Ubuntu 14.04 how to change default Java

We had to change the default version of Java used from 7 to 8. I found THIS page which gave the solution below which worked:

Switching between installed Java versions can be accomplished using the update alternatives command.

To get a list of your installed Java platforms, run the following command from the terminal:

sudo update-alternatives --config java
This will give you a list output similar to this:

There are 2 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).
   Selection    Path                                           Priority   Status
  ------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-oracle/jre/bin/java         1070      auto mode
  1            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java   1051      manual mode
* 2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java   1069      manual mode
Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:
In this case, the Open JDK 6 version is running. To switch to the Open JDK version 7, you would select option 1 at the prompt and press the Enter key.

You will now be running the OpenJDK 7 version. No other changes will be needed to switch your Java versions.