How to set -source 1.7 in Android Studio and Gradl

Question

I'm getting following error when trying to compile my project in Android Studio:

Gradle: error: diamond operator is not supported in -source 1.6

I have 1.7 set as target in all project preferences I've found. Also the path displayed in project SDK's under 1.7 SDK is correct path to java 1.7 installation.

Even when I run java -version in terminal, it tells me I'm running on java 1.7.

I have tried to set JAVA_HOME env variable to this:

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_25.jdk/Contents/Home

The error does not go away. How do I eliminate the error?

Answer 1

At current, Android doesn't support Java 7, only Java 6. New features in Java 7 such as the diamond syntax are therefore not currently supported. Finding sources to support this isn't easy, but I could find that the Dalvic engine is built upon a subset of Apache Harmony which only ever supported Java up to version 6. And if you check the system requirements for developing Android apps it also states that at least JDK 6 is needed (though this of course isn't real proof, just an indication). And this says pretty much the same as I have. If I find anything more substancial, I'll add it.

Edit: It seems Java 7 support has been added since I originally wrote this answer; check the answer by Sergii Pechenizkyi.

Answer 2

Maybe these answers above are old but with the new Android Studios 1, you do the following to see the module to run on 1.7 (or 1.6 if you prefer). Click File --> Project Structure. Select the module you want to run and then under "Source Compatibility" and "Target Compatibility", select 1.7. Click "OK".