Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies

Learn to speak the Java language like the pros Are you new to programming and have decided that Java is your language of choice? Are you a wanna-be programmer looking to learn the hottest lingo around? Look no further! Beginning Programming with Java For Dummies, 5th Edition is the easy-to-follow guide you'll want to keep in your back pocket as you work your way toward Java mastery! In plain English, it quickly and easily shows you what goes into creating a program, how to put the pieces together, ways to deal with standard programming challenges, and so much more. Whether you're just tooling around or embarking on a career, this is the ideal resource you'll turn to again and again as you perfect your understanding of the nuances of this popular programming language. Packed with tons of step-by-step instruction, this is the only guide you need to start programming with Java like a pro. * Updated for Java 9, learn the language with samples and the Java toolkit * Familiarize yourself with decisions, conditions, statements, and information overload * Differentiate between loops and arrays, objects and classes, methods, and variables * Find links to additional resources Once you discover the joys of Java programming, you might just find you're hooked. Sound like fun? Here's the place to start.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 How to Use This Book 2 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You Don’t Have to Read 3 Foolish Assumptions 4 How This Book Is Organized 4 Part 1: Getting Started with Java Programming 5 Part 2: Writing Your Own Java Programs 5 Part 3: Controlling the Flow 5 Part 4: Using Program Units 5 Part 5: The Part of Tens 6 Icons Used in This Book 6 Beyond the Book 7 Where to Go from Here 7 Part 1: Getting Started with Java Programming 9 Chapter 1: Getting Started 11 What’s It All About? 11 Telling a computer what to do 12 Pick your poison 13 From Your Mind to the Computer’s Processor 14 Translating your code 14 Running code 15 Code you can use 20 Your Java Programming Toolset 21 A tool for creating code 22 What’s already on your hard drive? 22 Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Computer 23 If You Don’t Like Reading Instructions 24 Getting This Book’s Sample Programs 26 Setting Up Java 27 Downloading and installing Java 29 If you want to find Java on your computer 34 Setting Up the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment 40 Downloading Eclipse 41 Installing Eclipse 43 Running Eclipse for the first time 44 Importing This Book’s Sample Programs 50 What’s Next? 53 Chapter 3: Running Programs 55 Running a Canned Java Program 55 Typing and Running Your Own Code 60 Separating your programs from mine 61 Writing and running your program 62 What’s All That Stuff in Eclipse’s Window? 71 Understanding the big picture 71 Views, editors, and other stuff 72 What’s inside a view or an editor? 74 Returning to the big picture 76 Part 2: Writing Your Own Java Programs 79 Chapter 4: Exploring the Parts of a Program 81 Checking Out Java Code for the First Time 81 Behold! A program! 82 What the program’s lines say 83 The Elements in a Java Program 84 Keywords 85 Identifiers that you or I can define 87 Identifiers with agreed-upon meanings 88 Literals 89 Punctuation 90 Comments 91 Understanding a Simple Java Program 93 What is a method? 93 The main method in a program 96 How you finally tell the computer to do something 97 The Java class 99 Chapter 5: Composing a Program 103 Computers Are Stupid 104 A Program to Echo Keyboard Input 105 Typing and running a program 106 How the EchoLine program works 109 Getting numbers, words, and other things 110 Type three lines of code and don’t look back 112 Expecting the Unexpected 114 Diagnosing a problem 115 What problem? I don’t see a problem 125 Chapter 6: Using the Building Blocks: Variables, Values, and Types 129 Using Variables 130 Using a variable 131 Understanding assignment statements 132 To wrap or not to wrap? 132 What Do All Those Zeros and Ones Mean? 134 Types and declarations 135 What’s the point? 136 Reading Decimal Numbers from the Keyboard 137 Though these be methods, yet there is madness in ’t 138 Methods and assignments 138 Variations on a Theme 140 Moving variables from place to place 140 Combining variable declarations 142 Experimenting with JShell 143 Launching the JShell program 144 Using JShell 145 Chapter 7: Numbers and Types 151 Using Whole Numbers 151 Reading whole numbers from the keyboard 153 What you read is what you get 154 Creating New Values by Applying Operators 156 Finding a remainder 156 The increment and decrement operators 163 Assignment operators 169 Size Matters 171 Chapter 8: Numbers? Who Needs Numbers? 175 Characters 176 I digress 177 One character only, please 179 Variables and recycling 179 When not to reuse a variable 181 Reading characters 183 The boolean Type 187 Expressions and conditions 188 Comparing numbers; comparing characters 189 The Remaining Primitive Types 196 Part 3: Controlling the Flow 199 Chapter 9: Forks in the Road 201 Decisions, Decisions! 202 Making Decisions (Java if Statements) 203 Looking carefully at if statements 204 A complete program 207 Indenting if statements in your code 211 Variations on the Theme 212 Or else what? 212 Packing more stuff into an if statement 214 Some handy import declarations 216 Chapter 10: Which Way Did He Go? 221 Forming Bigger and Better Conditions 221 Combining conditions: An example 224 When to initialize? 226 More and more conditions 227 Using boolean variables 229 Mixing different logical operators together 231 Using parentheses 233 Building a Nest 234 Nested if statements 236 Cascading if statements 237 Enumerating the Possibilities 240 Creating an enum type 241 Using an enum type 241 Chapter 11: How to Flick a Virtual Switch 247 Meet the switch Statement 247 The cases in a switch statement 250 The default in a switch statement 251 Picky details about the switch statement 252 To break or not to break 255 Using Fall-Through to Your Advantage 257 Using a Conditional Operator 262 Chapter 12: Around and Around It Goes 265 Repeating Instructions over and over Again (Java while Statements) 266 Following the action in a loop 268 No early bailout 270 Thinking about Loops (What Statements Go Where) 271 Finding some pieces 272 Assembling the pieces 274 Getting values for variables 275 From infinity to affinity 276 Thinking about Loops (Priming) 278 Working on the problem 281 Fixing the problem 284 Chapter 13: Piles of Files: Dealing with Information Overload 287 Running a Disk-Oriented Program 288 A sample program 290 Creating code that messes with your hard drive 292 Running the sample program 296 Troubleshooting problems with disk files 298 Writing a Disk-Oriented Program 301 Reading from a file 302 Writing to a file 303 Writing, Rewriting, and Rerewriting 306 Chapter 14: Creating Loops within Loops 309 Paying Your Old Code a Little Visit 310 Reworking some existing code 311 Running your code 312 Creating Useful Code 312 Checking for the end of a file 313 How it feels to be a computer 315 Why the computer accidentally pushes past the end of the file 317 Solving the problem 318 Chapter 15: The Old Runaround 325 Repeating Statements a Certain Number of Times (Java for Statements) 326 The anatomy of a for statement 328 Initializing a for loop 329 Using Nested for Loops 332 Repeating Until You Get What You Need (Java do Statements) 338 Getting a trustworthy response 339 Deleting a file 340 Using Java’s do statement 342 A closer look at the do statement 343 Repeating with Predetermined Values (Java’s Enhanced for Statement) 345 Creating an enhanced for loop 345 Nesting the enhanced for loops 347 Chapter 16: Using Loops and Arrays 353 Some Loops in Action 353 Deciding on a loop’s limit at runtime 355 Using all kinds of conditions in a for loop 358 Reader, Meet Arrays; Arrays, Meet the Reader 360 Storing values in an array 364 Creating a report 365 Initializing an array 367 Working with Arrays 368 Looping in Style 372 Deleting Several Files 373 Part 4: Using Program Units 381 Chapter 17: Programming with Objects and Classes 383 Creating a Class 384 Reference types and Java classes 385 Using a newly defined class 386 Running code that straddles two separate files 387 Why bother? 389 From Classes Come Objects 389 Understanding (or ignoring) the subtleties 392 Making reference to an object’s parts 392 Creating several objects 393 Another Way to Think about Classes 396 Classes, objects, and tables 396 Some questions and answers 397 What’s Next? 398 Chapter 18: Using Methods and Fields from a Java Class 401 The String Class 402 A simple example 402 Putting String variables to good use 403 Reading and writing strings 405 Using an Object’s Methods 406 Comparing strings 409 The truth about classes and methods 410 Calling an object’s methods 412 Combining and using data 412 Static Methods 413 Calling static and non-static methods 415 Turning strings into numbers 415 Turning numbers into strings 417 How the NumberFormat works 419 Your country; your currency 419 Understanding the Big Picture 421 Packages and import declarations 421 Shedding light on the static darkness 423 Barry makes good on an age-old promise 424 Chapter 19: Creating New Java Methods 431 Defining a Method within a Class 431 Making a method 432 Examining the method’s header 433 Examining the method’s body 434 Calling the method 435 The flow of control 436 Using punctuation 437 The versatile plus sign 438 Let the Objects Do the Work 441 Passing Values to Methods 442 Handing off a value 445 Working with a method header 446 How the method uses the object’s values 447 Passing more than one parameter 448 Getting a Value from a Method 450 An example 450 How return types and return values work 452 Working with the method header (again) 454 Chapter 20: Oooey GUI Was a Worm 457 The Java Swing Classes 458 Showing an image on the screen 459 Just another class 462 The Swing Classes: Round 2 467 Extending a class 468 Code Soup: Mixing XML with Java 470 Using JavaFX and Scene Builder 473 Installing Scene Builder 473 Installing e(fx)clipse 474 Creating a bare-bones JavaFX project 475 Running your bare-bones JavaFX project 476 Adding Stuff to Your JavaFX Project 477 Taking Action 482 Part 5: The Part of Tens 489 Chapter 21: Ten Websites for Java 491 This Book’s Website 491 The Horse’s Mouth 491 Finding News, Reviews, and Sample Code 492 Looking for Java Jobs 492 Got a Question? 492 Chapter 22: Ten Useful Classes in the Java API 493 ArrayList 493 File 494 Integer 494 JFrame 494 JOptionPane 495 Math 496 NumberFormat 496 Scanner 497 String 497 System 497 Index 499