Introduction to Java

Programming Language
Junji Zhi
University of Toronto

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 Content
• Java language Syntax
• “Hello World” program example
• Compiling, Running and Debugging Java code
• Inheritance
• Threading
• Synchronization

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 Java programming Language
• Some buzzwords for Java
– “Write Once, Run Anywhere”
– Simple
– Object oriented
– Distributed
– Multithreaded
– Dynamic
– Architecture neutral
– Portable
– High performance
– Robust
– Secure

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 Example: Hello World Program

• Everything is in a class
• One file, one public class
• In the runnable public class:
– public static void main(String [] args)

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 Primitive Data Types
• Primitive Data Types: byte, short, int, long, float,
double, boolean, char
• Arrays are also a class
long [] a = new long[5];
– You can get the length by visiting the length field of
array object a, like this: a.length
• String class is very commonly used to represents
character strings, for example
String s1 = “Hello ”, s2 = “Wolrd!”;
String s3 = s1 + s2;

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 Operators (same as C/C++) [3]
• ++,-- Auto increment/decrement
• +,- Unary plus/minus
• *,/ Multiplication/division
• % Modulus
• +,- Addition/subtraction

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 Declaring Variables [3]
int n = 1;
char ch = ‘A’;
String s = “Hello”;
Long L = new Long(100000);
boolean done = false;
final double pi = 3.14159265358979323846;
Employee joe = new Employee();
char [] a = new char[3];
Vector v = new Vector();

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 Compared with C/C++ [3]
• Java has no:
– pointers
– typedef
– preprocessor
– struct
– unions
– multiple inheritance
– goto
– operator overloading
– malloc
– …

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 Declaring a class
• package
• Class name
• Constructor
• Fields
• methods

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 Compiling, Running and
Debugging Java Programs

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Java Development Process
.java => .class => JVM execution

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 Installing Java in your machine (1)
• Downloading Java Development Kit (JDK) from
Oracle
• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is usually
included in the JDK installation file.

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 Installing Java in your machine (2)
• Setting JAVA_HOME (Windows):
– E.g., C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_45
• Setting path and classpath

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Compile .java File into a .class File
(Command Line)

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Running HelloWorld in Eclipse IDE
Eclipse Download from here.

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Java platform

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 Debugging Java in Eclipse (1)
• Debugging means “run a program
interactively while watching the source code
and the variables during the execution.” [5]
• Set breakpoints to stop the program at the
middle of execution
• Eclipse has a Debug Mode

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 Debugging Java in Eclipse(2)

Image courtesy: http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseDebugging/images/xdebugstart20.gif.pagespeed.ic.SqCELlNeCm.png

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 Debugging Java in Eclipse(3)

Table courtesy: http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseDebugging/article.html

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Java Inheritance

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 Inheritance in Java
• Java classes can be derived from other classes,
thereby inheriting fields and methods from those
classes.

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Common Root: Object

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Interface

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“Multiple Inheritance”

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 A Real World Example: ArrayList

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/ArrayList.html 25
Java Threading

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 Java Threading
• A thread is a thread of execution in a program [6]
• JVM allows an application to have multiple threads running
concurrently.
• Apache Harmony example:

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http://harmony.apache.org/subcomponents/drlvm/TM.html
 Two ways to do threading
1. Extends Thread class

2. Implements
Runnable interface

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Thread.html
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Thread lifecycle

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 How to stop a Thread
• Using Thread.interrupt() method:

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http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7786305/stopping-a-specific-java-thread
Java Synchronization

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 Thread Interference (1)
• Increment operation is translated to
multiple steps by the virtual
machine :
1. Retrieve the current value of c.
2. Increment the retrieved value
by 1.
3. Store the incremented value
back in c.

Example from: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/interfere.html

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 Thread Interference (2)
• Assume we have 2 threads, A and B.
• A increments c, and B decrements c.
• Thread A and B runs together.
• One possible order of the low-level steps:
1. Thread A: Retrieve c.
2. Thread B: Retrieve c.
3. Thread A: Increment retrieved value; result is 1.
4. Thread B: Decrement retrieved value; result is -1.
5. Thread A: Store result in c; c is now 1.
6. Thread B: Store result in c; c is now -1.
• Is the result correct?
• What if the thread A and B are bank transactions?
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 Problem Root Cause
• Threads are visiting one field (resource) at the
same time.
• Multiple steps of an operation
• No enforced “happen-before” relationship

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Solution: synchronized method

Example: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/syncmeth.html 35
 synchronized method
• Enforce the ‘happen-before’ relationship in
the method level.
• Either one of the below instance will happen.
But result is always 0, which is correct.
1. Thread A: Retrieve c. 1. Thread B: Retrieve c.
2. Thread A: Increment retrieved value; 2. Thread B: Decrement retrieved value;
result is 1. result is -1.
3. Thread A: Store result in c; c is now 1. 3. Thread B: Store result in c; c is now -1.
4. Thread B: Retrieve c. OR 4. Thread A: Retrieve c.
5. Thread B: Decrement retrieved value; 5. Thread A: Increment retrieved value;
result is 0. result is 0.
6. Thread B: Store result in c; c is now 0. 6. Thread A: Store result in c; c is now 0.

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 synchronized statements (1)
• Every object has an intrinsic lock associated
with it
• Primitive types (e.g., int, char) do not have
intrinsic locks.
• We can combine object intrinsic locks and
synchronized keyword to create fine-grained
synchronization control.

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synchronized statements (2)

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/locksync.html 38
 synchronized statement hazards (1)

• Boolean has only two instances of Boolean

• If another thread also synchronizes on the same Boolean
instance, like this:
– private final Boolean someLock = Boolean.FALSE;
• The lock will be reused.
• The system might be deadlock or unresponsive.
• It is hard to detect this type of bugs!
More examples:
https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/java/LCK01-J.+Do+not+synchronize+on+objects+that+may+be+reused
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 synchronized statement hazards (2)
• Another example of the wrong way of using
locks:

What will happen another thread also synchronizes on an integer instance

with the 0 integer value?

https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/java/LCK01-J.+Do+not+synchronize+on+objects+that+may+be+reused
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 synchronized statement hazards (3)
• Correct way of using locks: using new to
instantiate an object

https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/java/LCK01-J.+Do+not+synchronize+on+objects+that+may+be+reused
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 References
1. Thinking in Java 4th Ed, Bruce Eckel
2. Oracle Java tutorial
(http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/index.ht
ml)
3. www.cs.drexel.edu/~spiros/teaching/CS575/slid
es/java.ppt
4. http://eclipsetutorial.sourceforge.net/Total_Begi
nner_Companion_Document.pdf
5. http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipseDebug
ging/article.html

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