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The "Hello World!" Application
"Hello World!" for the NetBeans IDE
"Hello World!" for Microsoft Windows
"Hello World!" for Solaris OS and Linux
Home Page > Getting Started > The "Hello World!" Application
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"Hello World!" for the NetBeans IDE
It's time to write your first application! These detailed instructions are for users of the
NetBeans IDE. The NetBeans IDE runs on the Java platform, which means that you
can use it with any operating system for which there is a JDK 6 available. These
operating systems include Microsoft Windows, Solaris OS, Linux, and Mac OS X.

 A Checklist
 Creating Your First Application
o Create an IDE Project
o Add JDK 6 to the Platform List
(if necessary)
o Add Code to the Generated
Source File
o Compile the Source File
o Run the Program
 Continuing the Tutorial with the
NetBeans IDE

A Checklist  

To write your first program, you'll need:

1. The Java SE Development Kit 6

(JDK 6)
o For Microsoft Windows, Solaris
OS, and
Linux: http://java.sun.com/javas
e/6/download.jsp
 o For Mac OS
X: http://connect.apple.com
2. The NetBeans IDE
o For all
platforms: http://www.netbeans.i
nfo/downloads/index.php

Creating Your First Application

Your first application, HelloWorldApp, will simply display the greeting "Hello

World!". To create this program, you will: 

 Create an IDE project

When you create an IDE project, you

create an environment in which to build
and run your applications. Using IDE
projects eliminates configuration issues
normally associated with developing on
the command line. You can build or run
your application by choosing a single
menu item within the IDE.

 Add code to the generated source file

A source file contains code, written in

the Java programming language, that
you and other programmers can
understand. As part of creating an IDE
project, a skeleton source file will be
automatically generated. You will then
modify the source file to add the "Hello
World!" message.

 Compile the source file into a .class

file
 The IDE invokes the Java
programming
language compiler (javac), which
takes your source file and translates its
text into instructions that the Java
virtual machine can understand. The
instructions contained within this file
are known as bytecodes.

 Run the program

The IDE invokes the Java

application launcher tool (java), which
uses the Java virtual machine to run
your application.

Create an IDE Project

To create an IDE project:

1. Launch the NetBeans IDE.

o On Microsoft Windows systems,
you can use the NetBeans IDE
item in the Start menu.
o On Solaris OS and Linux
systems, you execute the IDE
launcher script by navigating to
the IDE's bin directory and
typing ./netbeans.
o On Mac OS X systems, click the
NetBeans IDE application icon.
2. In the NetBeans IDE, choose File |
New Project.
 NetB
eans
IDE
with
the
File |
New
Proje
ct
men
u
item
selec
ted.

3. In the New Project wizard, expand the

General category and select Java
Application as shown in the following
figure:
 NetB
eans
IDE,
New
Proje
ct
wizar
d,
Cho
ose
Proje
ct
page
.

4. In the Name and Location page of the

wizard, do the following (as shown in
the figure below):
o In the Project Name field,
type Hello World App.
o In the Create Main Class field,
type helloworldapp.HelloWorldA
pp.
o Leave the Set as Main Project
checkbox selected.

NetB
eans
IDE,
New
Proje
ct
wizar
d,
Nam
 e
and
Loca
tion
page
.

5. Click Finish.

The project is created and opened in the IDE. You should see the following
components:

 The Projects window, which contains a

tree view of the components of the
project, including source files, libraries
that your code depends on, and so on.
 The Source Editor window with a file
called HelloWorldApp open.
 The Navigator window, which you can
use to quickly navigate between
elements within the selected class.
N
e
t
B
e
a
n
s

I
D
E

w
i
t
h

t
h
 e

H
e
l
l
o
W
o
r
l
d
A
p
p

p
r
o
j
e
c
t

o
p
e
n
.

Add JDK 6 to the Platform List (if necessary)

It may be necessary to add JDK 6 to the IDE's list of available platforms. To do this,
choose Tools | Java Platform Manager as shown in the following figure:
 Selecting
the Java
Platform
Manager
from the
Tools Menu

If you don't see JDK 6 (which might appear as 1.6 or 1.6.0) in the list of installed
platforms, click "Add Platform", navigate to your JDK 6 install directory, and click
"Finish". You should now see this newly added platform:
 The Java
Platform
Manager

To set this JDK as the default for all projects, you can run the IDE with the --
jdkhome switch on the command line, or by entering the path to the JDK in
thenetbeans_j2sdkhome property of
your INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY/etc/netbeans.conf file.

To specify this JDK for the current project only, select Hello World App in the
Projects pane, choose File | "Hello World App" Properties, click on Libraries, then
select JDK 6 under the Java Platform pulldown menu. You should see a screen similar
to the following:
The IDE is now configured for JDK 6.

Add Code to the Generated Source File

When you created this project, you left the Create Main Class checkbox selected in
the New Project wizard. The IDE has therefore created a skeleton class for you. You
can add the "Hello World!" message to the skeleton code by replacing the line:
// TODO code application logic here

with the line:

System.out.println("Hello World!"); // Display the string.
Optionally, you can replace these four lines of generated code:
/**
*
* @author
 */
with these lines:
/**
* The HelloWorldApp class implements an application that
* simply prints "Hello World!" to standard output.
*/
These four lines are a code comment and do not affect how the program runs. Later
sections of this tutorial explain the use and format of code comments.

 Be Careful When You Type

Type all code, commands, and file names exactly as shown. Both the compiler
(javac) and launcher (java) are case-sensitive, so you must capitalize
consistently.

HelloWorldApp   helloworldapp

Save your changes by choosing File | Save.

The file should look something like the following:

/*
* HelloWorldApp.java
*
* Created on February 5, 2006, 6:43 PM
*
* To change this template, choose Tools | Template Manager
* and open the template in the editor.
*/

package helloworldapp;

/**
* The HelloWorldApp class implements an application that
* simply prints "Hello World!" to standard output.
*/
public class HelloWorldApp {

/** Creates a new instance of HelloWorldApp */

public HelloWorldApp() {
}

/**
* @param args the command line arguments
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello World!"); // Display the string.
}

}
Compile the Source File into a .class File

To compile your source file, choose Build | Build Main Project from the IDE's main
menu.

The Output window opens and displays output similar to what you see in the
following figure:

Output
window
showing
results of
building the
HelloWorld
project.

If the build output concludes with the statement BUILD SUCCESSFUL, congratulations!

You have successfully compiled your program!

If the build output concludes with the statement BUILD FAILED, you probably have a
syntax error in your code. Errors are reported in the Output window as hyper-linked
text. You double-click such a hyper-link to navigate to the source of an error. You can
then fix the error and once again choose Build | Build Main Project.

When you build the project, the bytecode file HelloWorldApp.class is generated. You
can see where the new file is generated by opening the Files window and expanding
the Hello World App/build/classes/helloworldapp node as shown in the following
figure.
 Files
window,
showing the
generated .
class file.

Now that you have built the project, you can run your program.

Run the Program

From the IDE's menu bar, choose Run | Run Main Project.

The next figure shows what you should now see.

The
program
prints "Hello
World!" to
the Output
window
(along with
other output
from the
build
script).
Congratulations! Your program works!

Continuing the Tutorial with the NetBeans IDE

The next few pages of the tutorial will explain the code in this simple application.
After that, the lessons go deeper into core language features and provide many more
examples. Although the rest of the tutorial does not give specific instructions about
using the NetBeans IDE, you can easily use the IDE to write and run the sample code.
The following are some tips on using the IDE and explanations of some IDE behavior
that you are likely to see:

 Once you have created a project in the

IDE, you can add files to the project
using the New File wizard. Choose File
| New File, and then select a template in
the wizard, such as the Empty Java File
template.
 You can compile and run an individual
file (as opposed to a whole project)
using the IDE's Compile File (F9) and
Run File (Shift-F6) commands. If you
use the Run Main Project command,
the IDE will run the file that the IDE
associates as the main class of the main
project. Therefore, if you create an
additional class in your
HelloWorldApp project and then try to
run that file with the Run Main Project
command, the IDE will run
the HelloWorldApp file instead.
 You might want to create separate IDE
projects for sample applications that
include more than one source file.
 As you are typing in the IDE, a code
completion box might periodically
appear. You can either ignore the code
completion box and keep typing, or you
can select one of the suggested
expressions. If you would prefer not to
have the code completion box
automatically appear, you can turn off
 the feature. Choose Tools | Options,
click the Editor tab, and clear the Auto
Popup Completion Window checkbox.
 If you try to rename the node for a
source file in the Projects window, the
IDE prompts you with the Rename
dialog box to lead you through the
options of renaming the class and the
updating of code that refers to that
class. Click Next to display the
Refactoring window, which contains a
tree view of changes to be made. Then
click Do Refactoring to apply the
changes. This sequence of clicks might
seem unnecessary if you have just a
single class in your project, but it is
very useful when your changes affect
other parts of your code in larger
projects.
 For a more thorough guide to the
features of the NetBeans IDE, see
the NetBeans IDE Docs and Support
page or explore the documentation
available from the IDE's Help menu.

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