Java programming

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.

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
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.

Features of Java

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 behaviour.

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.

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
​
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.

Architecture-natural

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

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.

Distributed
Java is distributed because it facilitates users to create distributed applications in Java.

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.

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++.

First Java Program

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 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.
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.

What happens at runtime?

At runtime, the following steps are performed:

Q) Can you save a Java source file by another name than the class name?

Yes, if the class is not public. It is explained in the figure given below:

Q) Can you have multiple classes in a java source file?

Yes, like the figure given below illustrates:

Difference between JDK, JRE, and JVM

JVM

JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is an abstract machine. It is called a virtual machine because
it doesn't physically exist. It is a specification that provides a runtime environment

JRE

JRE is an acronym for Java Runtime Environment. It is also written as Java RTE. The Java
Runtime Environment is a set of software tools which are used for developing Java
applications. It is used to provide the runtime environment.
JDK

JDK is an acronym for Java Development Kit. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a
software development environment which is used to develop Java applications and
applets. It physically exists. It contains JRE + development tools.

Java Variables

A variable is a container which holds the value while the Java program is executed. A
variable is assigned with a data type.

Variable is a name of memory location. There are three types of variables in java: local,
instance and static.

1)​ Local Variable

A variable declared inside the body of the method is called local variable. You can use this
variable only within that method and the other methods in the class aren't even aware that
the variable exists.

A local variable cannot be defined with "static" keyword.

2)​ Instance Variable

A variable declared inside the class but outside the body of the method, is called an
instance variable. It is not declared as static.

3)​ Static variable

A variable that is declared as static is called a static variable. It cannot be local. You can
create a single copy of the static variable and share it among all the instances of the class.
Data Types in Java

Data types specify the different sizes and values that can be stored in the variable. There are two
types of data types in Java:

1.​ Primitive data types: The primitive data types include boolean, char, byte, short,
int, long, float and double.
2.​ Non-primitive​ data​ types: The​ non-primitive
​ data​ types include Classes, Interfaces, and
Arrays.

Unicode System

Unicode is a universal international standard character encoding that is capable of

representing most of the world's written languages.

Why java uses Unicode System?

o​ ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) for the United States.
 o​ ISO 8859-1 for Western European Language.
o​ KOI-8 for Russian.
o​ GB18030 and BIG-5 for Chinese, and so on.

Problem
This caused two problems:

1.​ A particular code value corresponds to different letters in the various language

standards.

2.​ The encodings for languages with large character sets have variable length.
3.​ Some common characters are encoded as single bytes, other require two or

more byte.

Solution
To solve these problems, a new language standard was developed i.e. Unicode

System.

In unicode, character holds 2 byte, so java also uses 2 byte for characters.

lowest value:\u0000

highest value:\uFFFF

Operators in Java

Operator in Java is a symbol that is used to perform operations. For example: +, -, *, / etc.

There are many types of operators in Java which are given below:

o​ Unary Operator,
o​ Arithmetic Operator,
o​ Shift Operator,
o​ Relational Operator,
o​ Bitwise Operator,
o​ Logical Operator,
o​ Ternary Operator and
o​ Assignment Operator.

Java Keywords

Java keywords are also known as reserved words. Keywords are particular words that act
as a key to a code. These are predefined words by Java so they cannot be used as a
variable or object name or class name.

Java Control Statements | Control Flow in Java

Java provides three types of control flow statements.

1.​ Decision Making statements

o​ if statements
o​ switch statement
2.​ Loop statements
o​ do while loop
o​ while loop
o​ for loop
o​ for-each loop
3.​ Jump statements
o​ break statement
o​ continue statement

Decision-Making statements:

As the name suggests, decision-making statements decide which statement to execute and
when.

1)​ If Statement:

In Java, the "if" statement is used to evaluate a condition. The control of the program is
diverted depending upon the specific condition. The condition of the If statement gives a
Boolean value, either true or false.

2)​ if-else statement

The if-else statement is an extension to the if-statement, which uses another block of code,
i.e., else block.

3)​ if-else-if ladder:

The if-else-if statement contains the if-statement followed by multiple else- if statements.
In other words, we can say that it is the chain of if-else

statements that create a decision tree where the program may enter in the block of code
where the condition is true.

4.​ Nested if-statement

In nested if-statements, the if statement can contain a if or if-else statement inside another
if or else-if statement.
 Switch Statement:

In Java, Switch statements are similar to if-else-if statements. The switch statement
contains multiple blocks of code called cases and a single case is executed based on the
variable which is being switched.

Loop Statements

In programming, sometimes we need to execute the block of code repeatedly while some
condition evaluates to true. However, loop statements are used to execute the set of
instructions in a repeated order.

1.​ for loop

2.​ while loop
3.​ do-while loop

Java for loop

In Java, for loop is similar to C and C++. It enables us to initialize the loop variable, check
the condition, and increment/decrement in a single line of code. We use the for loop only
when we exactly know the number of times, we want to execute the block of code.

Java for-each loop

Java provides an enhanced for loop to traverse the data structures like array or collection.
In the for-each loop, we don't need to update the loop variable. The syntax to use the
for-each loop in java is given below.

for(data_type var : array_name/collection_name){

//statements
}

Java while loop

The while loop is also used to iterate over the number of statements multiple times.
However, if we don't know the number of iterations in advance, it is recommended to use
a while loop.

Java do-while loop

The do-while loop checks the condition at the end of the loop after executing the loop
statements. When the number of iteration is not known and we have to execute the loop at
least once, we can use do-while loop.

It is also known as the exit-controlled loop since the condition is not checked in advance.
The syntax of the do-while loop is given below.

do
{
//statements

} while (condition);
 Jump Statements

Jump statements are used to transfer the control of the program to the specific statements.
In other words, jump statements transfer the execution control to the other part of the
program.

Java break statement

As the name suggests, the break statement is used to break the current flow of the program
and transfer the control to the next statement outside a loop or switch statement.

Java continue statement

Unlike break statement, the continue statement doesn't break the loop, whereas, it skips
the specific part of the loop and jumps to the next iteration of the loop immediately.
Java Object Class​

Java OOPs Concepts

Object-Oriented Programming is a paradigm that provides many concepts, such as inheritance, data
binding, polymorphism, etc.
Object

Any entity that has state and behaviour is known as an object. For example, a chair, pen, table, keyboard,
bike, etc. It can be physical or logical.

Class

Collection of objects is called class. It is a logical entity.

Inheritance

When one object acquires all the properties and behaviours of a parent object, it is known as inheritance. It
provides code reusability.

Polymorphism

If one task is performed in different ways, it is known as polymorphism. For example: to convince the
customer differently, to draw something, for example, shape, triangle, rectangle, etc.

Abstraction

Hiding internal details and showing functionality is known as abstraction. For example phone call, we don't
know the internal processing.

Encapsulation

Binding (or wrapping) code and data together into a single unit are known as encapsulation. For example, a
capsule, it is wrapped with different medicines.

Coupling

Coupling refers to the knowledge or information or dependency of another class. It arises when classes are
aware of each other.

Cohesion

Cohesion refers to the level of a component which performs a single well- defined task. A single well-defined
task is done by a highly cohesive method.

Association

Association represents the relationship between the objects. Here, one object can be associated with one object
or many objects.
Aggregation

Aggregation is a way to achieve Association. Aggregation represents the relationship where one object
contains other objects as a part of its state.

Composition

The composition is also a way to achieve Association. The composition represents the relationship where one
object contains other objects as a part of its state.

Constructors in Java

In Java, a constructor is a block of codes similar to the method. It is called when an instance of the class is
created. At the time of calling constructor, memory for the object is allocated in the memory.

Constructor Overloading in Java

Constructor overloading in Java is a technique of having more than one constructor with different parameter
lists.

Singleton design pattern in Java

Singleton Pattern says that just "define a class that has only one instance and provides a global point of
access to it".

In other words, a class must ensure that only single instance should be created and single object can be used
by all other classes.

There are two forms of singleton design pattern

o​ Early Instantiation: creation of instance at load time.

o​ Lazy Instantiation: creation of instance when required.

Advantage of Singleton design pattern

o​ Saves memory because object is not created at each request. Only single instance is reused again and
again.

Private Constructor in Java

Java allows us to declare a constructor as private. We can declare a constructor private by using the private
access specifier. Note that if a constructor is declared private, we are not able to create an object of the class.
Instead, we can use this private constructor in Singleton Design Pattern.

Rules for Private Constructor

The following rules keep in mind while dealing with private constructors.

o​ It does not allow a class to be sub-classed.

o​ It does not allow to create an object outside the class.
o​ If a class has a private constructor and when we try to extend the class, a compile-time error occurs.
o​ We cannot access a private constructor from any other class.
 o​ If all the constant methods are there in our class, we can use a private constructor
Use Cases of Private Constructor

The main purpose of using a private constructor is to restrict object creation. We also use private
constructors to implement the singleton design pattern. The use-cases of the private constructor are as follows:

o​ It can be used with static members-only classes.

o​ It can be used with static utility or constant classes.
o​ It can also be used to create singleton classes.
o​ It can be used to assign a name, for instance, creation by utilizing factory methods.
o​ It is also used to avoid sub-classing.

Different b/w Constructor and Method

Java static keyword

The static keyword in Java is used for memory management mainly. We can apply static keyword with
variables, methods, blocks and nested
classes. The static keyword belongs to the class than an instance of the class.
1)​ Java static variable

If you declare any variable as static, it is known as a static variable.

o​ The static variable can be used to refer to the common property of all objects (which is not unique for
each object), for example, the company name of employees, college name of students, etc.
 o​ The static variable gets memory only once in the class area at the time of class loading.

2)​ Java static method

If you apply static keyword with any method, it is known as static method.

o​ A static method belongs to the class rather than the object of a class.
o​ A static method can be invoked without the need for creating an instance of a class.
o​ A static method can access static data member and can change the value of it.

Q) Why is the Java main method static?

Ans) It is because the object is not required to call a static method. If it were a non-static method, JVM creates
an object first then call main() method that will lead the problem of extra memory allocation.

3)​ Java static block

o​ Is used to initialize the static data member.
o​ It is executed before the main method at the time of classloading.

Q) Can we execute a program without main() method?

Ans) No, one of the ways was the static block, but it was possible till JDK
1.6. Since JDK 1.7, it is not possible to execute a Java class without the main method.

this keyword in Java

There can be a lot of usage of Java this keyword. In Java, this is a reference variable that
refers to the current object.

Java Inheritance​

Inheritance in Java