How to change JDK version for an Eclipse project

David picture David · Sep 25, 2012 · Viewed 321.8k times · Source

I need to write a project that's only compatible with Java 1.5. I have Java 1.6 installed. Is there some form of backwards compatibility to get Eclipse to compile with 1.5?

Do I have to install Java 1.5 to get it to show here? Or maybe there is another way?

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Answer

kosa picture kosa · Sep 25, 2012

Click on the Add Library button. It brings your screen to point to the Java location.

Select "Directory", button right besides JRE home and point to the installed folder location.

Even though you want to just 1.5 compiler project, you can achieve it by changing compiler settings in Eclipse instead of removing 1.6 JRE and add 1.5 JRE.

GOTO -->JAVA--Compiler---> and change compiler level to `1.5` instead of `1.6`

As davidfmatheson suggested,

Just be careful, especially if you're setting this up for a team of people to work on. If anyone uses anything that is new or changed in 1.6, it will compile, but not run in an environment with JRE 1.5.