Sams Teach Yourself Java 6 in 21 Days

Rogers Cadenhead is a web application developer and author. He has written 22 books on Internet-related topics, including Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours. He’s also a web publisher whose sites receive more than 24 million visits per year. He maintains this book’s official website at http://www.java21days.com and a personal weblog at http://www.cadenhead.org.   Laura Lemay is a technical writer and author. After spending six years writing software documentation for various computer companies in Silicon Valley, she decided that writing books would be much more fun. In her spare time, she collects computers, email addresses, interesting hair colors, and nonrunning motorcycles. She is also the perpetrator of Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week and Sams Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days and a personal weblog at http://blog.lauralemay.com.      

Introduction                                                                                                 1

    How This Book Is Organized... 2

    Who Should Read This Book... 4

    Conventions Used in This Book... 5

Week I: The Java Language                                                        

Day 1: Getting Started with Java                                                9

    The Java Language.... 10

        History of the Language... 10

        Introduction to Java... 11

        Selecting a Development Tool.. 11

    Object-Oriented Programming... 12

    Objects and Classes.... 14

    Attributes and Behavior... 17

        Attributes of a Class of Objects.. 17

        Behavior of a Class of Objects.. 18

        Creating a Class... 19

        Running the Program... 21

    Organizing Classes and Class Behavior.. 24

        Inheritance.... 24

        Creating a Class Hierarchy.. 26

        Inheritance in Action... 28

        Single and Multiple Inheritance.. 29

        Interfaces.... 30

        Packages.... 30

    Summary..... 31

    Q&A...... 31

    Quiz...... 32

        Questions.... 32

        Answers.... 32

        Certification Practice... 32

    Exercises..... 33

Day 2: The ABCs of Programming                                          35

    Statements and Expressions... 36

    Variables and Data Types... 36

        Creating Variables... 37

        Naming Variables... 39

        Variable Types.... 39

        Assigning Values to Variables.. 41

        Constants.... 41

    Comments..... 43

    Literals..... 44

        Number Literals... 45

        Boolean Literals... 46

        Character Literals... 46

        String Literals.... 47

    Expressions and Operators... 48

        Arithmetic.... 49

        More About Assignment.. 51

        Incrementing and Decrementing.. 52

        Comparisons.... 53

        Logical Operators... 54

        Operator Precedence... 55

    String Arithmetic.... 57

    Summary..... 58

    Q&A...... 59

    Quiz...... 60

        Questions.... 60

        Answers.... 60

        Certification Practice... 60

    Exercises..... 61

Day 3: Working with Objects                                                   63

    Creating New Objects.... 64

        Using new.... 64

        What new Does.... 66

        A Note on Memory Management. 66

    Accessing and Setting Class and Instance Variables 67

        Getting Values.... 67

        Changing Values... 68

        Class Variables.... 69

    Calling Methods.... 70

        Nesting Method Calls... 72

        Class Methods.... 73

    References to Objects.... 74

    Casting and Converting Objects and Primitive Types 76

        Casting Primitive Types... 77

        Casting Objects.... 78

        Converting Primitive Types to Objects and Vice Versa 80

    Comparing Object Values and Classes.. 82

        Comparing Objects... 82

        Determining the Class of an Object. 84

    Summary..... 84

    Q&A...... 85

    Quiz...... 86

        Questions.... 86

        Answers.... 86

        Certification Practice... 86

    Exercises..... 87

Day 4: Lists, Logic, and Loops                                                89

    Arrays..... 90

        Declaring Array Variables.. 90

        Creating Array Objects... 91

        Accessing Array Elements.. 92

        Changing Array Elements.. 93

        Multidimensional Arrays.. 95

    Block Statements.... 96

    if Conditionals.... 97

    switch Conditionals.... 98

    for Loops..... 104

    while and do Loops.... 107

        while Loops.... 107

        do-while Loops... 109

    Breaking Out of Loops... 109

        Labeled Loops... 110

        The Conditional Operator.. 110

    Summary..... 112

    Q&A..... 112

    Quiz...... 112

        Questions.... 112

        Answers.... 113

        Certification Practice... 113

    Exercises..... 114

Day 5: Creating Classes and Methods                                   115

    Defining Classes.... 116

    Creating Instance and Class Variables.. 116

        Defining Instance Variables.. 116

        Class Variables... 117

    Creating Methods.... 117

        Defining Methods... 118

        The this Keyword... 120

        Variable Scope and Method Definitions. 121

        Passing Arguments to Methods.. 122

        Class Methods... 123

    Creating Java Applications... 124

        Helper Classes... 125

    Java Applications and Command-line Arguments 126

        Passing Arguments to Java Applications. 126

        Handling Arguments in Your Java Application 127

    Creating Methods with the Same Name, Different Arguments 128

    Constructor Methods.... 132

        Basic Constructor Methods.. 133

        Calling Another Constructor Method. 133

        Overloading Constructor Methods. 134

    Overriding Methods.... 136

        Creating Methods That Override Existing Methods 136

        Calling the Original Method.. 137

        Overriding Constructors.. 138

    Finalizer Methods.... 140

    Summary..... 141

    Q&A..... 141

    Quiz...... 142

        Questions.... 142

        Answers.... 143

        Certification Practice... 143

    Exercises..... 144

Day 6: Packages, Interfaces, and Other Class Features       145

    Modifiers..... 146

        Access Control for Methods and Variables 146

    Static Variables and Methods... 152

    Final Classes, Methods, and Variables.. 154

        Variables.... 155

        Methods.... 155

        Classes.... 156

    Abstract Classes and Methods... 156

    Packages..... 157

    Using Packages.... 157

        Full Package and Class Names.. 158

        The import Declaration.. 159

        Class Name Conflicts... 160

        A Note About Classpath and Where Classes Are Located 161

    Creating Your Own Packages... 162

        Picking a Package Name.. 162

        Creating the Folder Structure.. 162

        Adding a Class to a Package.. 163

        Packages and Class Access Control. 163

    Interfaces..... 164

        The Problem of Single Inheritance. 164

        Interfaces and Classes... 164

        Implementing and Using Interfaces. 165

        Implementing Multiple Interfaces. 165

        Other Uses of Interfaces.. 166

    Creating and Extending Interfaces.. 166

        New Interfaces... 166

        Methods Inside Interfaces.. 167

        Extending Interfaces... 168

        Creating an Online Storefront.. 169

    Inner Classes..... 175

    Summary..... 177

    Q&A..... 178

    Quiz...... 179

        Questions.... 179

        Answers.... 179

        Certification Practice... 179

    Exercises..... 181

Day 7: Exceptions, Assertions, and Threads                         183

    Exceptions..... 184

        Exception Classes... 186

    Managing Exceptions.... 187

        Exception Consistency Checking. 188

        Protecting Code and Catching Exceptions 188

        The finally Clause... 190

    Declaring Methods That Might Throw Exceptions 193

        The throws Clause... 193

        Which Exceptions Should You Throw?. 194

        Passing On Exceptions... 195

        throws and Inheritance... 196

    Creating and Throwing Your Own Exceptions. 197

        Throwing Exceptions... 197

        Creating Your Own Exceptions.. 198

        Combining throws, try, and throw. 199

    When and When Not to Use Exceptions. 200

        When to Use Exceptions.. 200

        When Not to Use Exceptions.. 200

        Bad Style Using Exceptions.. 201

    Assertions..... 202

    Threads..... 205

        Writing a Threaded Program.. 206

        A Threaded Application.. 207

        Stopping a Thread... 211

    Summary..... 212

    Q&A..... 213

    Quiz...... 214

        Questions.... 214

        Answers.... 215

        Certification Practice... 215

    Exercises..... 216

Week II: The Java Class Library                                             

Day 8: Data Structures                                                            219

    Moving Beyond Arrays... 220

    Java Structures.... 220

        Iterator.... 222

        Bit Sets.... 223

        Vectors.... 226

        Looping Through Data Structures. 229

        Stacks.... 232

        Map..... 233

        Hash Tables.... 235

    Generics..... 240

    Summary..... 243

    Q&A..... 244

    Quiz...... 244

    Questions.... 244

    Answers..... 245

    Certification Practice... 245

    Exercises..... 246

Day 9: Working with Swing                                                   247

    Creating an Application... 248

        Creating an Interface... 249

        Developing a Framework.. 251

        Displaying a Splash Page.. 253

        Creating a Component... 253

        Adding Components to a Container. 254

    Working with Components... 256

        Image Icons.... 257

        Labels.... 259

        Text Fields.... 259

        Text Areas.... 260

        Scrolling Panes... 262

        Check Boxes and Radio Buttons. 263

        Combo Boxes.... 266

    Lists...... 267

    Summary..... 269

    Q&A..... 270

    Quiz...... 270

        Questions.... 270

        Answers.... 271

        Certification Practice... 271

    Exercises..... 272

Day 10: Building a Swing Interface                                     273

    Swing Features.... 274

        Setting the Look and Feel.. 274

        Standard Dialog Boxes... 277

        Using Dialog Boxes... 282

        Sliders.... 285

        Scroll Panes.... 287

        Toolbars.... 288

        Progress Bars.... 291

        Menus.... 293

        Tabbed Panes.... 297

    Summary..... 298

    Q&A..... 299

    Quiz...... 299

        Questions.... 299

        Answers.... 300

        Certification Practice... 300

    Exercises..... 301

Day 11: Arranging Components on a User Interface         303

    Basic Interface Layout... 304

        Laying Out an Interface.. 304

        Flow Layout.... 305

        Box Layout.... 307

        Grid Layout.... 309

        Border Layout.... 311

    Mixing Layout Managers... 312

    Card Layout..... 313

        Using Card Layout in an Application. 315

    Grid Bag Layout.... 321

        Designing the Grid... 323

        Creating the Grid... 324

        Cell Padding and Insets.. 329

    Summary..... 329

    Q&A..... 330

    Quiz...... 331

        Questions.... 331

        Answers.... 331

        Certification Practice... 331

    Exercises..... 332

Day 12: Responding to User Input                                      333

    Event Listeners.... 334

        Setting Up Components.. 335

        Event-Handling Methods.. 336

    Working with Methods... 338

        Action Events.... 339

        Focus Events.... 340

        Item Events.... 342

        Key Events.... 344

        Mouse Events.... 345

        Mouse Motion Events... 345

        Window Events... 349

        Using Adapter Classes... 350

    Summary..... 351

    Q&A..... 352

    Quiz...... 353

        Questions.... 353

        Answers.... 353

        Certification Practice... 353

    Exercises..... 355

Day 13: Using Color, Fonts, and Graphics                         357

    The Graphics2D Class... 358

        The Graphics Coordinate System. 359

    Drawing Text..... 360

        Improving Fonts and Graphics with Antialiasing 362

        Finding Information About a Font. 363

    Color..... 365

        Using Color Objects... 366

        Testing and Setting the Current Colors. 366

    Drawing Lines and Polygons... 368

        User and Device Coordinate Spaces. 368

        Specifying the Rendering Attributes. 368

        Creating Objects to Draw.. 371

        Drawing Objects... 375

    Summary..... 378

    Q&A..... 378

    Quiz...... 379

        Questions.... 379

        Answers.... 379

        Certification Practice... 379

    Exercises..... 380

Day 14: Developing Swing Applications                            381

    Java Web Start.... 382

    Using Java Web Start.... 385

        Creating a JNLP File... 386

        Supporting Web Start on a Server. 391

        Additional JNLP Elements.. 392

    Improving Performance with SwingWorker. 394

    Summary..... 399

    Q&A..... 400

    Quiz...... 400

        Questions.... 400

        Answers.... 401

        Certification Practice... 401

    Exercises..... 402

Week III: Java Programming                                                 

Day 15: Working with Input and Output                             405

    Introduction to Streams... 406

        Using a Stream... 406

        Filtering a Stream... 407

        Handling Exceptions... 408

    Byte Streams..... 408

        File Streams.... 408

    Filtering a Stream.... 413

        Byte Filters.... 413

    Character Streams.... 422

        Reading Text Files... 422

        Writing Text Files... 425

    Files and Filename Filters... 426

    Summary..... 429

    Q&A..... 430

    Quiz...... 431

        Questions.... 431

        Answers.... 431

        Certification Practice... 432

    Exercises..... 432

Day 16: Serializing and Examining Objects                       433

    Object Serialization.... 434

        Object Output Streams... 435

        Object Input Streams... 438

        Transient Variables... 441

        Checking an Object’s Serialized Fields. 442

    Inspecting Classes and Methods with Reflection 443

        Inspecting and Creating Classes. 443

        Working with Each Part of a Class. 445

        Inspecting a Class... 447

    Summary..... 449

    Q&A..... 449

    Quiz...... 450

        Questions.... 451

        Answers.... 450

        Certification Practice... 451

    Exercises..... 452

Day 17: Communicating Across the Internet                     453

    Networking in Java.... 454

        Opening a Stream over the Net.. 454

        Sockets.... 459

        Socket Servers... 463

        Testing the Server... 466

    The java.nio Package.... 467

        Buffers.... 467

        Channels.... 471

    Summary..... 481

    Q&A..... 481

    Quiz...... 482

        Questions.... 482

        Answers.... 482

        Certification Practice... 483

    Exercises..... 483

Day 18: Accessing Databases with JDBC                          485

    Java Database Connectivity... 486

        Database Drivers... 487

    The JDBC-ODBC Bridge... 487

        Connecting to an ODBC Data Source. 489

        JDBC Drivers.... 502

    Summary..... 507

    Q&A..... 508

    Quiz...... 508

        Questions.... 508

        Answers.... 509

        Certification Practice... 509

    Exercises..... 510

Day 19: Reading and Writing RSS Feeds                           511

    Using XML..... 512

    Designing an XML Dialect... 515

    Processing XML with Java... 516

    Processing XML with XOM... 516

        Creating an XML Document.. 518

        Modifying an XML Document.. 521

        Formatting an XML Document.. 525

        Evaluating XOM... 528

    Summary..... 530

    Q&A..... 531

    Quiz...... 531

        Questions.... 531

        Answers.... 532

        Certification Practice... 532

    Exercises..... 533

Day 20: XML Web Services                                                535

    Introduction to XML-RPC... 536

    Communicating with XML-RPC.. 537

        Sending a Request... 538

        Responding to a Request.. 539

    Choosing an XML-RPC Implementation. 540

    Using an XML-RPC Web Service.. 542

    Creating an XML-RPC Web Service.. 546

    Summary..... 551

    Q&A..... 551

    Quiz...... 552

        Questions.... 552

        Answers.... 552

        Certification Practice... 552

    Exercises..... 553

Day 21: Writing Java Servlets and Java Server Pages        555

    Using Servlets.... 556

    Developing Servlets.... 559

        Using Cookies... 565

        Using Sessions... 568

    JSP...... 572

        Writing a JSP Page... 574

        Creating a Web Application.. 581

    JSP Standard Tag Library... 587

    Summary..... 594

    Q&A..... 595

    Quiz...... 596

        Questions.... 596

        Answers.... 596

        Certification Practice... 597

    Exercises..... 597

Appendixes                                                                                                   

Appendix A: Using the Java Development Kit     601

Appendix B: Programming with the Java Development Kit   625

Appendix C: This Book’s Website                        649

Index                                                                                                        651

Bonus Material on the Companion CD-ROM

CD1  Choosing Java

CD2  Writing Java Applets

CD3  Regular Expressions

CD4  Where to Go from Here: Java Resources

0672329433, TOC, 5/4/2007