Lesson 2: Understanding Java Code Window

In our previous lesson, we saw what comprises of Java development environment and how we can
install Java. In this lesson you will learn how to create your first Java project and how to interpret the
NetBeans code editor window.

If you have not yet opened the Java NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
then double click the NetBeans icon on your desktop and open the Java Netbeans IDE.

You are ready now to start creating your first project. When you double click the NetBeans icon on
your desktop, Java will open with a screen like the one shown above. Be patient, Java takes some
time to open all the modules.

The initial window will present to you all the Java environment sections. As a beginner, spare some
time to familiarize with the interface and go through the provided tutorials, sample projects and demos
that provide valuable information.

You can access these resources by clicking Help >> Start Page on the menu bar at the top of the
screen. To create a new project, click File >> New Project from the NetBeans menu bar and you'll
get the following dialogue box.
Because we are creating a Java application, click Java under Categories and Java
Application under Projects, then click the Next button to proceed to the next step.

In the Project Name part at the top, type a name for the Project. You will notice that the text at the
bottom changes to match the project name in the Create Main Class text box. Now concentrate on
the red bordered part above.

What we are doing here is that we are creating a Class called MyFirstProgram with capital “M”,
capital “F”, capital “P” which is contained in a package called myfirstprogram, but with a lowercase
"m", lowercase "f” and lower “p”.
The Project Location shows where your projects will be saved and in which Project Folder. You
can change these to suit your own preferences.

Click the Finish button and NetBeans will create all the necessary files for your project. Clicking finish
will take you back to NetBeans IDE.

Look at the Projects area at the top left of the screen (if you can't see it,
click Window >> Projects on the menu bar).

Projects area

If you can’t see MyFirstProgram.java click the plus symbol on the Source Packages folder to
expand your project. On the right hand side of the screen is the code editor window and it should
display the same MyFirstProgram.java project. If you can't see the code editor window, double
click MyFirstProgram.java in your Projects window above. The code will appear like shown below,
with your name as the program author.

Code editor window

Notice in the code editor diagram above the class is called MyFirstProgram.java

public class MyFirstProgram.java {

So if the .java file is called myfirstprogram but the class is called MyFirstProgram then an error will
occur in your program, however the package name can be different and it doesn’t have to be the
same as the source file or the class name.

Java Comments

If you look on the code editor window, you'll notice that some text is greyed out, with forward slashes
(/) and asterisks (*). The greyed out areas are called comments.

When the program is executed, comments are ignored by the compiler and so you can use the
comments to document your program e.g. to explain what is happening at each stage of your code.

To use a single line comment use double forward slashes (//)

Example:

//Here is a single line comment.

To use multi-lines comments you can either use many single line comments

Example:

//Here is a multi-lines comment

//that makes use of two single line comments

Or you can use slashes (/) and asterisks (*)

Example:

/*

Here is a multi-lines comment

that makes use of slashes (/) and asterisks (*)

*/

Notice the above multi-line comment starts with /* and ends with */.

Sometimes we also use comments when we want to trace errors in the program. You can select a
segment of a program code and then use the comment and uncomment toolbar shown below:
Comments toolbar

Have a look at the code editor window diagram again. The comments that starts with a single forward
slash and two asterisks ( /** ) and ends with an asterisk and one forward slash ( */ ) are
called Javadoc comments. Each text line of Javadoc comment starts with one asterisk.

Example:

/**

*This is a Javadoc comment

*Each line starts with one asterisk

*/

The purpose of Javadoc comments is to document your code. The documentation can then be
converted into a HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) document that can be helpful to your code
users. To convert your code to HTML, click Run from the menu bar and select Generate Javadoc.

You might not see a useful HTML document since you have not added much code to your program
yet. For now you can write your code with no or minimal comments so we are going to delete all the
comments inserted by NetBeans but we shall add comments as we proceed.

Here is our code window without comments

Code window without comments

Java is case sensitive, that means if a keyword is supposed to be typed in uppercase and then you
type it in lowercase you'll get an error when compiling the code.
Also, note that Java code instructions ends with a semicolon (;). Missing on the proper case and
omitting the semicolon are some of the common errors in Java programming by beginners so, watch
out!

The structure of a Java class

Let us now examine the following segment of our code:

public class MyFirstProgram {

The above part of the code is called a class segment and it denotes the starting and ending of a Java
class segment code. The start of a code segment is done with a left curly brace ({) and ends with a
right curly brace (}). Any code inside the left and right curly braces belongs to that code segment.

Notice inside the curly braces for the class segment is another code segment shown below:

public static void main( String[ ] args ) {

The above part of the code is called a method, public denotes that this segment of the code can be
accessed outside the class without creating any new objects as denoted by the
keyword static. Void means this part of the code does not return any value.

The “main” part denotes the starting point of the Java program. When you run the program, Java
compiler locate for this part of the code and execute any code inside “main”. Always include a “main”
in your code.

Having understood the Java code window, we can now embark on writing our first Java program.