Introduction to Java

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 Oak name 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 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
enterprise application. It has advantages of the 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.

Java Platforms / Editions: There are 4 platforms or editions of Java:((for ref)

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 which is mainly used to develop web and enterprise
applications. It is built on the 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 which is mainly used to develop mobile applications.

4) JavaFX: It is used to develop rich internet applications.

It uses a light-weight user interface API.

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.

C++ vs Java(imp)
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 C++ Java

Index
Platform-independent C++ is platform-dependent. Java is platform-independent.
Mainly used for C++ is mainly used for system programming. Java is mainly used for application programming. It is
widely used in window, web-based, enterprise and
mobile applications.

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

Goto C++ supports the goto statement. Java doesn't support the goto statement.
Multiple inheritance C++ supports multiple inheritance. Java doesn't support multiple inheritance through class.
It can be achieved by interfaces in java.
Operator Overloading C++ supports operator overloading. Java doesn't support operator overloading.
Pointers C++ supports pointers. You can write pointer Java supports pointer internally. However, you can't
program in C++. write the pointer program in java. It means java has
restricted pointer support in java.

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

Thread Support C++ doesn't have built-in support for threads. It Java has built-in thread support.
relies on third-party libraries for thread support.
Documentation C++ doesn't support documentation comment. Java supports documentation comment (/** ... */) to
comment create documentation for java source code.
Hardware C++ is nearer to hardware. Java is not so interactive with hardware.
Object-oriented C++ is an object-oriented language. However, Java is also an object-oriented language. However,
in C language, single root hierarchy is not everything (except fundamental types) is an object in
possible. Java. It is a single root hierarchy as everything gets
derived from java.lang.Object.
JVM: JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is an abstract machine. It is called a virtual machine because it doesn't
physically exist. It is a specification that provides a runtime environment in which Java bytecode can be
executed. It can also run those programs which are written in other languages and compiled to Java bytecode.

JVMs are available for many hardware and software platforms. JVM, JRE, and JDK are platform dependent
because the configuration of each OS is different from each other. However, Java is platform independent.
There are three notions of the JVM: specification, implementation, and instance.

The JVM performs the following main tasks:

1.Loads code

2.Verifies code

3,Executes code

4.Provides runtime environment.

JRE: JRE is an acronym for Java Runtime Environment. It is also written as Java RTE. The Java Runtime
Environment is a set of software tools which are used for developing Java applications. It is used to provide the
runtime environment. It is the implementation of JVM. It physically exists. It contains a set of libraries + other
files that JVM uses at runtime.
JDK: JDK is an acronym for Java Development Kit. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a software development
environment which is used to develop Java applications and applets. It physically exists. It contains JRE +
development tools.JDK is an implementation of any one of the below given Java Platforms released by Oracle
Corporation:

1.Standard Edition Java Platform

2.Enterprise Edition Java Platform

3. Micro Edition Java Platform

The JDK contains a private Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and a few other resources such as an interpreter/loader
(java), a compiler (javac), an archiver (jar), a documentation generator (Javadoc), etc. to complete the
development of a Java Application.

JVM (Java Virtual Machine) : JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is an abstract machine. It is a specification that
provides runtime environment in which java bytecode can be executed.JVMs are available for many hardware
and software platforms (i.e. JVM is platform dependent).

JVM is: A specification where working of Java Virtual Machine is specified. But implementation provider is
independent to choose the algorithm. Its implementation has been provided by Oracle and other
companies.An implementation Its implementation is known as JRE (Java Runtime Environment). Runtime
Instance Whenever you write java command on the command prompt to run the java class, an instance of
JVM is created.

The JVM performs following operation:

1.Loads code
2.Verifies code

3.Executes code

4.Provides runtime environment

JVM provides definitions for the:

1.Memory area

2.Class file format

3.Register set

4.Garbage-collected heap

5.Fatal error reporting etc.

Data Types in Java

Data types specify the different sizes and values that can be stored in the variable. There are two types of data
types in Java:

1.Primitive data types: The primitive data types include boolean, char, byte, short, int, long, float and double.

2. Non-primitive data types: The non-primitive data types include Classes, Interfaces, and Arrays.
Java keywords ( for ref)
also known as reserved words. Keywords are particular words which acts as a key to a code. These are
predefined words by Java so it cannot be used as a variable or object name.

List of Java Keywords

A list of Java keywords or reserved words are given below:

1.abstract: Java abstract keyword is used to declare abstract class. Abstract class can provide the
implementation of interface. It can have abstract and non-abstract methods.

2.boolean: Java boolean keyword is used to declare a variable as a boolean type. It can hold True and False
values only.

3.break: Java break keyword is used to break loop or switch statement. It breaks the current flow of the
program at specified condition.

4.byte: Java byte keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold an 8-bit data values.

5.case: Java case keyword is used to with the switch statements to mark blocks of text.

6.catch: Java catch keyword is used to catch the exceptions generated by try statements. It must be used after
the try block only.

7.char: Java char keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold unsigned 16-bit Unicode characters

8.class: Java class keyword is used to declare a class.

9.continue: Java continue keyword is used to continue the loop. It continues the current flow of the program
and skips the remaining code at the specified condition.

10,default: Java default keyword is used to specify the default block of code in a switch statement.

11.do: Java do keyword is used in control statement to declare a loop. It can iterate a part of the program
several times.

12.double: Java double keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 64-bit floating-point numbers.

13.else: Java else keyword is used to indicate the alternative branches in an if statement.

14.enum: Java enum keyword is used to define a fixed set of constants. Enum constructors are always private
or default.

15.extends: Java extends keyword is used to indicate that a class is derived from another class or interface.
16.final: Java final keyword is used to indicate that a variable holds a constant value. It is applied with a
variable. It is used to restrict the user.

17.finally: Java finally keyword indicates a block of code in a try-catch structure. This block is always executed
whether exception is handled or not.

18.float: Java float keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 32-bit floating-point number.

19.for: Java for keyword is used to start a for loop. It is used to execute a set of instructions/functions
repeatedly when some conditions become true. If the number of iteration is fixed, it is recommended to use
for loop.

20.if: Java if keyword tests the condition. It executes the if block if condition is true.

21.implements: Java implements keyword is used to implement an interface.

22.import: Java import keyword makes classes and interfaces available and accessible to the current source
code.

23.instanceof: Java instanceof keyword is used to test whether the object is an instance of the specified class
or implements an interface.

24.int: Java int keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 32-bit signed integer.

25.interface: Java interface keyword is used to declare an interface. It can have only abstract methods.

26.long: Java long keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 64-bit integer.

27.native: Java native keyword is used to specify that a method is implemented in native code using JNI (Java
Native Interface).

28.new: Java new keyword is used to create new objects.

29.null: Java null keyword is used to indicate that a reference does not refer to anything. It removes the
garbage value.

30.package: Java package keyword is used to declare a Java package that includes the classes.

31.private: Java private keyword is an access modifier. It is used to indicate that a method or variable may be
accessed only in the class in which it is declared.

32.protected: Java protected keyword is an access modifier. It can be accessible within package and outside
the package but through inheritance only. It can't be applied on the class.

33.public: Java public keyword is an access modifier. It is used to indicate that an item is accessible anywhere.
It has the widest scope among all other modifiers.

34.return: Java return keyword is used to return from a method when its execution is complete.
35.short: Java short keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 16-bit integer.

36.static: Java static keyword is used to indicate that a variable or method is a class method. The static
keyword in Java is used for memory management mainly.

37.strictfp: Java strictfp is used to restrict the floating-point calculations to ensure portability.

38.super: Java super keyword is a reference variable that is used to refer parent class object. It can be used to
invoke immediate parent class method.

39.switch: The Java switch keyword contains a switch statement that executes code based on test value. The
switch statement tests the equality of a variable against multiple values.

40.synchronized: Java synchronized keyword is used to specify the critical sections or methods in
multithreaded code.

41.this: Java this keyword can be used to refer the current object in a method or constructor.

42.throw: The Java throw keyword is used to explicitly throw an exception. The throw keyword is mainly used
to throw custom exception. It is followed by an instance.

43.throws: The Java throws keyword is used to declare an exception. Checked exception can be propagated
with throws.

44.transient: Java transient keyword is used in serialization. If you define any data member as transient, it will
not be serialized.

45.try: Java try keyword is used to start a block of code that will be tested for exceptions. The try block must
be followed by either catch or finally block.

46.void: Java void keyword is used to specify that a method does not have a return value.

47.volatile: Java volatile keyword is used to indicate that a variable may change asynchronously.

48.while: Java while keyword is used to start a while loop. This loop iterates a part of the program several
times. If the number of iteration is not fixed, it is recommended to use while loop.]