In this tutorial, you will learn about:

How Java objects are structured
Creating and testing your first Java class in Eclipse
The syntax for accessor method declarations and method calls to add behavior to a Java class
Instantiating and manipulating strings and exploring arithmetic operators
Making decisions in your code using conditional operators and control statements
Loops and how to use loop constructs to iterate over code or execute it repeatedly
Creating and managing collections of objects
Using Java Archive (JAR) files to package your applications and import other developers' code

Getting started with the Java language

It would be impossible to introduce the entire Java language syntax in a single tutorial. This tutorial focuses on the basics of the language, leaving you with enough knowledge and practice to write simple programs. Object-oriented programming (OOP) is all about objects, so this section starts with two topics specifically related to how the Java language handles them: reserved words and the structure of a Java object.

Reserved words

Like any programming language, the Java language designates certain words that the compiler recognizes as special. For that reason, you're not allowed to use them for naming your Java constructs. The list of reserved words (also called keywords) is surprisingly short:

abstract
assert
boolean
break
byte
case
catch
char
class
const
continue
default
do
double
else
enum
extends
final
finally
float
for
goto
if
implements
import
instanceof
int
interface
long
module
native
new
package
non-sealed
private
protected
public
record
requires
return
sealed
short
static
strictfp
super
switch
synchronized
this
throw
throws
transient
try
yeald
var
void
volatile
when
while
with

You also may not use true, false, and null to name Java constructs. Technically, these are literals, which are the source code representations of a value, rather than keywords.

One advantage of programming with an IDE is that it can use syntax coloring for reserved words.

Structure of a Java class

A class is a blueprint for a discrete entity (object) that contains attributes and behavior. The class defines the object's basic structure; at runtime, your application creates an instance of the object. An object has a well-defined boundary and a state, and it can do things when correctly asked. Every object-oriented language has rules about how to define a class.

In the Java language, classes are defined as shown in the following code.

package packageName;
import ClassNameToImport; 
accessSpecifier class ClassName {
  accessSpecifier dataType variableName [= initialValue];
  accessSpecifier ClassName([argumentList]) {
    constructorStatement(s)
  }
  accessSpecifier returnType methodName ([argumentList]) {
    methodStatement(s)
  }
  // This is a comment
  /∗ This is a comment too ∗/
  /∗ This is a
     multiline
     comment ∗/
}

Note
In the previous code listing, and some other code examples in this section, square brackets indicate that the constructs within them are not required. The brackets (unlike the curly braces, { and }) are not part of the Java syntax.

The listing contains various types of constructs, including package in line 1, import in line 2, and class in line 3. Those three constructs are in the list of reserved words, so they must be exactly what they are in Listing 1. The names that I've given the other constructs in Listing 1 describe the concepts that they represent.

Notice that lines 11-15 in the previous listing are comment lines. In most programming languages, programmers can add comments to help document the code. Java syntax allows for both single-line and multiline comments:


// This is a comment
/∗ This is a comment too ∗/
/∗ This is a
multiline
comment ∗/

A single-line comment must be contained on one line, although you can use adjacent single-line comments to form a block. A multiline comment begins with /∗, must be terminated with ∗/, and can span any number of lines.

Next, I'll walk you through the constructs in that first code listing in detail, starting with package.

Packaging classes

With the Java language, you can choose the names for your classes, such as Account, Person, or LizardMan. At times, you might end up using the same name to express two slightly different concepts. This situation, called a name collision, happens frequently. The Java language uses packages to resolve these conflicts.

A Java package is a mechanism for providing a namespace — an area inside of which names are unique, but outside of which they might not be. To identify a construct uniquely, you must fully qualify it by including its namespace. Packages also give you a nice way to build more-complex applications with discrete units of functionality.

To define a package, use the package keyword followed by a legal package name, ending with a semicolon. Often, package names follow this standard scheme:

package  orgType.orgName.appName.compName;

This package definition breakdown:

orgTypeorgType is the organization type, such as com, org, or net.
orgNameorgName is the name of the organization's domain, such as jstevenperry, oracle, or ibm.
appNameappName is the name of the application, abbreviated.
compNamecompName is the name of the component.

You'll use this convention throughout this tutorial, and I recommend you keep using it to define all of your Java classes in packages. (The Java language doesn't force you to follow this package convention. You don't need to specify a package at all, in which case all of your classes must have unique names and are in the default package.)

When you write code in the Eclipse editor, you can type the name of a class you want to use, followed by Ctrl+Shift+O. Eclipse figures out which imports you need and adds them automatically. If Eclipse finds two classes with the same name, Eclipse asks you which class you want to add imports for.

Import statements

Up next in the class definition (referring back to that first code listing) is the import statement. An import statement tells the Java compiler where to find classes that you reference inside of your code. Any nontrivial class uses other classes for some functionality, and the import statement is how you tell the Java compiler about them.

An import statement usually looks like this:

import ClassNameToImport;

You specify the import keyword, followed by the class that you want to import, followed by a semicolon. The class name should be fully qualified, meaning that it should include its package.

To import all classes within a package, you can put .* after the package name. For example, this statement imports every class in the com.jstevenperry package:

import com.jstevenperry.∗;

Importing an entire package can make your code less readable, however, so I recommend that you import only the classes that you need, using their fully qualified names.

Class declaration

To define an object in the Java language, you must declare a class. Think of a class as a template for an object, like a cookie cutter.

That first code listing includes this class declaration:


accessSpecifier class ClassName {
  accessSpecifier dataType variableName [= initialValue];
    accessSpecifier ClassName([argumentList]) {
    constructorStatement(s)
  }
  accessSpecifier returnType methodName([argumentList]) {
    methodStatement(s)
  }
}

A class's accessSpecifier can have several values, but usually it's public. You'll look at other values of accessSpecifier soon.

You can name classes pretty much however you want, but the convention is to use camel case: Start with an uppercase letter, put the first letter of each concatenated word in uppercase, and make all the other letters lowercase. Class names should contain only letters and numbers. Sticking to these guidelines ensures that your code is more accessible to other developers who are following the same conventions.

Variables and methods

Classes can have two types of members: variables and methods.

Variables

The values of a class's variables distinguish each instance of that class and define its state. These values are often referred to as instance variables. A variable has:

An accessSpecifier
A dataType
A variableName
Optionally, an 'initialValue

Public variables
It's never a good idea to use public variables, but in extremely rare cases it can be necessary, so the option exists. The Java platform doesn't constrain your use cases, so it's up to you to be disciplined about using good coding conventions, even if tempted to do otherwise.

The possible accessSpecifier values are:

public: Any object in any package can see the variable. (Don't ever use this value; see the Public variables sidebar.)
protected: Any object defined in the same package, or a subclass (defined in any package), can see the variable.
No specifier (also called friendly or package private access): Only objects whose classes are defined in the same package can see the variable.
private: Only the class containing the variable can see it.

A variable's dataType depends on what the variable is — it might be a primitive type or another class type (more about this later).

The variableName is up to you, but by convention, variable names use the camel case convention, except that they begin with a lowercase letter. (This style is sometimes called lower camel case.)

Don't worry about the initialValue for now; just know that you can initialize an instance variable when you declare it. (Otherwise, the compiler generates a default for you that is set when the class is instantiated.)

Example: Class definition for Person

Here's an example that summarizes what you've learned so far. The following code listing is a class definition for Person.


package com.jstevenperry.intro;

public class Person {
   private String name;
   private int age;
   private int height;
   private int weight;
   private String eyeColor;
   private String gender;
}

This basic class definition for Person isn't useful at this point because it defines only Person's attributes (and private ones at that). To be more complete, the Person class needs behavior — and that means methods.

Methods

A class's methods define its behavior. Methods fall into two main categories: constructors and all other methods, which come in many types. A constructor method is used only to create an instance of a class. Other types of methods can be used for virtually any application behavior.

The class definition back in the first code listing shows the way to define the structure of a method, which includes elements like:

accessSpecifier
returnType
methodName
argumentList

The combination of these structural elements in a method's definition is called the method's signature.

Now take a closer look at the two method categories, starting with constructors.

Constructor methods

You use constructors to specify how to instantiate a class. The first code listing shows the constructor-declaration syntax in abstract form, and here it is again:


accessSpecifier ClassName([argumentList]) {
  constructorStatement(s)
}

A constructor's accessSpecifier is the same as for variables. The name of the constructor must match the name of the class. So if you call your class Person, the name of the constructor must also be Person.

For any constructor other than the default constructor (see the Constructors are optional note), you pass an argumentList, which is one or more of:


argumentType argumentName

Constructors are optional If you don't use a constructor, the compiler provides one for you, called the default (or no-argument or no-arg) constructor. If you use a constructor other than a no-arg constructor, the compiler doesn't automatically generate one for you.

Arguments in an argumentList are separated by commas, and no two arguments can have the same name. argumentType is either a primitive type or another class type (the same as with variable types).

Class definition with a constructor

Now, see what happens when you add the capability to create a Person object in two ways: by using a no-arg constructor and by initializing a partial list of attributes.

The following code listing shows how to create constructors and also how to use argumentList.

public class Person {

  private String name;
  private int age;
  private int height;
  private int weight;
  private String eyeColor;
  private String gender;


  public Person(String name, int age, int height, int weight, String eyeColor, String gender) {
    super();
    this.name = name;
    this.age = age;
    this.height = height;
    this.weight = weight;
    this.eyeColor = eyeColor;
    this.gender = gender;

    logger.info("Created Person object with name '" + getName() + "'");
  }
}

Note the use of the this keyword in making the variable assignments in Listing 3. The this keyword is Java shorthand for "this object," and you must use it when you reference two variables with the same name. In this case, age is both a constructor parameter and a class variable, so the this keyword helps the compiler to tell which is which.

The Person object is getting more interesting, but it needs more behavior. And for that, you need more methods.

Other methods

A constructor is a particular kind of method with a particular function. Similarly, many other types of methods perform particular functions in Java programs. Exploration of other method types begins in this section and continues throughout the tutorial.

Back in the first code listing, you saw how to declare a method:


accessSpecifier returnType methodName ([argumentList]) {
  methodStatement(s)
}

Other methods look much like constructors, with a couple of exceptions. First, you can name other methods whatever you like (though, of course, certain rules apply). I recommend the following conventions:

Start with a lowercase letter.
Avoid numbers unless they are absolutely necessary.
Use only alphabetic characters.

Second, unlike constructors, other methods have an optional return type.

Person's other methods

Armed with this basic information, you can see in the following code listing what happens when you add a few more methods to the Person object. (I've omitted constructors for brevity.)



package com.jstevenperry.intro;

public class Person {
   private String name;
   private int age;
   private int height;
   private int  weight;
   private String eyeColor;
   private String gender;

   public String getName() { return name; }
   public void setName(String value) { name = value; }
   // Other getter/setter combinations...
}

Notice the comment in Listing 4 about "getter/setter combinations." You'll work more with getters and setters later. For now, all you need to know is that a getter is a method for retrieving the value of an attribute, and a setter is a method for modifying that value. Listing 4 shows only one getter/setter combination (for the Name attribute), but you can define more in a similar fashion.

Note in this code listing that if a method doesn't return a value, you must tell the compiler by specifying the void return type in its signature.

Static and instance methods

Generally, two types of (nonconstructor) methods are used: instance methods and static methods. Instance methods depend on the state of a specific object instance for their behavior. Static methods are also sometimes called class methods because their behavior isn't dependent on any single object's state. A static method's behavior happens at the class level.

Static methods are used largely for utility; you can think of them as being global methods (á la C) while keeping the code for the method with the class that defines it. For example, throughout this tutorial, you'll use the JDK Logger class to output information to the console. To create a Logger class instance, you don't instantiate a Logger class; instead, you invoke a static method named getLogger().

The syntax for invoking a static method on a class is different from the syntax used to invoke a method on an object. You also use the name of the class that contains the static method, as shown in this invocation:


Logger l = Logger.getLogger("NewLogger");

In this example, Logger is the name of the class, and getLogger(...) is the name of the method. So to invoke a static method, you don't need an object instance, just the name of the class.

Your first Java class

It's time to pull together what you've learned in the previous sections and start writing some code. This section walks you through declaring a class and adding variables and methods to it using the Eclipse Package Explorer. You learn how to use the Logger class to keep an eye on your application's behavior, and also how to use a main() method as a test harness. A test harness is collection of software and test data for testing a program unit by running it under various conditions and monitoring its behavior and output.

The following video takes you through all of this section's steps. Watch first, and then I'll recap the steps in the text while giving you a closer look at the code.

Note: The video references module-info.java, which is the module descriptor file and is used with the Java module system. To learn more about modules and the module descriptor, read "Java 9+ modularity: Module basics and rules."

Step 1. Create a package

In the previous unit, you learned how to create a project called HellowWorld. Create a project in your Eclipse IDE that you'll use for the code in the rest of this unit called Tutorial.

Go to the Package Explorer view (in the Java perspective) in Eclipse by selecting Window > Perspective > Open Perspective. You're going to get set up to create your first Java class. The first step is to create a place for the class to live. Packages are namespace constructs, and they also conveniently map directly to the file system's directory structure.

Rather than use the default package (almost always a bad idea), you create one specifically for the code you are writing. Click File > New > Package to start the Eclipse Java Package wizard, shown in the following figure.

Screenshot of the Eclipse Package Wizard

Type com.jstevenperry.intro into the Name text box and click Finish. You can see the new package created in the Package Explorer.

Step 2. Declare the class

You can create a class from the Package Explorer in more than one way, but the easiest way is to right-click the package you just created and choose New > Class.... The New Class dialog box opens.

In the Name text box, type Person and then click Finish.

The new class is displayed in your edit window. I recommend closing a few of the views (Problems, Javadoc, and others) that open by default in the Java Perspective the first time you open it to make it easier to see your source code. (Eclipse remembers that you don't want to see those views the next time you open Eclipse and go to the Java perspective.) The following figure shows a well-ordered workspace with the essential views open.

Screenshot of the Eclipse Package wizard's edit window

Eclipse generates a shell class for you and includes the package statement at the top. You just need to flesh out the class now. You can configure how Eclipse generates new classes through Window > Preferences > Java > Code Style > Code Templates. For simplicity, go with Eclipse's out-of-the-box code generation.

In this figure, notice the asterisk (*) next to the new source-code file name, indicating that I've made a modification. And notice that the code is unsaved. Next, notice that I made a mistake when declaring the Name attribute: I declared Name's type to be Strin. The compiler could not find a reference to such a class and flagged it as a compile error (that's the wavy red line underneath Strin). Of course, I can fix my mistake by adding a g to the end of Strin. This is a small demonstration of the power of using an IDE instead of command-line tools for software development. Go ahead and correct the error by changing the type to String.

Step 3. Add class variables

Previously, you began to flesh out the Person class, but I didn't explain much of the syntax. Now, I'll formally define how to add class variables.

Recall that a variable has an accessSpecifier, a dataType, a variableName, and, optionally, an initialValue. Earlier, you looked briefly at how to define the accessSpecifier and variableName. Now, you see the dataType that a variable can have.

A dataType can be either a primitive type or a reference to another object. For example, notice that Age is an int (a primitive type) and that Name is a String (an object). The JDK comes packed full of useful classes like java.lang.String, and those in the java.lang package do not need to be imported (a shorthand courtesy of the Java compiler). But whether the dataType is a JDK class such as String or a user-defined class, the syntax is essentially the same.

Table 1 shows the eight primitive data types you're likely to see on a regular basis, including the default values that primitives take on if you do not explicitly initialize a member variable's value.

Type	Size	Default value	Range of values
boolean	n/a	false	true or false
byte	8 bits	0	-128 to 127
char	16 bits	(unsigned)	\u0000' \u0000' to \uffff' or 0 to 65535
short	16 bits	0	-32768 to 32767
int	32 bits	0	-2147483648 to 2147483647
long	64 bits	0	-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807
float	32 bits	0.0	1.17549435e-38 to 3.4028235e 38
double	64 bits	0.0	4.9e-324 to 1.7976931348623157e 308

Built-in logging

Before going further into coding, you need to know how your programs tell you what they are doing.

The Java platform includes the java.util.logging package, a built-in logging mechanism for gathering program information in a readable form. Loggers are named entities that you create through a static method call to the Logger class:

import java.util.logging.Logger;
//...
Logger l = Logger.getLogger(getClass().getName());

When calling the getLogger() method, you pass it a String. For now, just get in the habit of passing the name of the class that the code you're writing is located in. From any regular (that is, nonstatic) method, the preceding code always references the name of the class and passes that to the Logger.

If you are making a Logger call inside of a static method, reference the name of the class you're inside of:


Logger l = Logger.getLogger(Person.class.getName());

In this example, the code you're inside of is the Person class, so you reference a special literal called class that retrieves the Class object (more on this later) and gets its Name attribute.

Before we get into the meat of testing, first go into the Eclipse source-code editor for Person and add this code just after public class Person { line so that it looks like this:


package com.jstevenperry.intro;

public class Person {
  private String name;
  private int age;
  private int height;
  private int weight;
  private String eyeColor;
  private String gender;
}

Eclipse has a handy code generator to generate getters and setters (among other things). To try out the code generator, put your mouse caret on the Person class definition (that is, on the word Person in the class definition) and click Source > Generate Getters and Setters.... When the dialog box opens, click Select All, as shown in the following figure.

Screenshot of Eclipse generating getters and setters

For the insertion point, choose Last member and click Generate.

Now, add a constructor to Person by typing the code from the following code listing into your source window just below the top part of the class definition (the line immediately beneath public class Person ()).


public Person(String name, int age, int height, int weight, String eyeColor, String gender) {
  this.name = name;
  this.age = age;
  this.height = height;
  this.weight = weight;
  this.eyeColor = eyeColor;
  this.gender = gender;
}

Make sure that you have no wavy lines indicating compile errors.

Generate a JUnit test case

Now you generate a JUnit test case where you instantiate a Person, using the constructor you just defined, and then print the state of the object to the console. In this sense, the "test" makes sure that the order of the attributes on the constructor call are correct (that is, that they are set to the correct attributes).

Note: The main() method is a special method that you can include in any class so that the JRE can execute its code. A class is not required to have a main() method (in fact, most never will) and a class can have at most one main() method. main() is a handy method to have because it gives you a quick test harness for the class. In enterprise development, you would use test libraries such as JUnit, but using main() as your test harness can be a quick-and-dirty way to create a test harness.

In the Package Explorer, right-click your Person class and then click New > JUnit Test Case. The first page of the New JUnit Test Case wizard opens, as shown in the following figure.

Screenshot of the first dialog box for creating a JUnit test case

Accept the defaults by clicking Next. You see the Test Methods dialog box, shown in the following figure.

Screenshot of the Test Methods dialog box for creating a JUnit test case

In this dialog box, you select the method or methods you want the wizard to build tests for. In this case, select just the constructor, as shown in Figure 5. Click Finish, and Eclipse generates the JUnit test case.

Next, open PersonTest, go into the testPerson() method, and make it look like this:

  @Test
  public void testPerson() {

      Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");

      Logger l = Logger.getLogger(Person.class.getName());
      l.info("Created Person object named: " + p.getName());

      assertEquals("Joe Q Author", p.getName());
      assertEquals(52, p.getAge());
      assertEquals(174, p.getHeight());
      assertEquals(80, p.getWeight());
      assertEquals("Brown", p.getEyeColor());
      assertEquals("MALE", p.getGender());
  }

Don't worry about the Logger class for now. Just enter the code as you see it in Listing 6. You're now ready to run your first Java program (and JUnit test case).

Run your unit test in Eclipse

In Eclipse, right-click PersonTest.java in the Package Explorer and select Run As > JUnit Test. The following figure shows what happens.

Screenshot of Eclipse running Person as a Java application

The Console view opens automatically to show Logger output, and the JUnit view indicates that the test ran without errors.

Adding behavior to a Java class

Person is looking good so far, but it can use some additional behavior to make it more interesting. Creating behavior means adding methods. This section looks more closely at accessor methods— namely, the getters and setters you've already seen in action.

Accessor methods

The getters and setters that you saw in action at the end of the preceding section are called accessor methods. (Quick review: A getter is a method for retrieving the value of an attribute; a setter is a method for modifying that value.) To encapsulate a class's data from other objects, you declare its variables to be private and then provide accessor methods.

The naming of accessors follows a strict convention known as the JavaBeans pattern. In this pattern, any attribute Foo has a getter called getFoo() and a setter called setFoo(). The JavaBeans pattern is so common that support for it is built into the Eclipse IDE, as you saw when you generated getters and setters for Person.

Accessors follow these guidelines:

The attribute is always declared with private access.
The access specifier for getters and setters is public.
A getter doesn't take any parameters, and it returns a value whose type is the same as the attribute it accesses.
Setters take only one parameter, of the type of the attribute, and do not return a value.

Declaring accessors

By far the easiest way to declare accessors is to let Eclipse do it for you. But you also need to know how to hand-code a getter-and-setter pair.

Suppose I have an attribute, Foo, whose type is java.lang.String. My complete declaration for Foo (following the accessor guidelines) is:


private String foo;
public String getFoo() {
  return foo;
}
public void setFoo(String value) {
  foo = value;
}

Notice that the parameter value passed to the setter is named differently than if it had been Eclipse-generated (where the parameter name would be the same as the attribute name — for example, public void setFoo(String foo)public void setFoo(String foo)). On the rare occasions when I hand-code a setter, I always use value as the name of the parameter value to the setter. This eye-catcher — my own convention, and one that I recommend to other developers — reminds me that I hand-coded the setter. If I don't use Eclipse to generate getters and setters for me, I have a good reason. Using value as the setter's parameter value reminds me that this setter is special. (Code comments can serve the same purpose.)

Calling methods

Invoking (or calling) methods is easy. The testPerson method in the previous code listing, for example, invokes the various getters of Person to return their values. Now you'll learn the formal mechanics of making method calls.

Method invocation with and without parameters

To invoke a method on an object, you need a reference to that object. Method-invocation syntax comprises:

The object reference
A literal dot
The method name
Any parameters that need to be passed

The syntax for a method invocation without parameters is:


objectReference.someMethod();

Here's an example:


Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");
p.getName();

The syntax for a method invocation with parameters is:


objectReference.someOtherMethod(parameter1, parameter2, . . ., parameterN);

And here's an example (setting the Name attribute of Person):


Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");
p.setName("Jane Q Author");

Remember that constructors are methods, too. And you can separate the parameters with spaces and newlines. The Java compiler doesn't care.

This first method invocation is equivalent to the next one.


new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");

This next one:

new Person("Joe Q Author", // Name
  42, // Age (in years)
  173, // Height (in cm)
  82, // Weight (in kg)
  "Brown", // Hair color
  "MALE"); // Gender

Notice how the comments in the second constructor invocation make it more readable for the next person who might work with this code. At a glance, that developer can tell what each parameter is for.

That's all there is to method invocation.

Since Java 16, there is the type record which automatically generates:

Constructor (with parameters)
getters (with method names matching the field names)
equals()
hashCode()
toString()

Java records are immutable by definition, notice that there is no setters, the only way to set the parameters is at construction time.

You can rewrite the previous Person class as a Java record using the record keyword:

public record Person(String name, int age, int height, 
                      int weight, String eyeColor, String gender) {}

You can instantiate the class with the parametrized constructor, and get the values using the provided methods.

For example:

Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", // Name
  42, // Age (in years)
  173, // Height (in cm)
  82, // Weight (in kg)
  "Brown", // Hair color
  "MALE"); // Gender

assertEquals("Joe Q Author", p.name());
assertEquals(42, p.age());

Notice that the method is directly the field name, no get prefix.

Strings and operators

The tutorial has so far introduced several variables of type String, but without much explanation. You learn more about strings in this section, and also find out when and how to use operators.

Strings

In the Java language, strings are first-class objects of type String, with methods that help you manipulate them.

Note: In C, string handling is labor-intensive because strings are null-terminated arrays of 8-bit characters that you must manipulate. The closest Java code gets to the C world with regard to strings is the char primitive data type, which can hold a single Unicode character, such as a.

Here are a couple of ways to create a String, using the example of creating a String instance named greeting with a value of hello:


greeting = new String("hello");


String greeting = "hello";

Because Strings are first-class objects, you can use new to instantiate them. Setting a variable of type String to a string literal has the same result, because the Java language creates a String object to hold the literal, and then assigns that object to the instance variable.

Concatenating strings

You can do many things with String, and the class has many helpful methods. Without even using a method, you've already done something interesting within the Person class's testPerson() method by concatenating, or combining, two Strings:


l.info("Created Person object named: " + p.getName());

The plus (+) sign is shorthand for concatenating Strings in the Java language. (You incur a performance penalty for doing this type of concatenation inside a loop, but for now, you don't need to worry about that.)

Concatenation exercise

Now, you can try concatenating two more Strings inside of the Person class. At this point, you have a name instance variable, but it would be more realistic in a business application to have a firstName and lastName. You can then concatenate them when another object requests Person's full name.

Return to your Eclipse project, and start by adding the new instance variables (at the same location in the source code where name is currently defined):


//private String name;
private String firstName;
private String lastName;

Comment out the name definition; you don't need it anymore, because you're replacing it with firstName and lastName.

Text Blocks

Since Java 15, you can define a String as a multi-line string literal without having to add the escape sequences or quotes.

Text blocks use three double quotes (""") to open and close. For example, you can set a JSON document as a String as follows:

String json = """
 {
 "name": "Alice",
 "age": 30,
 "active": true
 }
 """;

As you can see in the above example, the format is clean as the layout of the content is preserved, no newline characters, and you can embed double quotes without escaping.

It is important to note that Java automatically strips common leading whitespace from all lines. The closing triple quotes determine how indentation is calculated.

You can force white spaces or tabs by using the \s and \t characters to escape the default behaviour.

String text = """
 Line one\s
 Line two
 """;

The \s preserves the space at the end of "Line one".

Chaining method calls

Now, tell the Eclipse code generator to generate getters and setters for firstName and lastName (refer back to the "Your first Java class" section if necessary). Then, remove the setName() and getName() methods, and add a new getFullName() method to look like this:


public String getFullName() {
  return getFirstName().concat(" ").concat(getLastName());
}

This code illustrates chaining of method calls. Chaining is a technique commonly used with immutable objects like String, where a modification to an immutable object always returns the modification (but doesn't change the original). You then operate on the returned, changed value.

Operators

You've already seen that the Java language uses the = operator to assign values to variables. As you might expect, the Java language can do arithmetic, and it uses operators for that purpose too. Now, I give you a brief look at some of the Java language operators you need as your skills improve.

The Java language uses two types of operators:

Unary: Only one operand is needed.
Binary: Two operands are needed.

Table 2 summarizes the Java language's arithmetic operators.

Operator	Usage	Description
`+`	`a + b`	Adds `a` and `b`
`+`	`+a`	Promotes `a` to `int` if it's a `byte`, `short`, or `char`
`-`	`a - b`	Subtracts `b` from `a`
`-`	`-a`	Arithmetically negates `a`
`*`	`a * b`	Multiplies `a` and `b`
`/`	`a / b`	Divides `a` by `b`
`%`	`a % b`	Returns the remainder of dividing `a` by `b` (the modulus operator)
`++`	`a++`	Increments `a` by 1; computes the value of `a` before incrementing
`++`	`++a`	Increments `a` by 1; computes the value of `a` after incrementing
`--`	`a--`	Decrements `a` by 1; computes the value of `a` before decrementing
`--`	`--a`	Decrements `a` by 1; computes the value of `a` after decrementing
`+=`	`a += b`	Shorthand for `a = a + b`
`-=`	`a -= b`	Shorthand for `a = a - b`
`*=`	`a *= b`	Shorthand for `a = a * b`
`%=`	`a %= b`	Shorthand for `a = a % b`

Additional operators

In addition to the operators in Table 2, you've seen several other symbols that are called operators in the Java language, including:

Period (.), which qualifies names of packages and invokes methods
Parentheses (()), which delimit a comma-separated list of parameters to a method
new, which (when followed by a constructor name) instantiates an object

The Java language syntax also includes several operators that are used specifically for conditional programming — that is, programs that respond differently based on different input. You look at those in the next section.

Conditional operators and control statements

In this section, you learn about the various statements and operators you can use to tell your Java programs how you want them to act based on different input.

Relational and conditional operators

The Java language gives you operators and control statements that you can use to make decisions in your code. Most often, a decision in code starts with a Boolean expression — that is, one that evaluates to either true or false. Such expressions use relational operators, which compare one operand to another, and conditional operators.

The following table lists the relational and conditional operators of the Java language.

Operator	Usage	Returns true if…
>	a > b	a is greater than b
>=	a >= b	a is greater than or equal to b
<	a less-than b	a is less than b
<=	a less-than= b	a is less than or equal to b
==	a == b	a is equal to b
!=	a != b	a is not equal to b
&&	a && b	a and b are both true, conditionally evaluates b (if a is f alse, b is not evaluated)
			a		b	a or b is true, condition ally evaluates b (if a is true, b is not evaluated)
!	!a	a is false
&	a & b	a and b are both true, always evaluates b
		a	b	a or b is true, always evaluates b
^	a ^ b	a and b are different

The `if` statement

Now that you have a bunch of operators, it's time to use them. This code shows what happens when you add some logic to the Person object's getHeight() accessor:


public int getHeight() {
  int ret = height;
  // If locale of the computer this code is running on is U.S.,
  if (Locale.getDefault().equals(Locale.US))
    ret /= 2.54;// convert from cm to inches
  return ret;
}

If the current locale is in the United States (where the metric system isn't in use), it might make sense to convert the internal value of height (in centimeters) to inches. This (somewhat contrived) example illustrates the use of the if statement, which evaluates a Boolean expression inside parentheses. If that expression evaluates to true, the program executes the next statement.

In this case, you only need to execute one statement if the Locale of the computer the code is running on is Locale.US. If you need to execute more than one statement, you can use curly braces to form a compound statement. A compound statement groups many statements into one — and compound statements can also contain other compound statements.

Variable scope

Every variable in a Java application has scope, or localized namespace, where you can access it by name within the code. Outside that space the variable is out of scope, and you get a compile error if you try to access it. Scope levels in the Java language are defined by where a variable is declared, as shown in the following code listing.


public class SomeClass {
  private String someClassVariable;
  public void someMethod(String someParameter) {
    String someLocalVariable = "Hello";

    if (true) {
      String someOtherLocalVariable = "Howdy";
    }
    someClassVariable = someParameter; // legal
    someLocalVariable = someClassVariable; // also legal
    someOtherLocalVariable = someLocalVariable;// Variable out of scope!
  }
  public void someOtherMethod() {
    someLocalVariable = "Hello there";// That variable is out of scope!

  }
}

Within SomeClass, someClassVariable is accessible by all instance (that is, nonstatic) methods. Within someMethod, someParameter is visible, but outside of that method it isn't, and the same is true for someLocalVariable. Within the if block, someOtherLocalVariable is declared, and outside of that if block it's out of scope. For this reason, we say that Java has block scope, because blocks (delimited by { and }) define the scope boundaries.

Scope has many rules, but Listing 7 shows the most common ones. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with them.

The `else` statement

Sometimes in a program's control flow, you want to take action only if a particular expression fails to evaluate to true. That's when else comes in handy:


public int getHeight() {
  int ret;
  if (gender.equals("MALE"))
    ret = height + 2;
  else {
    ret = height;
    Logger.getLogger("Person").info("Being honest about height...");
  }
  return ret;
}

The else statement works the same way as if, in that the program executes only the next statement that it encounters. In this case, two statements are grouped into a compound statement (notice the curly braces), which the program then executes.

You can also use else to perform an additional if check:


if (conditional) {
  // Block 1
} else if (conditional2) {
  // Block 2
} else if (conditional3) {
  // Block 3
} else {
  // Block 4
} // End

If conditional evaluates to true, Block 1 is executed, and the program jumps to the next statement after the final curly brace (which is indicated by // End). If conditional does not evaluate to true, then conditional2 is evaluated. If conditional2 is true, then Block 2 is executed, and the program jumps to the next statement after the final curly brace. If conditional2 is not true, then the program moves on to conditional3, and so on. Only if all three conditionals fail is Block 4 executed.

The ternary operator

The Java language provides a handy operator for doing simple if / else statement checks. This operator's syntax is:


(conditional) ? statementIfTrue : statementIfFalse;

If conditional evaluates to true, statementIfTrue is executed; otherwise, statementIfFalse is executed. Compound statements are not allowed for either statement.

The ternary operator comes in handy when you know that you need to execute one statement as the result of the conditional evaluating to true, and another if it doesn't. Ternary operators are most often used to initialize a variable (such as a return value), like so:


public int getHeight() {
  return (gender.equals("MALE")) ? (height + 2) : height;
}

The parentheses following the question mark aren't strictly required, but they do make the code more readable.

Switch

In the previous section, you've seen the conditionals and the construction of if/else statements. When there are multiple concatenated if/else statements, the code might become hard to read and maintain.

Java also supports the switch expression.

The switch statement is a control flow structure that allows you to execute different blocks of code based on the value of a variable (called the selector).

The typical structure of a switch expression is a switch keyword with a variable, and then multiple case blocks executed when there is a match.

You can use the following types as the selector expression in a switch:

Type Category	Examples	Since Java
Primitive	int, short, byte, char	Java 1
Boxed	Integer, Short, Byte, Char	Java 7
String	"hello"	Java 7
enum	Days.MONDAY	Java 5
sealed types	Shape s	Java 17 (Preview)
record types	Person p	Java 21 (Preview)

The following snippet shows the typical structure of a traditional switch.

switch (expression) {
 case value1:
 // Code block
 break;
 case value2:
 // Code block
 break;
 default:
 // Default code block
}

The flow in a switch expression is:

The expression is evaluated once.
Java matches the result to a case label.
If a match is found, it executes that case and continues unless you break.
If no match is found, the default block (if present) is executed.

Optionally, the case block can have the break keyword to stop the execution of the block. If no break, all cases defined below the first matched case are executed too, till it finds a break or ends the switch expression. It goes through all the blocks below.

The following switch cascades through all defined cases as no break is present in the case blocks:

int i = 3;

switch(i) {
 case 3: i++;
 case 4: i++;
 case 5: i++;
}

Switch improvements

Over time, Java added improvements to switch expressions. Currently, these stable features include switch expressions with ->, which return a result and assign it to a variable directly.

Instead of using case blocks with : and requiring a break to prevent fall-through, you can use the arrow expression, which implicitly adds a break at the end of the block:

String color = "red";

switch (color) {
 case "red" -> System.out.println("Stop");
 case "green" -> System.out.println("Go");
 default -> System.out.println("Unknown");
}

In the above case, the program executes only the red case without cascading to other cases.

Moreover, switch can now return a value, but you need to define the default block to avoid compilation errors. In case of setting a code block in the case expression, use the yield keyword to put the result.

int counter = 9;

String result = switch (counter) {
 case 0 -> "Not too much";
 case 1 -> "Not too much";
 case 2 -> "Not too much";
 case 3 -> "It's ok";
 case 4 -> "It's ok";
 case 5 -> "It's ok";
 case 6 -> "Too much";
 case 7 -> "Too much";
 case 8 -> "Too much";
 case 9 -> {
 System.out.println("Fantastic");
 yield "Great";
 }
 default -> "Don't know";
};

The above code sets the result variable to Great.

Let's explore the loops in Java, another control flow statement present in most programming languages.

Loops

In addition to being able to apply conditions to your programs and see different outcomes based on various if-then scenarios, you sometimes want your code to do the same thing over and over again until the job is done. In this section, learn about constructs used to iterate over code or execute it more than once.

What is a loop?

A loop is a programming construct that executes repeatedly while a specific condition (or set of conditions) is met. For instance, you might ask a program to read all records until the end of a data file, or to process each element of an array in turn. (You'll learn about arrays in the next section.)

Three loop constructs make it possible to iterate over code or execute it more than once:

for loops
while loops
do...while loops

`for` loops

The basic loop construct in the Java language is the for statement. You can use a for statement to iterate over a range of values to determine how many times to execute a loop. The abstract syntax for a for loop is:



for (initialization; loopWhileTrue; executeAtBottomOfEachLoop) {
  statementsToExecute
}

At the beginning of the loop, the initialization statement is executed (multiple initialization statements can be separated by commas). Provided that loopWhileTrueloopWhileTrue (a Java conditional expression that must evaluate to either true or false) is true, the loop executes. At the bottom of the loop, executeAtBottomOfEachLoopexecuteAtBottomOfEachLoop executes.

For example, if you wanted the code in the main() method in the following code listing to execute three times, you can use a for loop.


public static void main(String[] args) {
  Logger l = Logger.getLogger(Person.class.getName());
  for (int aa = 0; aa < 3; aa++) 
    Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");
    l.info("Loop executing iteration#" + aa);
    l.info("Name: " + p.getName());
    l.info("Age:" + p.getAge());
    l.info("Height (cm):" + p.getHeight());
    l.info("Weight (kg):" + p.getWeight());
    l.info("Eye Color:" + p.getEyeColor());
    l.info("Gender:" + p.getGender());
  }
}

The local variable aa is initialized to zero at the beginning of Listing 8. This statement executes only once, when the loop is initialized. The loop then continues three times, and each time aa is incremented by one.

You'll see in the next section that an alternative for loop syntax is available for looping over constructs that implement the Iterable interface (such as arrays and other Java utility classes). For now, just note the use of the for loop syntax in Listing 8.

`while` loops

The syntax for a while loop is:


while (condition) {
  statementsToExecute
}

As you might suspect, if condition evaluates to true, the loop executes. At the top of each iteration (that is, before any statements execute), the condition is evaluated. If the condition evaluates to true, the loop executes. So it's possible that a while loop will never execute if its conditional expression is not true at least once.

Look again at the for loop in the previous listing. For comparison, the following listing uses a while loop to obtain the same result.


public static void main(String[] args) {
  Logger l = Logger.getLogger(Person.class.getName());
  int aa = 0;
  while (aa < 3) {
    Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");
    l.info("Loop executing iteration#" + aa);
    l.info("Name: " + p.getName());
    l.info("Age:" + p.getAge());
    l.info("Height (cm):" + p.getHeight());
    l.info("Weight (kg):" + p.getWeight());
    l.info("Eye Color:" + p.getEyeColor());
    l.info("Gender:" + p.getGender());
    aa++;
  }
}

As you can see, a while loop requires a bit more housekeeping than a for loop. You must initialize the aa variable and also remember to increment it at the bottom of the loop.

`do...while` loops

If you want a loop that always executes once and then checks its conditional expression, you can use a do...while loop, as shown in the following listing.

int aa = 0;
do {
  Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");
  l.info("Loop executing iteration#" + aa);
  l.info("Name: " + p.getName());
  l.info("Age:" + p.getAge());
  l.info("Height (cm):" + p.getHeight());
  l.info("Weight (kg):" + p.getWeight());
  l.info("Eye Color:" + p.getEyeColor());
  l.info("Gender:" + p.getGender());
  aa++;
} while (aa < 3);

The conditional expression (aa < 3) is not checked until the end of the loop.

Loop termination

At times, you need to bail out of — or terminate — a loop before the conditional expression evaluates to false. This situation can occur if you're searching an array of Strings for a particular value, and once you find it, you don't care about the other elements of the array. For the times when you want to bail, the Java language provides the break statement, as shown in the following listing.


public static void main(String[] args) {
  Logger l = Logger.getLogger(Person.class.getName());
  int aa = 0;
  while (aa < 3) {
    if (aa == 1)
      break;
    Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");
    l.info("Loop executing iteration#" + aa);
    l.info("Name: " + p.getName());
    l.info("Age:" + p.getAge());
    l.info("Height (cm):" + p.getHeight());
    l.info("Weight (kg):" + p.getWeight());
    l.info("Eye Color:" + p.getEyeColor());
    l.info("Gender:" + p.getGender());
    aa++;
  }
}

The break statement takes you to the next executable statement outside of the loop in which it's located.

Loop continuation

In the (simplistic) example in the previous listing, you want to execute the loop only once and then bail. You can also skip a single iteration of a loop but continue executing the loop. For that purpose, you need the continue statement, as shown in the following listing.


public static void main(String[] args) {
  Logger l = Logger.getLogger(Person.class.getName());
  int aa = 0;
  while (aa < 3) {
    aa++;
    if (aa == 2)
      continue;
    Person p = new Person("Joe Q Author", 42, 173, 82, "Brown", "MALE");
    l.info("Loop executing iteration#" + aa);
    l.info("Name: " + p.getName());
    l.info("Age:" + p.getAge());
    l.info("Height (cm):" + p.getHeight());
    l.info("Weight (kg):" + p.getWeight());
    l.info("Eye Color:" + p.getEyeColor());
    l.info("Gender:" +
    p.getGender());
  }
}

In this listing, you skip the second iteration of a loop but continue to the third. continue comes in handy when you are, say, processing records and come across a record you don't want to process. You can skip that record and move on to the next one.

Java collections

Most real-world applications deal with collections of things like files, variables, records from files, or database result sets. The Java language has a sophisticated Collections Framework that you can use to create and manage collections of objects of various types. This section introduces you to the most commonly used collection classes and gets you started with using them.

Arrays

Note: The square brackets in this section's code examples are part of the required syntax for Java arrays, not indicators of optional elements.

Most programming languages include the concept of an array to hold a collection of things, and the Java language is no exception. An array is basically a collection of elements of the same type.

You can declare an array in one of two ways:

Create the array with a certain size, which is fixed for the life of the array.
Create the array with a certain set of initial values. The size of this set determines the size of the array — it's exactly large enough to hold all of those values, and its size is fixed for the life of the array.

Declaring an array

In general, you declare an array like this:


new elementType arraySize

You can create an integer array of elements in two ways. This statement creates an array that has space for five elements but is empty:


// creates an empty array of 5 elements:
int[] integers = new int[5];

This statement creates the array and initializes it all at once:


// creates an array of 5 elements with values:
int[] integers = new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

or


// creates an array of 5 elements with values (without the new operator):
int[] integers = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

The initial values go between the curly braces and are separated by commas.

Another way to create an array is to create it and then code a loop to initialize it:


int[] integers = new int[5];
for (int aa = 0; aa < integers.length; aa++) {
  integers[aa] = aa+1;
}

The preceding code declares an integer array of five elements. If you try to put more than five elements in the array, the Java runtime will throw an exception.

Loading an array

To load the array, you loop through the integers from 1 through the length of the array (which you get by calling .length on the array — more about that in a minute). In this case, you stop when you hit 5.

Once the array is loaded, you can access it as before:


Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
for (int aa = 0; aa < integers.length; aa++) {
  l.info("This little integer's value is: " + integers[aa]);
}

This syntax also works, and (because it's simpler to work with) I use it throughout this section:


Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
for (int i : integers) {
  l.info("This little integer's value is: " + i);
}

The element index

Think of an array as a series of buckets, and into each bucket goes an element of a certain type. Access to each bucket is gained via an element index:


element = arrayName [elementIndex];

To access an element, you need the reference to the array (its name) and the index that contains the element that you want.

The length attribute

Every array has a length attribute, which has public visibility, that you can use to find out how many elements can fit in the array. To access this attribute, use the array reference, a dot (.), and the word length, like this:


int arraySize = arrayName.length;

Arrays in the Java language are zero-based. That is, for any array, the first element in the array is always at arrayName[0]arrayName[0], and the last is at arrayName[arrayName.length - 1]arrayName[arrayName.length - 1].

An array of objects

You've seen how arrays can hold primitive types, but it's worth mentioning that they can also hold objects. Creating an array of java.lang.Integer objects isn't much different from creating an array of primitive types and, again, you can do it in two ways.

The first way:


// creates an empty array of 5 elements:
Integer[] integers = new Integer[5];

The second way:


// creates an array of 5 elements with values:
Integer[] integers = new Integer[] {
Integer.valueOf(1),
Integer.valueOf(2),
Integer.valueOf(3),
Integer.valueOf(4),
Integer.valueOf(5)
};

Boxing and unboxing

Every primitive type in the Java language has a JDK counterpart class, as shown in Table 4.

Primitive	JDK counterpart
boolean	java.lang.Boolean
byte	java.lang.Byte
char	java.lang.Character
short	java.lang.Short
int	java.lang.Integer
long	java.lang.Long
float	java.lang.Float
double	java.lang.Double

Each JDK class provides methods to parse and convert from its internal representation to a corresponding primitive type. For example, this code converts the decimal value 238 to an Integer:


int value = 238;
Integer boxedValue = Integer.valueOf(value);

This technique is known as boxing because you're putting the primitive into a wrapper, or box.

Similarly, to convert the Integer representation back to its int counterpart, you unbox it:


Integer boxedValue = Integer.valueOf(238);
int intValue = boxedValue.intValue();

Auto-boxing and auto-unboxing

Strictly speaking, you don't need to box and unbox primitives explicitly. Instead, you can use the Java language's auto-boxing and auto-unboxing features:


int intValue = 238;

Integer boxedValue = intValue;
//
intValue = boxedValue;

I recommend that you avoid auto-boxing and auto-unboxing, however, because it can lead to code-readability issues. The code in the boxing and unboxing snippets is more obvious, and thus more readable, than the auto-boxed code; I believe that's worth the extra effort.

Parsing and converting boxed types

You've seen how to obtain a boxed type, but what about parsing a numeric String that you suspect has a boxed type into its correct box? The JDK wrapper classes have methods for that, too:


String characterNumeric = "238";
Integer convertedValue = Integer.parseInt(characterNumeric);

You can also convert the contents of a JDK wrapper type to a String:


Integer boxedValue = Integer.valueOf(238);
String characterNumeric = boxedValue.toString();

Note that when you use the concatenation operator in a String expression (you've already seen this in calls to Logger), the primitive type is auto-boxed, and wrapper types automatically have toString() invoked on them. Pretty handy.

Lists

A List is an ordered collection, also known as a sequence. Because a List is ordered, you have complete control over where in the List items go. A Java List collection can only hold objects (not primitive types like int), and it defines a strict contract about how it behaves.

List is an interface, so you can't instantiate it directly. You'll work here with its most commonly used implementation, ArrayList. You can make the declaration in two ways. The first uses the explicit syntax:


List<String> listOfStrings = new ArrayList<String>();

The second way uses the "diamond" operator (introduced in JDK 7):


List<String> listOfStrings = new ArrayList<>();

Notice that the type of the object in the ArrayList instantiation isn't specified. This is the case because the type of the class on the right side of the expression must match that of the left side. Throughout the remainder of this tutorial, I use both types, because you're likely to see both usages in practice.

Note that I assigned the ArrayList object to a variable of type List. With Java programming, you can assign a variable of one type to another, provided the variable being assigned to is a superclass or interface implemented by the variable being assigned from. In a later section, you'll look more at the rules governing these types of variable assignments.

Formal type

The <Object> in the preceding code snippet is called the formal type. <Object> tells the compiler that this List contains a collection of type Object, which means you can pretty much put whatever you like in the List.

If you want to tighten up the constraints on what can or cannot go into the List, you can define the formal type differently:


List<Person> listOfPersons = new ArrayList<Person>();

Now your List can only hold Person instances.

Using lists

Using Lists — like using Java collections in general — is super easy. Here are some of the things you can do with Lists:

Put something in the List.
Ask the List how big it currently is.
Get something out of the List.

To put something in a List, call the add() method:


List<Integer> listOfIntegers = new ArrayList<>();
listOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(238));

The add() method adds the element to the end of the List.

To ask the List how big it is, call size():


List<Integer> listOfIntegers = new ArrayList<>();

listOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(238));
Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
l.info("Current List size: " + listOfIntegers.size());

To retrieve an item from the List, call get() and pass it the index of the item you want:


List<Integer> listOfIntegers = new ArrayList<>();
listOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(238));
Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
l.info("Item at index 0 is: " listOfIntegers.get(0));

In a real-world application, a List would contain records, or business objects, and you'd possibly want to look over them all as part of your processing. How do you do that in a generic fashion? Answer: You want to iterate over the collection, which you can do because List implements the java.lang.Iterable interface.

Iterable

If a collection implements java.lang.Iterable, it's called an iterable collection. You can start at one end and walk through the collection item by item until you run out of items.

In the Loops section, I briefly mentioned the special syntax for iterating over collections that implement the Iterable interface. Here it is again in more detail:


for (objectType varName : collectionReference) {
  // Start using objectType (via varName) right away...
}

The preceding code is abstract; here's a more realistic example:


List<Integer> listOfIntegers = obtainSomehow();
Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
for (Integer i : listOfIntegers) {
  l.info("Integer value is : " + i);
}

That little code snippet does the same thing as this longer one:


List<Integer> listOfIntegers = obtainSomehow();
Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
for (int aa = 0; aa < listOfIntegers.size(); aa++) {
  Integer i = listOfIntegers.get(aa);
  l.info("Integer value is : " + i);
}

The first snippet uses shorthand syntax: It has no index variable (aa in this case) to initialize, and no call to the List 's get() method.

Because List extends java.util.Collection, which implements Iterable, you can use the shorthand syntax to iterate over any List.

Sets

A Set is a collections construct that by definition contains unique elements — that is, no duplicates. Whereas a List can contain the same object maybe hundreds of times, a Set can contain a particular instance only once. A Java Set collection can only hold objects, and it defines a strict contract about how it behaves.

Because Set is an interface, you can't instantiate it directly. One of my favorite implementations is HashSet, which is easy to use and similar to List.

Here are some things you do with a Set:

Put something in the Set.
Ask the Set how big it currently is.
Get something out of the Set.

A Set's distinguishing attribute is that it guarantees uniqueness among its elements but doesn't care about the order of the elements. Consider the following code:


Set<Integer> setOfIntegers = new HashSet<Integer>();
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(10));
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(11));
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(10));
for (Integer i : setOfIntegers) {
  l.info("Integer value is: " + i);
}

You might expect that the Set would have three elements in it, but it only has two because the Integer object that contains the value 10 is added only once.

Keep this behavior in mind when iterating over a Set, like so:


Set<Integer> setOfIntegers = new HashSet();
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(10));
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(20));
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(30));
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(40));
setOfIntegers.add(Integer.valueOf(50));
Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
for (Integer i : setOfIntegers) {
  l.info("Integer value is : " + i);
}

Chances are that the objects print out in a different order from the order you added them in, because a Set guarantees uniqueness, not order. You can see this result if you paste the preceding code into the main() method of your Person class and run it.

Maps

A Map is a handy collection construct that you can use to associate one object (the key) with another (the value). As you might imagine, the key to the Map must be unique, and it's used to retrieve the value at a later time. A Java Map collection can only hold objects, and it defines a strict contract about how it behaves.

Because Map is an interface, you can't instantiate it directly. One of my favorite implementations is HashMap.

Things you do with Maps include:

Put something in the Map.
Get something out of the Map.
Get a Set of keys to the Map— for iterating over it.

To put something into a Map, you need to have an object that represents its key and an object that represents its value:


public Map<String, Integer> createMapOfIntegers() {
  Map<String, Integer> mapOfIntegers = new HashMap<>();
  mapOfIntegers.put("1", Integer.valueOf(1));
  mapOfIntegers.put("2", Integer.valueOf(2));
  mapOfIntegers.put("3", Integer.valueOf(3));
  //...
  mapOfIntegers.put("168", Integer.valueOf(168));
return mapOfIntegers;
}

In this example, Map contains Integers, keyed by a String, which happens to be their String representation. To retrieve a particular Integer value, you need its String representation:


mapOfIntegers = createMapOfIntegers();
Integer oneHundred68 = mapOfIntegers.get("168");

Using Set with Map

On occasion, you might find yourself with a reference to a Map, and you want to walk over its entire set of contents. In this case, you need a Set of the keys to the Map:


Set<String> keys = mapOfIntegers.keySet();
Logger l = Logger.getLogger("Test");
for (String key : keys) {
  Integer  value = mapOfIntegers.get(key);
  l.info("Value keyed by '" + key + "' is '" + value + "'");
}

Note that the toString() method of the Integer retrieved from the Map is automatically called when used in the Logger call. Map returns a Set of its keys because the Map is keyed, and each key is unique. Uniqueness (not order) is the distinguishing characteristic of a Set (which might explain why there's no keyList() method).

Archiving Java code

Now that you've learned a bit about writing Java applications, you might be wondering how to package them up so other developers can use them, or how to import other developers' code into your applications. This section shows you how.

JARs

The JDK ships with a tool called JAR, which stands for Java Archive. You use this tool to create JAR files. After you package your code into a JAR file, other developers can drop the JAR file into their projects and configure their projects to use your code.

Creating a JAR file in Eclipse is easy. Watch as I take you through the steps.

In your workspace, open the Tutorial project. Go to File > Export. From the dialog box, as shown in the following figure, choose Java > JAR file and click Next.

Screenshot of the Eclipse export dialog box

When the next dialog box opens, browse to the location where you want to store your JAR file and name the file whatever you like. The .jar extension is the default, which I recommend using. Click Finish.

You see your JAR file in the location you selected. You can use the classes in it from your code if you put the JAR in your build path in Eclipse. Doing that is easy, too, as you see next.

Using third-party applications

The JDK is comprehensive, but it doesn't do everything you need for writing great Java code. As you grow more comfortable with writing Java applications, you might want to use more and more third-party applications to support your code. The Java open source community provides many libraries to help shore up these gaps.

Suppose, for example, that you want to use Apache Commons Lang, a JDK replacement library for manipulating the core Java classes. The classes provided by Commons Lang help you manipulate arrays, create random numbers, and perform string manipulation.

Let's assume you've already downloaded Commons Lang, which is stored in a JAR file. To use the classes, your first step is to create a lib directory in your project and drop the JAR file into it:

Right-click the Intro root folder in the Eclipse Project Explorer view.
Click New > Folder and call the folder lib.
Click Finish.

The new folder shows up at the same level as src. Now copy the Commons Lang JAR file into your new lib directory. For this example, the file is called commons-lang3-3.10.jar. (It's common in naming a JAR file to include the version number, in this case 3.10.)

Now all you need to do is tell Eclipse to include the classes in the commons-lang3-3.10.jar file into your project:

In Package Explorer, select the lib folder, right-click, and select Refresh.
Verify that the JAR shows up in the lib folder:\
Right-click commons-lang3-3.10 and choose Build Path > Add to Build Path.

After Eclipse processes the code (that is, the class files) in the JAR file, they're available to reference (import) from your Java code. Notice in Project Explorer that you have a new folder called Referenced Libraries that contains the commons-lang3-3.10.jar file.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to create and run Java objects that can do a good number of things, including doing different things based on different input. You also learned how to JAR up your applications for other developers to use in their programs.

Next steps

In "Java constructs for real-world applications, Part 1" and "Java constructs for real-world applications, Part 2," you begin learning about some of the more advanced constructs of Java programming, although the overall discussion is still introductory in scope.

Get started with Java

Learn how to create and run Java objects

Get started with Java

Learn how to create and run Java objects