How to find out the jdk version which compiled a class in java

You can easily determine the jdk version with which a given java file was compiled using the below command.

The above command should be executed at the location where the class file is placed or otherwise the entire path of class file needs to be given.

Open the command prompt on windows or terminal on linux/mac systems and navigate to the location of class file and execute the above command.
Example,

Note the folders com/codippa is the package of this class since a java file when compiled is located inside the folders that match its package.
This command will print a lengthy output which also contains the bytecode of the class but first few lines will let us know the version of jdk that we are looking for.
Above command prints the following output.

Note that the output contains the name and complete path of the java file, its compiled class file name with package and other details.

If you look at the highlighted part, you will see a minor version: 0 and major version: 52. Out of these two values, major version will help us to determine the compiling jdk version as per the table below.

Major Version	JDK Version
58	Java SE 14
57	Java SE 13
58	Java SE 12
55	Java SE 11
54	Java SE 10
53	Java SE 9
52	Java SE 8
51	Java SE 7
50	Java SE 6
49	Java SE 5
48	JDK 1.4
47	JDK 1.3
46	JDK 1.2
45	JDK 1.1

As per this table, the class file shown above was compiled on Java 8.

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