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What is JNA jar used for?

Author

Jessica Cortez

Updated on April 04, 2026

Java Native Access (JNA) is a community-developed library that provides Java programs easy access to native shared libraries without using the Java Native Interface (JNI).

What is Com Sun JNA?

JNA provides Java programs easy access to native shared libraries (DLLs on Windows) without writing anything but Java code no JNI or native code is required. This functionality is comparable to Windows’ Platform/Invoke and Python’s ctypes. Access is dynamic at runtime without code generation. License.

Is JNA slow?

JNA is much slower than JNI, but much easier. If performance is not an issue use JNA. Using direct buffers have the advantage that the most critical operations don’t use JNI or JNA and are thus faster.

How do I add JNA?

To run the demonstration:

  1. Download and install NetBeans.
  2. Download the project file, it is unpacked into the JNA directory.
  3. Download the jna. jar library on Sun’s site and copy it into the JNA directory.
  4. Load the project in NetBeans from this directory.
  5. Add jna. jar to the list of libraries:
  6. Compile the project.

Are JNI calls expensive?

Function calls to JNI methods are expensive, especially when calling a method repeatedly. Native methods are not inlined by the JVM, nor can the method be JIT compiled, as the method is already compiled.

What is JNI and JNA?

The main difference between these two is that JNI implementation is mostly done on native side, whereas JNA takes place on Java layer by handling native things automatically for you. Overall, JNI offers things you may not be able to do using JNA.

Is Java a native code?

This chapter introduces the Java Native Interface (JNI). The JNI is a native programming interface. It allows Java code that runs inside a Java Virtual Machine (VM) to interoperate with applications and libraries written in other programming languages, such as C, C++, and assembly.

What is JNA (Java Native Access)?

Java Native Access (JNA) is a community-developed library that provides Java programs easy access to native shared libraries without using the Java Native Interface.

Would you use JNI over JNA for calling native code?

JNA seems a fair bit easier to use to call native code compared to JNI. In what cases would you use JNI over JNA? javajava-native-interfacenativejna Share Improve this question Follow asked Oct 12 ’09 at 19:26 Marcus LeonMarcus Leon 51.5k114114 gold badges280280 silver badges416416 bronze badges 1

What is the nativelong type in JNA?

This is because, in C/C++, the long type may represent a 32- or 64-bit value, depending on whether we’re running on a 32- or 64-bit system. To address this issue, JNA provides the NativeLong type, which uses the proper type depending on the system’s architecture.

Where can I download the latest version of JNA-platform?

The latest version of jna-platform can be downloaded from Maven Central. 4. Using JNA Using JNA is a two-step process: First, we create a Java interface that extends JNA’s Library interface to describe the methods and types used when calling the target native code