ‘How to enable JDK 16 support in Eclipse?‘

♥ And here is the link to get to know ‘How to enable JDK 15 support in Eclipse?‘