Java For Dummies

Java For Dummies

by Barry Burd
Java For Dummies

Java For Dummies

by Barry Burd

Paperback(8th ed.)

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Overview

Learn to write practical, reusable code with the straight forward tutorials and tips in the newest edition of this For Dummies bestseller

Do you speak Java? No, we’re not talking about your morning cup ‘o joe. We mean the world’s most popular programming language that runs on almost any computer!

If you’re looking to get started—or up your game—with Java, then Java For Dummies is the guide you need.In this book, you’ll:

  • Take control of your program flow
  • Program with classes, objects, and methods
  • Use Java's functional programming features
  • Explore Java 17, the latest long-term support release

This up-to-date handbook covers the latest developments in Java, including the new ‘switch’ statement syntax. So, if you’re ready to dive into one of the most practical (and coolest!) programming languages around, it’s time you picked upJava For Dummies.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781119861645
Publisher: Wiley
Publication date: 04/12/2022
Edition description: 8th ed.
Pages: 512
Sales rank: 486,122
Product dimensions: 7.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Dr. Barry Burd holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois. Barry is also the author of Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies, Java for Android For Dummies, and Flutter For Dummies.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1 Getting Started with Java 5

Chapter 1 All about Java 7

What You Can Do with Java 8

Why You Should Use Java 9

Gaining Perspective: Where Java Fits In 10

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) 12

Object-oriented languages 13

Objects and their classes 15

What's so great about an object-oriented language? 15

Objects and classes are everywhere 18

What's Next? 19

Chapter 2 All about Software 21

Get Ready for Java 21

The Inside Scoop 23

What is a compiler? 24

What is a Java virtual machine? 27

Developing Software 31

Spoiler Alert! 32

Chapter 3 Using the Basic Building Blocks 33

Speaking the Java Language 33

The grammar and the common names 34

The words in a Java program 35

Checking Out Java Code for the First Time 37

Understanding a Simple Java Program 38

The Java class 38

The Java method 40

The main method in a program 41

How you finally tell the computer to do something 43

Brace yourself 45

And Now, a Few Comments 49

Adding comments to your code 49

What's Barry's excuse? 53

Using comments to experiment with your code 53

Part 2 Writing Your Own Java Programs 55

Chapter 4 Making the Most of Variables and Their Values 57

Varying a Variable 58

Assignment statements 60

The types of values that variables may have 61

How to hold the line 64

Numbers without decimal points 65

Combining declarations and initializing variables 67

Experimenting with JShell 69

What Happened to All the Cool Visual Effects? 72

The Atoms: Java's Primitive Types 73

The char type 73

The boolean type 76

The Molecules and Compounds: Reference Types 78

An Import Declaration 82

Creating New Values by Applying Operators 84

Initialize once, assign often 87

The increment and decrement operators 89

Assignment operators 93

Chapter 5 Controlling Program Flow with Decision-Making Statements 97

Making Decisions (Java if Statements) 98

Guess the number 98

She controlled keystrokes from the keyboard 99

Creating randomness 102

The if statement 103

Equal, equal 104

Brace yourself 105

Your intent to indent 105

Elseless in Helsinki 106

Using Blocks in JShell 108

Forming Conditions with Comparisons and Logical Operators 109

Comparing numbers; comparing characters 109

Comparing objects 110

Look! 113

Java's logical operators 115

Vive les nuls! 118

(Conditions in parentheses) 119

The Nesting Habits of if Statements 121

Choosing among Many Alternatives 124

Java's glorious switch statement 124

A switch in time saves 14 127

Your grandparents' switch statement 130

Free fall 131

Chapter 6 Controlling Program Flow with Loops 135

Repeating Instructions Over and Over Again (Java while Statements) 136

Count On Me 139

The anatomy of a for statement 141

The world premiere of "Al's All Wet' 142

You Can Always Get What You Want 145

The root of the matter 148

Reading a single character 149

File handling in Java 150

Block on the while side 151

Part 3 Working with the Big Picture: Object-Oriented Programming 155

Chapter 7 The Inside scOOP 157

Defining a Class (What It Means to Be an Account) 158

Declaring variables and creating objects 163

Initializing a variable 166

Using an object's fields 167

One program; several classes 167

Declaring a public class 167

Defining a Method within a Class (Displaying an Account) 169

An account that displays itself 170

The display method's header 172

Sending Values to and from Methods (Calculating Interest) 173

Passing a value to a method 176

Returning a value from the getInterest method 178

Giving Your Numbers a Makeover 180

Hide-and-Seek 185

Good programming 185

Public lives and private dreams: Making a field inaccessible 188

Enforcing rules with accessor methods 190

Barry's Own GUI Class 190

Chapter 8 Saving Time and Money: Reusing Existing Code 199

What It Means to Be an Employee 200

The last word on employees 200

Putting your class to good use 202

Cutting a check 206

Working with Disk Files (a Brief Detour) 207

Storing data in a file 207

Repeat after me 208

Reading from a file 209

Who moved my file? 212

You moved your file! 212

Reading a line at a time 213

Clean up after yourself 215

Defining Subclasses (What It Means to Be a Full-Time or Part-Time Employee) 216

Creating a subclass 218

Creating subclasses is habit-forming 220

Using Subclasses 221

Making types match 223

The second half of the story 224

Changing the Payments for Only Some of the Employees 225

A Java annotation 227

Using methods from classes and subclasses 228

Chapter 9 Constructing New Objects 233

Defining Constructors (What It Means to Be a Temperature) 234

What is a temperature? 235

What is a temperature scale? (Java's enum type) 235

Okay, so then what is a temperature? 236

What you can do with a temperature 238

Constructing a temperature; a slow-motion replay 240

Some things never change 243

Doing Something about the Weather 246

Building better temperatures 246

Constructors for subclasses 248

Using all this stuff 249

The default constructor 250

A Constructor That Does More 254

Classes and methods from the Java API 256

Live dangerously 257

Part 4 Smart Java Techniques 259

Chapter 10 Putting Variables and Methods Where They Belong 261

Defining a Class (What It Means to Be a Baseball Player) 262

Another way to beautify your numbers 263

Using the Player class 264

One class; nine objects 266

Don't get all GUI on me 266

Some facts about potatoes 268

Making Static (Finding the Team Average) 270

Why is there so much static? 272

Meet the static initializer 272

Displaying the overall team average 273

The static keyword is yesterday's news 276

Could cause static; handle with care 276

Experiments with Variables 279

Putting a variable in its place 280

Telling a variable where to go 283

Passing Parameters 287

Pass by value 288

Returning a result 290

Pass by reference 290

Returning an object from a method 292

Epilogue 294

Chapter 11 Using Arrays to Juggle Values 295

Getting Your Ducks All in a Row 295

Creating an array in two easy steps 298

How to book hotel guests 299

Tab stops and other special things 301

Make life easy for yourself 302

Stepping through an array with the enhanced for loop 304

Do you have a room? 306

Writing to a file 308

When to close a file 309

Arrays of Objects 311

Using the Room class 313

Yet another way to beautify your numbers 316

The conditional operator 317

How to Argue with Your Code 318

Settling the argument 319

Checking for the right number of program arguments 321

Chapter 12 Using Collections and Streams (When Arrays Aren't Good Enough) 323

Arrays Have Limitations 324

Collection Classes to the Rescue 325

Using an ArrayList 325

Using generics 328

Wrap it up 331

Are we done yet? 333

Once and again 333

So many collection classes! 335

Functional Programming 336

Problem-solving the old-fashioned way 337

Lambda expressions 339

A black sheep among the lambdas 341

A taxonomy of lambda expressions 342

The interpretation of streams 342

Why bother? 348

Method references 351

Chapter 13 Looking Good When Things Take Unexpected Turns 355

Garbage In 356

The parameter in a catch clause 360

Do it yourself 362

Who will catch the exception? 364

Catching two or more exceptions at a time 371

The Buck Stops Here, Except When it Doesn't 372

Catch it soon 374

Catch it later 375

Checked or unchecked? 377

Try, Try Again! 380

Chapter 14 Sharing Names among the Parts of a Java Program 385

Access Modifiers 386

Classes and Their Members 386

Public and Private Access for Members 387

Drawing on a frame 390

Putting a package in its place 392

Making a frame 394

Default Access for Members 396

Switching to Default access 398

Accessing default members within a package 400

Protected Access for Members 402

A class in one package and a subclass in another 402

Two classes in the same package 404

Access Modifiers for Java Classes 408

Public classes 408

Nonpublic classes 409

From Classes Come Modules 410

Chapter 15 Fancy Reference Types 411

Java's Types 411

The Java Interface 412

Declaring two interfaces 413

Implementing interfaces 415

Putting the pieces together 417

Abstract Classes 420

Caring for your pet 423

Using all your classes 425

Relax! You're Not Seeing Double! 427

Chapter 16 Java's Juggling Act 431

Juggling Two or More Calls 432

Events and event handling 435

Follow the thread 436

Don't miss this 437

Inside the actionPerformed method 439

Some Events Aren't Button Clicks 440

The Inner Sanctum 446

Chapter 17 Using Java Database Connectivity 451

Creating a^Database and a Table 452

Seeing what happens when you run the code 453

Using SQL commands 454

Connecting and disconnecting 455

Putting Data in the Table 456

Retrieving Data 457

Destroying Data 459

One Step Beyond 461

Part 5 The Part of Tens 463

Chapter 18 Ten Packs of Java Websites 465

This Book's Website 465

For Business Issues Related to This Book 465

Download the Java Development Kit 466

Your Grandparents' Java Download Site 466

The Horse's Mouth 466

Join Java User Groups 466

Find the Latest News about Java 466

Find News, Reviews, and Sample Code 466

Got a Technical Question about Anything? 467

Become Involved in the Future of Java 467

Chapter 19 Ten Bits of Advice for New Software Developers 469

How Long Does It Take to Learn Java? 470

Which of Your Books Should I Read? 470

Are Books Other than Yours Good for Learning Java and Android Development? 471

Which Computer Programming Language(s) Should I Learn? 471

Which Skills Other than Computer Coding Should i Learn? 471

How Should I Continue My Learning as a Software Developer? 472

How Else Should I Continue My Learning as a Developer? 472

How Can I Land a Job Developing Software? 473

I Still Don't Know What to Do with My Life 473

If I Have Other Questions, How Can i Contact You? 474

Index 475

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