Sunday, March 6, 2011

What is Java? & Java Environment Setup:

Java is:

  • Object Oriented
  • Platform independent:
  • Simple
  • Secure
  • Architectural- neutral
  • Portable
  • Robust
  • Multi-threaded
  • Interpreted
  • High Performance
  • Distributed
  • Dynamic

Java Environment Setup:

Java SE is freely available from the link Download Java. So you download a version based on your operating system.

You can refere to installation guide for a complete detail.

Java Basic Syntax:

  • Object - Objects have states and behaviors. Example: A dog has states-color, name, breed as well as behaviors -wagging, barking, eating. An object is an instance of a class.

  • Class - A class can be defined as a template/ blue print that describe the behaviors/states that object of its type support.

  • Methods - A method is basically a behavior. A class can contain many methods. It is in methods where the logics are written, data is manipulated and all the actions are executed.

  • Instant Variables - Each object has its unique set of instant variables. An object.s state is created by the values assigned to these instant variables.

First Java Program:

Let us look at a simple code that would print the words Hello World.

public class MyFirstJavaProgram{


/* This is my first java program.
* This will print 'Hello World' as the output
*/

public static void main(String []args){
System.out.println("Hello World"); // prints Hello World
}
}

About Java programs, it is very important to keep in mind the following points.

  • Case Sensitivity - Java is case sensitive which means identifier Hello and hello would have different meaning in Java.

  • Class Names - For all class names the first letter should be in Upper Case.

    If several words are used to form a name of the class each inner words first letter should be in Upper Case.

    Example class MyFirstJavaClass

  • Method Names - All method names should start with a Lower Case letter.

    If several words are used to form the name of the method, then each inner word's first letter should be in Upper Case.

    Example public void myMethodName()

  • Program File Name - Name of the program file should exactly match the class name.

    When saving the file you should save it using the class name (Remember java is case sensitive) and append '.java' to the end of the name. (if the file name and the class name do not match your program will not compile).

    Example : Assume 'MyFirstJavaProgram' is the class name. Then the file should be saved as 'MyFirstJavaProgram.java'

  • public static void main(String args[]) - java program processing starts from the main() method which is a mandatory part of every java program..

Java Identifiers:

All java components require names. Names used for classes, variables and methods are called identifiers.

In java there are several points to remember about identifiers. They are as follows:

  • All identifiers should begin with a letter (A to Z or a to z ), currency character ($) or an underscore (-).

  • After the first character identifiers can have any combination of characters.

  • A key word cannot be used as an identifier.

  • Most importantly identifiers are case sensitive.

  • Examples of legal identifiers:age, $salary, _value, __1_value

  • Examples of illegal identifiers : 123abc, -salary

Java Modifiers:

Like other languages it is possible to modify classes, methods etc by using modifiers. There are two categories of modifiers.

  • Access Modifiers : defualt, public , protected, private

  • Non-access Modifiers : final, abstract, strictfp

We will be looking into more details about modifiers in the next section.

Java Variables:

We would see following type of variables in Java:

  • Local Variables
  • Class Variables (Static Variables)
  • Instance Variables (Non static variables)

Java Arrays:

Arrays are objects that store multiple variables of the same type. However an Array itself is an object on the heap. We will look into how to declare, construct and initialize in the upcoming chapters.

Java Enums:

Enums were introduced in java 5.0. Enums restrict a variable to have one of only a few predefined values. The values in this enumerated list are called enums.

With the use of enums it is possible to reduce the number of bugs in your code.

For example if we consider an application for a fresh juice shop it would be possible to restrict the glass size to small, medium and Large. This would make sure that it would not allow anyone to order any size other than the small, medium or large.

Example:

class  FreshJuice{

enum FreshJuiceSize{ SIZE, MEDUIM, LARGE }
FreshJuiceSize size;
}

public class FreshJuiceTest{
public static void main(String args[]){
FreshJuice juice = new FreshJuice();
juice.size = FreshJuice. FreshJuiceSize.MEDUIM ;
}
}

Note: enums can be declared as their own or inside a class. Methods, variables, constructors can be defined inside enums as well.

Java Keywords:

The following list shows the reserved words in Java. These reserved words may not be used as constant or variable or any other identifier names.

abstractassertbooleanbreak
bytecasecatchchar
classconstcontinuedefault
dodoubleelseenum
extendsfinalfinallyfloat
forgotoifimplements
importinstanceofintinterface
longnativenewpackage
privateprotectedpublicreturn
shortstaticstrictfpsuper
switchsynchronizedthisthrow
throwstransienttryvoid
volatilewhile

Comments in Java

Java supports single line and multi-line comments very similar to c and c++. All characters available inside any comment are ignored by Java compiler.

public class MyFirstJavaProgram{


/* This is my first java program.
* This will print 'Hello World' as the output
* This is an example of multi-line comments.
*/

public static void main(String []args){
// This is an example of single line comment
/* This is also an example of single line comment. */
System.out.println("Hello World");
}
}

Data Types in Java

There are two data types available in Java:

  1. Primitive Data Types

  2. Reference/Object Data Types

Primitive Data Types:

There are eight primitive data types supported by Java. Primitive data types are predefined by the language and named by a key word. Let us now look into detail about the eight primitive data types.

  • byte
  • short
  • int
  • long
  • float
  • double
  • boolean
  • char

Reference Data Types:

  • Reference variables are created using defined constructors of the classes. They are used to access objects. These variables are declared to be of a specific type that cannot be changed. For example, Employee, Puppy etc.

  • Class objects, and various type of array variables come under reference data type.

  • Default value of any reference variable is null.

  • A reference variable can be used to refer to any object of the declared type or any compatible type.

  • Example : Animal animal = new Animal("giraffe");

Java Literals:

A literal is a source code representation of a fixed value. They are represented directly in the code without any computation.

Literals can be assigned to any primitive type variable. For example:

byte a = 68;

char a = 'A'

String literals in Java are specified like they are in most other languages by enclosing a sequence of characters between a pair of double quotes. Examples of string literals are:

"Hello World"

"two\nlines"
"\"This is in quotes\""

Java language supports few special escape sequences for String and char literals as well. They are:

NotationCharacter represented
\nNewline (0x0a)
\rCarriage return (0x0d)
\fFormfeed (0x0c)
\bBackspace (0x08)
\sSpace (0x20)
\ttab
\" Double quote
\'Single quote
\\backslash
\dddOctal character (ddd)
\uxxxxHexadecimal UNICODE character (xxxx)

Java Access Modifiers:

Java provides a number of access modifiers to set access levels for classes, variables, methods and constructors. The four access levels are:

  1. Visible to the package. the default. No modifiers are needed.

  2. Visible to the class only (private).

  3. Visible to the world (public).

  4. Visible to the package and all subclasses (protected).

Java Basic Operators:

Java provides a rich set of operators to manipulate variables. We can divide all the Java operators into the following groups:

The Arithmetic Operators:

OperatorDescriptionExample
+Addition - Adds values on either side of the operator A + B will give 30
-Subtraction - Subtracts right hand operand from left hand operand A - B will give -10
*Multiplication - Multiplies values on either side of the operator A * B will give 200
/Division - Divides left hand operand by right hand operand B / A will give 2
%Modulus - Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and returns remainder B % A will give 0
++Increment - Increase the value of operand by 1 B++ gives 21
--Decrement - Decrease the value of operand by 1 B-- gives 19

The Relational Operators:

OperatorDescriptionExample
== Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not, if yes then condition becomes true. (A == B) is not true.
!= Checks if the value of two operands are equal or not, if values are not equal then condition becomes true. (A != B) is true.
> Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. (A > B) is not true.
< Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. (A <>
>= Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. (A >= B) is not true.
<= Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. (A <= B) is true.

The Bitwise Operators:

OperatorDescriptionExample
& Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both operands. (A & B) will give 12 which is 0000 1100
| Binary OR Operator copies a bit if it exists in eather operand. (A | B) will give 61 which is 0011 1101
^ Binary XOR Operator copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not both. (A ^ B) will give 49 which is 0011 0001
~ Binary Ones Complement Operator is unary and has the efect of 'flipping' bits. (~A ) will give -60 which is 1100 0011
<< Binary Left Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved left by the number of bits specified by the right operand. A <<>
>> Binary Right Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand. A >> 2 will give 15 which is 1111
>>> Shift right zero fill operator. The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand and shifted values are filled up with zeros. A >>>2 will give 15 which is 0000 1111

The Logical Operators:

OperatorDescriptionExample
&& Called Logical AND operator. If both the operands are non zero then then condition becomes true. (A && B) is false.
||Called Logical OR Operator. If any of the two operands are non zero then then condition becomes true. (A || B) is true.
!Called Logical NOT Operator. Use to reverses the logical state of its operand. If a condition is true then Logical NOT operator will make false. !(A && B) is true.

The Assignment Operators:

OperatorDescriptionExample
=Simple assignment operator, Assigns values from right side operands to left side operand C = A + B will assigne value of A + B into C
+=Add AND assignment operator, It adds right operand to the left operand and assign the result to left operand C += A is equivalent to C = C + A
-=Subtract AND assignment operator, It subtracts right operand from the left operand and assign the result to left operand C -= A is equivalent to C = C - A
*=Multiply AND assignment operator, It multiplies right operand with the left operand and assign the result to left operand C *= A is equivalent to C = C * A
/=Divide AND assignment operator, It divides left operand with the right operand and assign the result to left operand C /= A is equivalent to C = C / A
%=Modulus AND assignment operator, It takes modulus using two operands and assign the result to left operand C %= A is equivalent to C = C % A
<<=Left shift AND assignment operator C <<= 2 is same as C = C <<>
>>=Right shift AND assignment operator C >>= 2 is same as C = C >> 2
&=Bitwise AND assignment operator C &= 2 is same as C = C & 2
^=bitwise exclusive OR and assignment operator C ^= 2 is same as C = C ^ 2
|=bitwise inclusive OR and assignment operator C |= 2 is same as C = C | 2

Misc Operators

There are few other operators supported by Java Language.

Conditional Operator ( ? : ):

Conditional operator is also known as the ternary operator. This operator consists of three operands and is used to evaluate boolean expressions. The goal of the operator is to decide which value should be assigned to the variable. The operator is written as :

variable x = (expression) ? value if true : value if false

instanceOf Operator:

This operator is used only for object reference variables. The operator checks whether the object is of a particular type(class type or interface type). instanceOf operator is wriiten as:

( Object reference variable ) instanceOf  (class/interface type)

Precedence of Java Operators:

Category Operator Associativity
Postfix () [] . (dot operator) Left to right
Unary ++ - - ! ~ Right to left
Multiplicative * / % Left to right
Additive + - Left to right
Shift >> >>> << Left to right
Relational > >= < <= Left to right
Equality == != Left to right
Bitwise AND & Left to right
Bitwise XOR ^ Left to right
Bitwise OR | Left to right
Logical AND && Left to right
Logical OR || Left to right
Conditional ?: Right to left
Assignment = += -= *= /= %= >>= <<= &= ^= |= Right to left
Comma , Left to right

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