What is Java?

Java is a programming language and a platform. Java is a high level, robust, object-
oriented and secure programming language.

Java was developed by Sun Microsystems (which is now the subsidiary of Oracle) in the
year 1995. James Gosling is known as the father of Java. Before Java, its name was Oak.
Since Oak was already a registered company, so James Gosling and his team changed
the name from Oak to Java.

Platform: Any hardware or software environment in which a program runs, is known

as a platform. Since Java has a runtime environment (JRE) and API, it is called a
platform.

Application
According to Sun, 3 billion devices run Java. There are many devices where Java is
currently used. Some of them are as follows:

1. Desktop Applications such as acrobat reader, media player, antivirus, etc.

2. Web Applications such as irctc.co.in, javatpoint.com, etc.
3. Enterprise Applications such as banking applications.
4. Mobile
5. Embedded System
6. Smart Card
7. Robotics
8. Games, etc.

Types of Java Applications

There are mainly 4 types of applications that can be created using Java programming:

1) Standalone Application

Standalone applications are also known as desktop applications or window-based

applications. These are traditional software that we need to install on every machine.
Examples of standalone application are Media player, antivirus, etc. AWT and Swing
are used in Java for creating standalone applications.

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2) Web Application

An application that runs on the server side and creates a dynamic page is called a web
application. Currently, Servlet, JSP, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, JSF, etc. technologies are
used for creating web applications in Java.

3) Enterprise Application

An application that is distributed in nature, such as banking applications, etc. is called

an enterprise application. It has advantages like high-level security, load balancing,
and clustering. In Java, EJB is used for creating enterprise applications.

4) Mobile Application

An application which is created for mobile devices is called a mobile application.

Currently, Android and Java ME are used for creating mobile applications.

Java Platforms / Editions

There are 4 platforms or editions of Java:

1) Java SE (Java Standard Edition)

It is a Java programming platform. It includes Java programming APIs such as java.lang,

java.io, java.net, java.util, java.sql, java.math etc. It includes core topics like
OOPs, String, Regex, Exception, Inner classes, Multithreading, I/O Stream, Networking,
AWT, Swing, Reflection, Collection, etc.

2) Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition)

It is an enterprise platform that is mainly used to develop web and enterprise

applications. It is built on top of the Java SE platform. It includes topics like Servlet, JSP,
Web Services, EJB, JPA, etc.

3) Java ME (Java Micro Edition)

It is a micro platform that is dedicated to mobile applications.

4) JavaFX

It is used to develop rich internet applications. It uses a lightweight user interface API.

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History of Java
1. History of Java
2. Java Version History

The history of Java is very interesting. Java was originally designed for interactive
television, but it was too advanced technology for the digital cable television industry
at the time. The history of Java starts with the Green Team. Java team members (also
known as Green Team), initiated this project to develop a language for digital devices
such as set-top boxes, televisions, etc. However, it was best suited for internet
programming. Later, Java technology was incorporated by Netscape.

The principles for creating Java programming were "Simple, Robust, Portable,
Platform-independent, Secured, High Performance, Multithreaded, Architecture
Neutral, Object-Oriented, Interpreted, and Dynamic". Java was developed by James
Gosling, who is known as the father of Java, in 1995. James Gosling and his team
members started the project in the early '90s.

Currently, Java is used in internet programming, mobile devices, games, e-business

solutions, etc. Following are given significant points that describe the history of Java.

1) James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton initiated the Java language
project in June 1991. The small team of sun engineers called Green Team.

2) Initially it was designed for small, embedded systems in electronic appliances like
set-top boxes.

3) Firstly, it was called "Greentalk" by James Gosling, and the file extension was .gt.

4) After that, it was called Oak and was developed as a part of the Green project.

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Why Java was named as "Oak"?

5) Why Oak? Oak is a symbol of strength and chosen as a national tree of many
countries like the U.S.A., France, Germany, Romania, etc.

6) In 1995, Oak was renamed as "Java" because it was already a trademark by Oak
Technologies.

Why Java Programming named "Java"?

7) Why had they chose the name Java for Java language? The team gathered to choose
a new name. The suggested words were "dynamic", "revolutionary", "Silk", "jolt",
"DNA", etc. They wanted something that reflected the essence of the technology:
revolutionary, dynamic, lively, cool, unique, and easy to spell, and fun to say.

According to James Gosling, "Java was one of the top choices along with Silk". Since
Java was so unique, most of the team members preferred Java than other names.

8) Java is an island in Indonesia where the first coffee was produced (called Java coffee).
It is a kind of espresso bean. Java name was chosen by James Gosling while having a
cup of coffee nearby his office.

9) Notice that Java is just a name, not an acronym.

10) Initially developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which is now a

subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995.

11) In 1995, Time magazine called Java one of the Ten Best Products of 1995.

12) JDK 1.0 was released on January 23, 1996. After the first release of Java, there have
been many additional features added to the language. Now Java is being used in
Windows applications, Web applications, enterprise applications, mobile applications,
cards, etc. Each new version adds new features in Java.

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Features of Java
The primary objective of Java programming language creation was to make it portable,
simple and secure programming language. Apart from this, there are also some
excellent features which play an important role in the popularity of this language. The
features of Java are also known as Java buzzwords.

A list of the most important features of the Java language is given below.

Simple
Java is very easy to learn, and its syntax is simple, clean and easy to understand.
According to Sun Microsystem, Java language is a simple programming language
because:

o Java syntax is based on C++ (so easier for programmers to learn it after C++).
o Java has removed many complicated and rarely-used features, for example,
explicit pointers, operator overloading, etc.
o There is no need to remove unreferenced objects because there is an Automatic
Garbage Collection in Java.

Object-oriented
Java is an object-oriented programming language. Everything in Java is an object.
Object-oriented means we organize our software as a combination of different types
of objects that incorporate both data and behavior.

Object-oriented programming (OOPs) is a methodology that simplifies software

development and maintenance by providing some rules.

Basic concepts of OOPs are:

1. Object
2. Class
3. Inheritance
4. Polymorphism
5. Abstraction
6. Encapsulation

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Platform Independent

Java is platform independent because it is different from other languages like C, C++,
etc. which are compiled into platform specific machines while Java is a write once, run
anywhere language. A platform is the hardware or software environment in which a
program runs.

There are two types of platforms software-based and hardware-based. Java provides
a software-based platform.

The Java platform differs from most other platforms in the sense that it is a software-
based platform that runs on top of other hardware-based platforms. It has two
components:

1. Runtime Environment
2. API (Application Programming Interface)

Java code can be executed on multiple platforms, for example, Windows, Linux, Sun
Solaris, Mac/OS, etc. Java code is compiled by the compiler and converted into
bytecode. This bytecode is a platform-independent code because it can be run on
multiple platforms, i.e., Write Once and Run Anywhere (WORA).

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Secured
Java is best known for its security. With Java, we can develop virus-free systems. Java
is secured because:

o No explicit pointer
o Java Programs run inside a virtual machine sandbox
o Classloader: Classloader in Java is a part of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
which is used to load Java classes into the Java Virtual Machine dynamically. It
adds security by separating the package for the classes of the local file system
from those that are imported from network sources.
o Bytecode Verifier: It checks the code fragments for illegal code that can violate
access rights to objects.
o Security Manager: It determines what resources a class can access such as
reading and writing to the local disk.

Java language provides these securities by default. Some security can also be provided
by an application developer explicitly through SSL, JAAS, Cryptography, etc.

Robust
The English mining of Robust is strong. Java is robust because:

o It uses strong memory management.

o There is a lack of pointers that avoids security problems.
o Java provides automatic garbage collection which runs on the Java Virtual Machine to
get rid of objects which are not being used by a Java application anymore.
o There are exception handling and the type checking mechanism in Java. All these
points make Java robust.

Architecture-neutral
Java is architecture neutral because there are no implementation dependent features,
for example, the size of primitive types is fixed.

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In C programming, int data type occupies 2 bytes of memory for 32-bit architecture
and 4 bytes of memory for 64-bit architecture. However, it occupies 4 bytes of memory
for both 32 and 64-bit architectures in Java.

Portable
Java is portable because it facilitates you to carry the Java bytecode to any platform. It
doesn't require any implementation.

High-performance
Java is faster than other traditional interpreted programming languages because Java
bytecode is "close" to native code. It is still a little bit slower than a compiled language
(e.g., C++). Java is an interpreted language that is why it is slower than compiled
languages, e.g., C, C++, etc.

Distributed
Java is distributed because it facilitates users to create distributed applications in Java.
RMI and EJB are used for creating distributed applications. This feature of Java makes
us able to access files by calling the methods from any machine on the internet.

Multi-threaded
A thread is like a separate program, executing concurrently. We can write Java
programs that deal with many tasks at once by defining multiple threads. The main
advantage of multi-threading is that it doesn't occupy memory for each thread. It
shares a common memory area. Threads are important for multi-media, Web
applications, etc.

Dynamic
Java is a dynamic language. It supports the dynamic loading of classes. It means classes
are loaded on demand. It also supports functions from its native languages, i.e., C and
C++.

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C++ vs Java
There are many differences and similarities between the C++ programming language
and Java. A list of top differences between C++ and Java are given below:

Comparison C++ Java

Index

Platform- C++ is platform-dependent. Java is platform-independent.

independent

Mainly used for C++ is mainly used for Java is mainly used for application
system programming. programming. It is widely used in
Windows-based, web-based,
enterprise, and mobile applications.

Design Goal C++ was designed for Java was designed and created as
systems and applications an interpreter for printing systems
programming. It was an but later extended as a support
extension of the C network computing. It was
programming language. designed to be easy to use and
accessible to a broader audience.

Goto C++ supports Java doesn't support the goto

the goto statement. statement.

Multiple C++ supports multiple Java doesn't support multiple

inheritance inheritance. inheritance through class. It can be
achieved by using interfaces in java.

Operator C++ supports operator Java doesn't support operator

Overloading overloading. overloading.

Pointers C++ supports pointers. You Java supports pointer internally.

can write a pointer program However, you can't write the
in C++. pointer program in java. It means
java has restricted pointer support
in java.

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 Compiler and C++ uses compiler only. C++ Java uses both compiler and
Interpreter is compiled and run using the interpreter. Java source code is
compiler which converts converted into bytecode at
source code into machine compilation time. The interpreter
code so, C++ is platform executes this bytecode at runtime
dependent. and produces output. Java is
interpreted that is why it is
platform-independent.

Call by Value and C++ supports both call by Java supports call by value only.
Call by reference value and call by reference. There is no call by reference in java.

Structure and C++ supports structures and Java doesn't support structures and
Union unions. unions.

Thread Support C++ doesn't have built-in Java has built-in thread support.
support for threads. It relies
on third-party libraries for
thread support.

Documentation C++ doesn't support Java supports documentation

comment documentation comments. comment (/** ... */) to create
documentation for java source
code.

Virtual Keyword C++ supports virtual Java has no virtual keyword. We can
keyword so that we can override all non-static methods by
decide whether or not to default. In other words, non-static
override a function. methods are virtual by default.

unsigned right C++ doesn't support >>> Java supports unsigned right shift
shift >>> operator. >>> operator that fills zero at the
top for the negative numbers. For
positive numbers, it works same like
>> operator.

Inheritance Tree C++ always creates a new Java always uses a single
inheritance tree. inheritance tree because all classes
are the child of the Object class in

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 Java. The Object class is the root of
the inheritance tree in java.

Hardware C++ is nearer to hardware. Java is not so interactive with

hardware.

Object-oriented C++ is an object-oriented Java is also an object-

language. However, in the C oriented language. However,
language, a single root everything (except fundamental
hierarchy is not possible. types) is an object in Java. It is a
single root hierarchy as everything
gets derived from java.lang.Object.

o ava doesn't support default arguments like C++.

o Java does not support header files like C++. Java uses the import keyword to
include different classes and methods.

First Java Program | Hello World Example

In this section, we will learn how to write the simple program of Java. We can write a
simple hello Java program easily after installing the JDK.

To create a simple Java program, you need to create a class that contains the main
method. Let's understand the requirement first

The requirement for Java Hello World Example

For executing any Java program, the following software or application must be
properly installed.

o Install the JDK if you don't have installed it, download the JDK and install it.
o Set path of the jdk/bin directory. http://www.javatpoint.com/how-to-set-path-in-java
o Create the Java program
o Compile and run the Java program

Creating Hello World Example

Let's create the hello java program:

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 class Simple{
public static void main(String args[]){
System.out.println("Hello Java");
}
}

Save the above file as Simple.java.

To compile: javac Simple.java

To execute: java Simple

Output:

Hello Java

Compilation Flow:

When we compile Java program using javac tool, the Java compiler converts the source
code into byte code.

Parameters used in First Java Program

Let's see what is the meaning of class, public, static, void, main, String[],
System.out.println().

o class keyword is used to declare a class in Java.

o public keyword is an access modifier that represents visibility. It means it is visible to
all.
o static is a keyword. If we declare any method as static, it is known as the static method.
The core advantage of the static method is that there is no need to create an object to

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 invoke the static method. The main() method is executed by the JVM, so it doesn't
require creating an object to invoke the main() method. So, it saves memory.
o void is the return type of the method. It means it doesn't return any value.
o main represents the starting point of the program.
o String[] args or String args[] is used for command line argument. We will discuss it in
coming section.
o System.out.println() is used to print statement. Here, System is a class, out is an object
of the PrintStream class, println() is a method of the PrintStream class. We will discuss
the internal working of System.out.println() statement in the coming section.

To write the simple program, you need to open notepad by start menu -> All Programs ->
Accessories -> Notepad and write a simple program as we have

shownbelow:

As displayed in the above diagram, write the simple program of Java in notepad and
saved it as Simple.java. In order to compile and run the above program, you need to
open the command prompt by start menu -> All Programs -> Accessories ->
command prompt. When we have done with all the steps properly, it shows the
following output:

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To compile and run the above program, go to your current directory first; my current
directory is c:\new. Write here:

To compile: javac Simple.java

To execute: java Simple

In how many ways we can write a Java program?

There are many ways to write a Java program. The modifications that can be done in a
Java program are given below:

1) By changing the sequence of the modifiers, method prototype is not changed

in Java.

Let's see the simple code of the main method.

1. static public void main(String args[])

2) The subscript notation in the Java array can be used after type, before the
variable or after the variable.

Let's see the different codes to write the main method.

1. public static void main(String[] args)

2. public static void main(String []args)
3. public static void main(String args[])

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3) You can provide var-args support to the main() method by passing 3 ellipses
(dots)

Let's see the simple code of using var-args in the main() method. We will learn about
var-args later in the Java New Features chapter.

1. public static void main(String... args)

4) Having a semicolon at the end of class is optional in Java.

Let's see the simple code.

1. class A{
2. static public void main(String... args){
3. System.out.println("hello java4");
4. }
5. };

Valid Java main() method signature

1. public static void main(String[] args)
2. public static void main(String []args)
3. public static void main(String args[])
4. public static void main(String... args)
5. static public void main(String[] args)
6. public static final void main(String[] args)
7. final public static void main(String[] args)
8. final strictfp public static void main(String[] args)

Invalid Java main() method signature

1. public void main(String[] args)
2. static void main(String[] args)
3. public void static main(String[] args)
4. abstract public static void main(String[] args)

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Resolving an error "javac is not recognized as an internal or
external command"?
If there occurs a problem like displayed in the below figure, you need to set a path. Since
DOS doesn't recognize javac and java as internal or external command. To overcome this
problem, we need to set a path. The path is not required in a case where you save your
program inside the JDK/bin directory. However, it is an excellent approach to set the path

How to set Permanent Path of JDK in Windows

For setting the permanent path of JDK, you need to follow these steps:

o Go to MyComputer properties -> advanced tab -> environment variables -> new tab
of user variable -> write path in variable name -> write path of bin folder in variable
value -> ok -> ok -> ok

For Example:
1) Go to MyComputer properties

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2) Click on the advanced tab

3) Click on environment variables

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4) Click on the new tab of user variables

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5) Write the path in the variable name

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6) Copy the path of bin folder

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7) Paste path of bin folder in the variable value

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8) Click on ok button

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9) Click on ok button

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Now your permanent path is set. You can now execute any program of java from any
drive.

finalize() Method
The Java finalize() method of Object class is a method that the Garbage Collector always calls
just before the deletion/destroying the object which is eligible for Garbage Collection to
perform clean-up activity. Clean-up activity means closing the resources associated with that
object like Database Connection, Network Connection, or we can say resource de-allocation.
Remember, it is not a reserved keyword. Once the finalize() method completes immediately,
Garbage Collector destroys that object.
Finalization: Just before destroying any object, the garbage collector always calls finalize()
method to perform clean-up activities on that object. This process is known as Finalization in
Java.
Note: The Garbage collector calls the finalize() method only once on any object.
Syntax:
protected void finalize throws Throwable{}

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Since the Object class contains the finalize method hence finalize method is available for every
java class since Object is the superclass of all java classes. Since it is available for every java
class, Garbage Collector can call the finalize() method on any java object.

Why finalize() method is used?

finalize() method releases system resources before the garbage collector runs for a specific
object. JVM allows finalize() to be invoked only once per object.

How to override finalize() method?

The finalize method, which is present in the Object class, has an empty implementation. In
our class, clean-up activities are there. Then we have to override this method to define our
clean-up activities.
In order to Override this method, we have to define and call finalize within our code explicitly.

• Java

// Java code to show the

// overriding of finalize() method

import java.lang.*;

// Defining a class demo since every java class

// is a subclass of predefined Object class

// Therefore demo is a subclass of Object class

public class demo {

protected void finalize() throws Throwable

try {

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 System.out.println("inside demo's finalize()");

catch (Throwable e) {

throw e;

finally {

System.out.println("Calling finalize method"

+ " of the Object class");

// Calling finalize() of Object class

super.finalize();

// Driver code

public static void main(String[] args) throws Throwable

// Creating demo's object

demo d = new demo();

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 // Calling finalize of demo

d.finalize();

Output:
inside demo's finalize()

Calling finalize method of the Object class

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