Java SE stands for Java Platform, Standard Edition, which is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for desktop and server environments. It is a platform for developing and running Java applications, and it contains the JRE (Java Runtime Environment), which is needed to run a Java application, and the JDK (Java Development Kit), which contains tools needed for developing and maintaining your application. Java SEs API provides the core functionality of the Java programming language, and it defines everything from the basic types and objects of the Java programming language to high-level classes that are used for networking, security, database access, graphical user interface (GUI) development, and XML parsing. Java SE is used to build desktop applications, and it includes base Java that allows users to use databases, GUIs, etc. The "SE" is used to distinguish the base platform from the Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Micro Edition (Java ME) platforms.