Introduction

History of Java
• Java was originally developed by Sun Microsystems
starting in 1991
– James Gosling
– Patrick Naughton
– Chris Warth
– Ed Frank
– Mike Sheridan
• This language was initially called Oak
• Renamed Java in 1995

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 What is Java
• A simple, object‐oriented, distributed, interpreted,
robust, secure, architecture neutral, portable, high‐
performance, multithreaded, and dynamic language
‐‐ Sun Microsystems
• Object‐Oriented
– No free functions
– All code belong to some class
– Classes are in turn arranged in a hierarchy or package
structure

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 What is Java
• Distributed
– Fully supports IPv4, with structures to support IPv6
– Includes support for Applets: small programs embedded in
HTML documents
• Interpreted
– The program are compiled into Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
code called bytecode
– Each bytecode instruction is translated into machine code
at the time of execution

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 What is Java
• Robust
– Java is simple – no pointers/stack concerns
– Exception handling – try/catch/finally series allows for
simplified error recovery
– Strongly typed language – many errors caught during
compilation

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Java in TIOBE Programming Index

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

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 Java Editions
• Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE)
– Used for developing desktop-based applications and
networking applications
• Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
– Used for developing large‐scale, distributed networking
applications and web‐based applications
• Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME)
– Used for developing applications for small memory‐
constrained devices, such as cell phones, pagers and PDAs

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Java SE Versions

9
 Java platform
public class HelloWorld
{
public static void main( String [] args )
{
System.out.println(“hello”);
}
}
Java Program ( Class File )

Java Platform
HelloWorld.jav Windows NT Java
a API
Compile
Java Java Virtual Machine
javac
Interpreter
Hardware-Based Platform
2387D47803
A96C16A484 Java
54B646F541
06515EE464 Bytecode

Java
Interpreter
HelloWorld.class
Power Macintosh
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 Java Development Environment
• Edit
– Create/edit the source code
• Compile
– Compile the source code
• Load
– Load the compiled code
• Verify
– Check against security
restrictions
• Execute
– Execute the compiled

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 Phase 1: Creating a Program
• Any text editor or Java IDE (Integrated Development
Environment) can be used to develop Java programs
• Java source‐code file names must end with the .java
extension
• Some popular Java IDEs are
– IntelliJ
– VS Code (with appropriate extensions)
– NetBeans
– Eclipse

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Phase 2: Compiling a Java Program
• javac Welcome.java
– Searches the file in the current directory
– Compiles the source file
– Transforms the Java source code into bytecodes
– Places the bytecodes in a file named Welcome.class

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 Bytecodes *
• They are not machine language binary code
• They are independent of any particular microprocessor
or hardware platform
• They are platform‐independent instructions
• Another entity (interpreter) is required to convert the
bytecodes into machine codes that the underlying
microprocessor understands
• This is the job of the JVM (Java Virtual Machine)

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 JVM (Java Virtual Machine) *
• It is a part of the JDK and the foundation of the Java
platform
• It can be installed separately or with JDK
• A virtual machine (VM) is a software application that
simulates a computer, but hides the underlying
operating system and hardware from the programs
that interact with the VM
• It is the JVM that makes Java a portable language

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 JVM (Java Virtual Machine) *
• The same bytecodes can be executed on any
platform containing a compatible JVM
• The JVM is invoked by the java command
– java Welcome
• It searches the class Welcome in the current
directory and executes the main method of class
Welcome
• It issues an error if it cannot find the class Welcome
or if class Welcome does not contain a method called
main with proper signature
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 Phase 3: Loading a Program *
• One of the components of the JVM is the class loader
• The class loader takes the .class files containing the
programs bytecodes and transfers them to RAM
• The class loader also loads any of the .class files
provided by Java that our program uses

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 Phase 4: Bytecode Verification *
• Another component of the JVM is the bytecode
verifier
• Its job is to ensure that bytecodes are valid and do
not violate Java’s security restrictions
• This feature helps to prevent Java programs arriving
over the network from damaging our system

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 Phase 5: Execution
• Now the actual execution of the program begins
• Bytecodes are converted to machine language
suitable for the underlying OS and hardware
• Java programs go through two compilation phases
– Source code ‐> Bytecodes
– Bytecodes ‐> Machine language

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Editing a Java Program

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 Examining Welcome.java
• A Java source file can contain multiple classes, but
only one class can be a public class
• Typically, Java classes are grouped into packages
(similar to namespaces in C++)
• A public class is accessible across packages
• The source file name must match the name of the
public class defined in the file with the .java
extension

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 Examining Welcome.java
• In Java, there is no provision to declare a class, and
then define the member functions outside the class
• Body of every member function of a class (called
method in Java) must be written when the method is
declared
• Java methods can be written in any order in the
source file
• A method defined earlier in the source file can call a
method defined later

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 Examining Welcome.java
• public static void main(String[] args)
– main is the starting point of every Java application
– public is used to make the method accessible by all
– static is used to make main a static method of class
Welcome. Static methods can be called without using any
object; just using the class name. JVM call main using the
ClassName.methodName (Welcome.main) notation
– void means main does not return anything
– String args[ ] represents an array of String objects that
holds the command line arguments passed to the
application. Where is the length of args array?

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 Examining Welcome.java
• Think of JVM as a outside Java entity who tries to
access the main method of class Welcome
– main must be declared as a public member of class
Welcome
• JVM wants to access main without creating an object
of class Welcome
– main must be declared as static
• JVM wants to pass an array of String objects
containing the command line arguments
– main must take an array of String as parameter

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 Examining Welcome.java
• System.out.println()
– Used to print a line of text followed by a new line
– System is a class inside the Java API
– out is a public static member of class System
– out is an object of another class of the Java API
– out represents the standard output (similar to stdout or
cout)
– println is a public method of the class of which out is an
object

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 Examining Welcome.java
• System.out.print() is similar to System.out.println(),
but does not print a new line automatically
• System.out.printf() is used to print formatted output
like printf() in C
• In Java, characters enclosed by double quotes ("")
represents a String object, where String is a class of
the Java API
• We can use the plus operator (+) to concatenate
multiple String objects and create a new String object

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 Compiling a Java Program
• Place the .java file in the bin directory of your Java
installation
– C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-17.0.4\bin
• Open a command prompt window and go to the
bin directory
• Execute the following command
– javac Welcome.java
• If the source code is ok, then javac (the Java
compiler) will produce a file called Welcome.class in
the current directory
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 Compiling a Java Program
• If the source file contains multiple classes then javac
will produce separate .class files for each class
• Every compiled class in Java will have their own .class
file
• .class files contain the bytecodes of each class
• So, a .class file in Java contains the bytecodes of a
single class only

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 Executing a Java Program
• After successful compilation execute the following
command
– java Welcome
– Note that we have omitted the .class extension here
• The JVM will look for the class file Welcome.class
and search for a public static void main(String
args[ ]) method inside the class
• If the JVM finds the above two, it will execute the
body of the main method, otherwise it will generate
an error and will exit immediately
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Another Java Program

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 Examining A.java
• The variable of a class type is called a reference
– ob is a reference to A object
• Declaring a class reference is not enough, we
have to use new to create an object
• Every Java object has to be instantiated using
keyword new
• We access a public member of a class using the
dot operator (.)
– Dot (.) is the only member access operator in Java
– Java does not have ->, & and *
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 Primitive (built‐in) Data types
• Integers
– byte 8‐bit integer (new)
– short 16‐bit integer
– int 32‐bit signed integer
– long 64‐bit signed integer
• Real Numbers
– float 32‐bit floating‐point number
– double 64‐bit floating‐point number
• Other types
– char 16‐bit, Unicode 2.1 character
– boolean true or false, false is not 0 in Java

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Boolean Type

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 Non‐primitive Data types
• The non‐primitive data types in java are
– Objects
– Array
• Non‐primitive types are also called reference types

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 Primitive vs. Non‐primitive type
• Primitive types are handled by value – the actual
primitive values are stored in variable and passed to
methods
int x = 10;
public MyPrimitive(int x) { }
• Non‐primitive data types (objects and arrays) are
handled by reference – the reference is stored in
variable and passed to methods
Box b = new Box(1,2,3);
public MyNonPrimitive(Box x) { }
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 Primitive vs. Non‐primitive type
• Primitive types are handled by value
– There is no easy way to swap two primitive integers in Java
– No method like void swap(int *x, int *y)
– Can only be done using object or array
• But do we actually need a method to swap?
– x += (y - (y = x)) does the same in a single statement

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 Java References
• Java references are used to point to Java objects
created by new
• Java objects are always passed by reference to other
functions, never by value
• Java references act as pointers but does not allow
pointer arithmetic
• We cannot read the value of a reference and hence
cannot find the address of a Java object
• We cannot take the address of a Java reference

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 Java References
• We can make a Java reference point to a new object
– By copying one reference to another
ClassName ref2 = ref1; // Here ref1 is declared earlier
– By creating a new object and assign it to the reference
ClassName ref1 = new ClassName();
• We cannot place arbitrary values to a reference
except the special value null which means that the
reference is pointing to nothing
ClassName ref1 = 100; // compiler error
ClassName ref2 = null; // no problem

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Java References

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 Java Textbook
– Java: The Complete Reference, 12th Edition by Herbert
Schildt
– Effective Java, 3rd edition by Joshua Bloch (for future)

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