JAVA PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Description

Let’s use example of HelloWorld Java program to understand structure and

features of class. This program is written on few lines, and its only task is to print

“Hello World from Java” on the screen. Refer the following picture.

1. “package sct”:

It is package declaration statement. The package statement defines a name space in

which classes are stored. Package is used to organize the classes based on

functionality. If you omit the package statement, the class names are put into the

default package, which has no name. Package statement cannot appear anywhere in

program. It must be first line of your program or you can omit it.
2. “public class HelloWorld”:

This line has various aspects of java programming.

a. public: This is access modifier keyword which tells compiler access to class.

Various values of access modifiers can be public, protected,private or default (no

value).

b. class: This keyword used to declare class. Name of class (HelloWorld) followed

by this keyword.

3. Comments section:

We can write comments in java in two ways.

a. Line comments: It start with two forward slashes (//) and continue to the end of

the current line. Line comments do not require an ending symbol.

b. Block comments start with a forward slash and an asterisk (/*) and end with an

asterisk and a forward slash (*/).Block comments can also extend across as many

lines as needed.

4. “public static void main (String [ ] args)”:

Its method (Function) named main with string array as argument.

a. public : Access Modifier

usable even though no objects of the class exist.

c. void: This keyword declares nothing would be returned from method. Method

can return any primitive or object.

d. Method content inside curly braces. { } asdfla;sd

5. System.out.println("Hello World from Java") :

a. System:It is name of Java utility class.

b. out:It is an object which belongs to System class.

c. println:It is utility method name which is used to send any String to console.

d. “Hello World from Java”:It is String literal set as argument to println method.

More Information regarding Java Class:

 Java is an object-oriented language, which means that it has constructs to

represent objects from the real world. Each Java program has at least one class

that knows how to do certain things or how to represent some type of object.

For example, the simplest class, HelloWorld,knows how to greet the world.

 Classes in Java may have methods (or functions) and fields (or attributes or

properties).
 Let’s take example of Car object which has various properties like color, max

speed etc. along with it has functions like run and stop. In Java world we will

represent it like below:

view plainprint?

1. package sct;

2. public class Car {

3. private String color;

4. private int maxSpeed;

5. public String carInfo(){

6. return color + " Max Speed:-" + maxSpeed;

7. }

8. //This is constructor of Car Class

9. Car(String carColor, int speedLimit){

10. this.color = carColor;

11. this.maxSpeed =speedLimit;

12. }

13. }

 Lets make a class named CarTestwhich will instantiate the car class object and

call carInfo method of it and see output.

1. package sct;

2. //This is car test class to instantiate and call Car objects.

3. public class CarTest {

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

5. Car maruti = new Car("Red", 160);

6. Car ferrari = new Car ("Yellow", 400);

7. System.out.println(maruti.carInfo());

8. System.out.println(ferrari.carInfo());

9. }

10. }

Output of above CarTest java class is as below. We can run CarTest java program

because it has main method. Main method is starting point for any java program

execution. Running a program means telling the Java VIrtual Machine (JVM) to

"Load theclass, then start executing its main () method. Keep running 'til all

thecode in main is finished."

 Java identifiers must start with with a letter, a currency character ($), or a

connecting character such as the underscore ( _ ). Identifiers cannot start with a

number. After first character identifiers can contain any combination of

letters,currency characters, connecting characters, or numbers. For example,

 int variable1 = 10 ; //This is valid

 int 4var =10 ; // this is invalid, identifier can’t start with digit.

 Identifiers, method names, class names are case-sensitive; var and Varare two

different identifiers.

 You can’t use Java keywords as identifiers, Below table shows list of Java
keywords.

abstract boolean break byte

char class const continue

double clse extends final

for goto if implements

int interface long native

private protected public return

strictfp super switch synchronized

assert enum
 Classes and interfaces: The first letter should be capitalized, and if several

words are linked together to form the name, the first letter of the inner words

should be uppercase (a format that's sometimes called "camelCase").

 Methods: The first letter should be lowercase, and then normal camelCaserules

should be used.For example:

 getBalance

 doCalculation

 setCustomerName

 Variables: Like methods, the camelCase format should be used, starting witha

lowercase letter. Sun recommends short, meaningful names, which sounds good

to us. Some examples:

 buttonWidth

 accountBalance

 empName

 Constants: Java constants are created by marking variables static and final.

They should be named using uppercase letters with underscore characters as

separators:
  MIN_HEIGHT

 There can be only one public class per source code file.

 Comments can appear at the beginning or end of any line in the source code

file; they are independent of any of the positioning rules discussed here.

 If there is a public class in a file, the name of the file must match the nameof

the public class. For example, a class declared as “public class Dog { }” must

be in a source code file named Dog.java.

 To understand more about access modifiers applicable to classes, methods,

variables in access modifier tutorial.

We will understand more about constructors, access modifiers in coming tutorials.

Source code of sample discussed attached here to run directly on your system.

Summary

 Java program has first statement as package statement (if package declared).

 One Java file can have multiple classes declared in it but only one public class

which should be same as file name.

 Java class can have instance variable such as methods, instance variable.

Source: http://www.w3resource.com/java-tutorial/java-program-structure.php