Java Programming

This course teaches programming in the Java language – the Java 2 Standard or J2SE platform. (NOTE Eclipse overlay available). It is intended for programmers with experience in languages other than Java, but who may or may not have any previous Java experience. It focuses on procedural and structured coding skills first, and then offers meticulous, in-depth coverage of object-oriented concepts and how to apply them to Java software design and development. The latter part of the course moves from these basic skills into key parts of the J2SE Core API, including collections, logging, streams, and object serialization. A final chapter introduces automated unit-testing practices using JUnit.

No prior Java experience is required, but students must be experienced programmers in another third-generation (high-level) language. See the overview for suggestions about pace and scope for different backgrounds

Overview of Architecture
Forms for Java Software
J2SE, J2EE, and J2ME Platforms
Java Virtual Machine
The Core API
Java Runtime Environment
Java Developer’s Kit
Java Class Path
Classes
Built-In Streams and Command-Line Parameters

Source File Format
Application Classes
Code Grammar and Expressions
Identifiers
Literals
Operators
Calling Methods
Variable Parameter Lists (“varargs”)

Strict Type Checking
Primitive Types
Numeric Types
Characters and Booleans
Enumerations
Type Conversion
Formatted Output
Object References
Comparing and Assigning References
Strings
Arrays

The main Method
Calling and Returning from Methods
Conditional Constructs
Looping Constructs
Processing Arrays
Looping and Enumerations
Processing Varargs
The Flow-Control Operator
Break and Continue
Recursion

Complex Systems
Abstraction
Classes and Objects
Responsibilities and Collaborators
UML
Relationships
Visibility

Java Classes
Constructors and Garbage Collection
Naming Conventions and JavaBeans
Relationships Between Classes
Using this
Visibility
Packages and Imports
Overloading Methods and Constructors
JARs

UML Specialization
Extending Classes
Using Derived Classes
Type Identification
Compile-Time and Run-Time Type
Polymorphism
Overriding Methods
Superclass Reference

Class Loading
Static Members
Statics and Non-Statics
Static Initializers
Static Imports
Prohibiting Inheritance
Costs of Object Creation
Strings and StringBuffers
Controlling Object Creation
Understanding Enumerated Types
Stateful and Behavioral Enumerations

Separating Interface and Implementation
UML Interfaces and Realization
Defining Interfaces
Implementing and Extending Interfaces
Abstract Classes

Dynamic Collections vs. Arrays
UML Parameterized Type
Generics
Using Generics
The Collections API
The Collection and List Interfaces
The ArrayList and LinkedList Classes
Looping Over Collections: Iterable
Collecting Primitive Values: Auto-Boxing
Using Wildcards with Generic Types
Iterators and the Iterator Interface
Maps and the Map Interface
Sorted Collections
The SortedSet and SortedMap Interfaces
The Collections Class Utility
Algorithms
Conversion Utilities

Reporting and Trapping Errors
Exception Handling
Throwing Exceptions
Declaring Exceptions per Method
Catching Exceptions
The finally Block
Catch-and-Release
Chaining Exceptions
The J2SE Logging API
Severity Levels
Log Hierarchies

Passing Behavior
Inner Classes in GUI Programming
Named Inner Classes
Outer Object Reference
Static Inner Classes
Anonymous Inner Classes

Delegation-Based Stream Model
InputStream and OutputStream
Media-Based Streams
Filtering Streams
Readers and Writers

File Class
Modeling Files and Directories
File Streams
Random-Access Files

Buffering
Data Streams
Push-Back Parsing
Byte-Array Streams and String Readers and Writers

The Challenge of Object Serialization
Serialization API
Serializable Interface
ObjectInputStream and ObjectOutputStream
The Serialization Engine
Transient Fields
readObject and writeObject
Externalizable Interface

Automated Testing
JUnit and Related Tools
TestCases and TestSuites
TestRunners
TestResults and Asserts
Developing JUnit Tests