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Beginning Java 2 SDK 1.4 Edition

Chapter 5: Defining Classes^*

[The series of excerpts below are from Chapter 5 of the Wrox Press Ltd. title Beginning Java 2 SDK 1.4 Edition. Source code for the examples discussed can be downloaded at the Wrox Web site (free e-mail registration required).]

In this chapter we will explore the heart of the Java language--classes. Classes specify the objects you use in object-oriented programming. These form the basic building blocks of any Java program, as we saw in Chapter 1. Every program in Java involves classes, since the code for a program can only appear within a class definition.

We will now explore the details of how a class definition is put together, how to create your own classes and how to use classes to solve your own computing problems. And in the next chapter we'll extend this to look at how object-oriented programming helps us work with related classes.

By the end of this chapter you will have learned:

What a class is, and how you define one.

How to implement class constructors.

How to define class methods.

What method overloading is.

What a recursive method is and how it works.

How to create objects of a class.

What packages are and how you can create and use them.

What access attributes are and how you should use them in your class definitions.

When you should add the finalize() method to a class.

What native methods are.

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* Copyright and Authorship Notice

This chapter extract is taken from "Beginning Java 2 SDK 1.4 Edition" by Ivor Horton published by Wrox Press Limited in March 2002; ISBN 1861005695; copyright © Wrox Press Limited 2002; all rights reserved.

No part of this chapter may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means--electronic, electrostatic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise--without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.