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Java Tutorial

Our core Java programming tutorial is designed for students and working professionals. Java is an object-
oriented, class-based, concurrent, secured and general-purpose computer-programming language. It is a
widely used robust technology.

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.

Java Example

Let's have a quick look at Java programming example. A detailed description of Hello Java example is
available in next page.

Simple.java

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

Test it Now

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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.

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.

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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.

Prerequisite

To learn Java, you must have the basic knowledge of C/C++ programming language.

Audience

Our Java programming tutorial is designed to help beginners and professionals.

Problem

We assure that you will not find any problem in this Java tutorial. However, if there is any mistake, please post
the problem in the contact form.

Do You Know?

◦ What is the difference between JRE and JVM?

◦ What is the purpose of JIT compiler?

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History of Java
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.

Why Java was named as "Oak"?

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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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History of Java

Java Version History

Many java versions have been released till now. The current stable release of Java is Java SE 10.

1. JDK Alpha and Beta (1995)

2. JDK 1.0 (23rd Jan 1996)

3. JDK 1.1 (19th Feb 1997)

4. J2SE 1.2 (8th Dec 1998)

5. J2SE 1.3 (8th May 2000)

6. J2SE 1.4 (6th Feb 2002)

7. J2SE 5.0 (30th Sep 2004)

8. Java SE 6 (11th Dec 2006)

9. Java SE 7 (28th July 2011)

10. Java SE 8 (18th Mar 2014)

11. Java SE 9 (21st Sep 2017)

12. Java SE 10 (20th Mar 2018)

13. Java SE 11 (September 2018)

14. Java SE 12 (March 2019)

15. Java SE 13 (September 2019)

16. Java SE 14 (Mar 2020)

17. Java SE 15 (September 2020)

18. Java SE 16 (Mar 2021)

19. Java SE 17 (September 2021)

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20. Java SE 18 (to be released by March 2022)

Since Java SE 8 release, the Oracle corporation follows a pattern in which every even version is release in March
month and an odd version released in September month.

More Details on Java Versions.

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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.

1. Simple

2. Object-Oriented

3. Portable

4. Platform independent

5. Secured

6. Robust

7. Architecture neutral

8. Interpreted

9. High Performance

10. Multithreaded

11. Distributed

12. Dynamic

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Features of Java - Javatpoint

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:

◦ Java syntax is based on C++ (so easier for programmers to learn it after C++).

◦ Java has removed many complicated and rarely-used features, for example, explicit pointers, operator
overloading, etc.

◦ 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

Platform Independent

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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).

Secured

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

◦ No explicit pointer
◦ Java Programs run inside a virtual machine sandbox

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◦ 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.

◦ Bytecode Verifier: It checks the code fragments for illegal code that can violate access rights to objects.

◦ 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:

◦ It uses strong memory management.

◦ There is a lack of pointers that avoids security problems.

◦ 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.

◦ 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.

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.

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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++.

Java supports dynamic compilation and automatic memory management (garbage collection).

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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 Index C++ Java

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

independent

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

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

Goto C++ supports the goto Java doesn't support 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 can Java supports pointer internally. However, you
write a pointer program in C++. can't write the pointer program in java. It
means java has restricted pointer support in
java.

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

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

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

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

Documentation C++ doesn't support Java supports documentation comment (/** ...
comment documentation comments. */) to create documentation for java source
code.

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

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

Note

◦ Java doesn't support default arguments like C++.

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

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C++ Program Example

File: main.cpp

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
cout << "Hello C++ Programming";
return 0;
}

Output:

Hello C++ Programming

Java Program Example

File: Simple.java

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

Output:

Hello Java

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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.

◦ Install the JDK if you don't have installed it, download the JDK and install it.

◦ Set path of the jdk/bin directory. http://www.javatpoint.com/how-to-set-path-in-java

◦ Create the Java program

◦ Compile and run the Java program

Creating Hello World Example

Let's create the hello java program:

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

Test it Now

Save the above file as Simple.java.

To compile:
javac Simple.java
To execute:
java Simple

Output:

Hello Java

Compilation Flow:

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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().

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

◦ public keyword is an access modifier that represents visibility. It means it is visible to all.

◦ 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.

◦ void is the return type of the method. It means it doesn't return any value.

◦ main represents the starting point of the program.

◦ String[] args or String args[] is used for command line argument. We will discuss it in coming section.

◦ 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:

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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:

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:

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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.

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.

public static void main(String[] args)

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

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.

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.

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

Valid Java main() method signature

public static void main(String[] args)

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

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public static final void main(String[] args)

final public static void main(String[] args)
final strictfp public static void main(String[] args)

Invalid Java main() method signature

public void main(String[] args)

static void main(String[] args)
public void static main(String[] args)
abstract public static void main(String[] args)

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. Click here for How to set path in java.

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Internal Details of Hello Java Program

In the previous section, we have created Java Hello World program and learn how to compile and run a
Java program. In this section, we are going to learn, what happens while we compile and run the Java
program. Moreover, we will see some questions based on the first program.

What happens at compile time?

At compile time, the Java file is compiled by Java Compiler (It does not interact with OS) and converts the
Java code into bytecode.

What happens at runtime?

At runtime, the following steps are performed:

Classloader: It is the subsystem of JVM that is used to load class files.

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Bytecode Verifier: Checks the code fragments for illegal code that can violate access rights to objects.

Interpreter: Read bytecode stream then execute the instructions.

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:

To compile:
javac Hard.java
To execute:
java Simple

Observe that, we have compiled the code with file name but running the program with class name.
Therefore, we can save a Java program other than class name.

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

Yes, like the figure given below illustrates:

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