Lesson 1A - First Java Program

“HELLO WORLD”
With DEBUGGING examples

By John B. Owen
All rights reserved
Copyright 2011, revised 2014
Table of Contents
• Objectives
• “Hello World” Lesson Sequence
• Compile Errors – Lexical
• Compile Errors – Syntax
• Four parts of an error message
• Lesson Summary / Labs
• Contact Information for supplementary materials
Objective #1
• In this lesson the student will
successfully enter, compile, and
execute the source code for the
“HELLO WORLD” program.
• CS1 TEKS 126.33c2(A) create and properly display meaningful output;
Objective #2
• You will also recognize and
successfully DEBUG typical errors
that occur during the programming
process, using this first program
example.
• CS1 TEKS 126.33c4(H) identify and debug errors;
“Hello World” Lesson Sequence
• The next six slides show this
programming process done
flawlessly – no errors
• After that, examples are shown of
typical errors and how to fix them
• Fixing errors is called DEBUGGING,
and is a normal and crucial part of
the programming process.
Step 1 – Create and save a new file
called “hello.java”
Step 2 – Type in this code and save it

Notice that portions of the code are

indented. This is an important feature of
programming that helps show the
structure of the code, making it more
readable.

JCreator helps with this by automatically

indenting your code sections.

Be sure to follow this practice of indenting

in all of the programs you write.
Step 3 – Compile the code by clicking
“Build File”
Step 3 result – Clean compile
Step 4 – Execute the code by clicking
“Run Project”
Step 4 result – Correct output
SUCCESS!!!
• Good job!
• You just completed your first JAVA
program!
• Now it’s time to explore different
types of errors that can occur, and
how to fix them.
Compile time errors
• The first step in the execution process
of any program is the compile, or build.
• This process translates the source code
into bytecode, a kind of “universal
language” of all JAVA programs.
• Two types of errors can occur during
the compile process:
• Lexical
• Syntax
Lexical Errors
• An error in a program is most often a
result of some important command
mistyped, put in the wrong order, or
completely omitted.
• This is called a LEXICAL error.
• To fix this type of error, simply retype
the word correctly, or put the words in
the correct order, then recompile.
• Here are some examples…
Lexical error example #1: Class name
misspelled – must match file name!

This is the error message you

will see when the file and class
names don’t match.
Lexical error example #2: static and
void reversed; must be in correct order!

This error generates three

error messages, NONE of
which tell you how to fix it!
Lexical error example #2: static and
void reversed; must be in correct order!

Quite often you have to look

carefully and try to figure out
what caused the error,
especially when the error
messages aren’t very helpful!
LexErr Example #3: The words “String”
and “System” must be capitalized!

“String” and “System” must

be spelled with capital letters
because they are special
words in JAVA.
LexErr Example #3: The words “String”
and “System” must be capitalized!

Note that the error messages

are different, even though the
error is the same. This
happens a lot.
LexErr Example #3: The words “String”
and “System” must be capitalized!

In JAVA, misspelling includes

not only wrong letters, but
wrong cases…uppercase
instead of lower case, or vice
versa. Pay close attention to
this!
LexErr Example #4: The command
println is misspelled!

Although the command

println means literally to “print
a line”, the “line” portion of
the command is abbreviated,
not spelled out.
LexErr Example #4: The command
println is misspelled!

In this case, the error message

actually is pretty clear…there
is no such command as
printline.
Syntax Errors
• Another type of error in a program
deals with punctuation mistakes.
• This is called a SYNTAX error.
• JAVA relies on punctuation to know
when commands are finished,
sections of code are complete, and
many other situations.
• Here are some examples…
Syntax Error Example #1: A semicolon
is missing!

A semicolon must be included at the end of any

command statement in JAVA. However, NOT ALL LINES
END IN A SEMICOLON.

In this program, the only command statement is on line

5. The rest of the program is the “shell” or structure of
the program.
Syntax Error Example #2: A closing
brace is missing!

Each open brace “{“ marks the beginning of a block of

code and must always be completed with a closing
brace, “}”. In this example the closing brace for the main
block is missing. The braces for the class block are OK.

Once again, the error message is not real helpful, but

once you see it often enough, you will remember what it
really means.
Matching braces highlighted

The Jcreator IDE is very helpful in finding pairs of

matching braces. If you click next to a brace, it will
highlight that brace as well as the one the compiler
“thinks” is the matching brace.

As programs grow in size and complexity, this feature

really helps in the DEBUGGING process.
Matching braces highlighted

The Jcreator IDE is very helpful in finding pairs of

matching braces. If you click next to a brace, it will
highlight that brace as well as the one the compiler
“thinks” is the matching brace.

As programs grow in size and complexity, this feature

really helps in the DEBUGGING process.
Other types of errors
• There are two other general
categories of errors which we will
explore later in more detail.
• They are:
• Run time errors – program compiles
just fine, but encounters an error
during execution
• Logical errors – program runs fine,
but doesn’t do the right thing
Four parts of an error message
• For the last part of this first lesson,
let’s talk about the four parts of an
error message that are shown by
the JCreator IDE.
Red arrow on line of error

This is the “missing semicolon” error we discussed

earlier.

From the Task View section, If you double click on the

error message, a red arrow will appear on the line where
the compiler encountered the error.

This is quite helpful when you have a large program and

you quickly want to find the location of the error.
Error message, Part One

In the “Build Output” view of the message section, the

four parts of the message are clearly shown:
1. The name of the file that contains the error
Error message, Part Two

In the “Build Output” view of the message section, the

four parts of the message are clearly shown:
1. The name of the file that contains the error
2. The line number of the error
Error message, Part Three

In the “Build Output” view of the message section, the

four parts of the message are clearly shown:
1. The name of the file that contains the error
2. The line number of the error
3. The message itself
Error message, Part Four

In the “Build Output” view of the message section, the

four parts of the message are clearly shown:
1. The name of the file that contains the error
2. The line number of the error
3. The message itself
4. An arrow “^” pointing to where the compiler stopped
when it encountered the error
Four parts, example #2

This is the “missing brace” error message example.

The four parts of the message are still shown, but notice
that the line number and “^” are actually on the line
following the location of the missing brace.

This happens quite often, so look carefully!

Lesson Summary
• This lesson introduced the “Hello
World” program using a typical
indented program structure.
• It also pointed out different types of
errors that can be encountered, the
various features of the JCreator IDE
error message system, and how to
interpret the message parts in the
DEBUGGING process.
Lesson Lab
• And now, using the program example
you just learned, complete a program
that produces five lines of output:
• Your name
• Your favorite food
• A celebrity or public figure, past or
present, whom you like or admire
• Your least favorite chore at home
• What you would rather be doing right
now, other than completing this lab
assignment
Lesson Lab Output Example
CONGRATULATIONS!

• YOU ARE NOW A

COMPUTER
PROGRAMMER!
• NOW GO ON TO
LESSON 1B
 Thank you, and have fun!

To order supplementary materials for this lesson, such as

lab solutions, quizzes, tests, or UIL-style contest reviews, fill
out the order form on the next page and send to
John B. Owen
[email protected]