David Flanagan - Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition

• The for/in statement for easily iteratingthrough arrays and collections (this statement is sometimes called"foreach").

• Autoboxing and autounboxingconversions to automatically convert back and forth between primitivevalues and their corresponding wrapper objects (such asint values and Integer objects)as needed.

• Varargs methods to define and invoke methodsthat accept an arbitrary number of arguments.

• Covariantreturns to allow a subclass to override a superclass method andnarrow the return type of the method.

• The import static declaration to import thestatic members of a type into the namespace.

• The java.util .

• The java.util .The java.util.Formatter entry in the quickreference includes a detailed table of formatting options.

• The new packagejava.util.concurrent provides examples.

• java.lang has three new subpackages:

• java.lang.annotation

• java.lang.instrument

• java.lang.management

• These packages support Java 5.0.

• .

This chapter is an overview of the Java language and the Javaplatform that explains the important features and benefits of Java.It concludes with an example Java program and walks the new Javaprogrammer through it line by line.

This chapter explains the details of the Java programming language,including some of the Java 5.0 language changes. It is a long anddetailed chapter that does not assume substantial programmingexperience. Experienced Java programmers can use it as a languagereference. Programmers with substantial experience with languagessuch as C and C++ should be able to pick up Java syntax quickly byreading this chapter; beginning programmers with only a modest amountof experience should be able to learn Java programming by studyingthis chapter carefully.

This chapter describes how the basic Java syntax documented in is used to write object-oriented programsin Java. The chapter assumes no prior experience with OO programming.It can be used as a tutorial by new programmers or as a reference byexperienced Java programmers.

This chapter documents the three biggest new features of Java 5.0:generic types, enumerated types, and annotations. If you readprevious editions of this book, you might want to skip directly tothis chapter.

This chapter is an overview of the essential Java APIs covered inthis book. It contains numerous short examples that demonstrate howto perform common tasks with the classes and interfaces that comprisethe Java platform. Programmers who are new to Java (and especiallythose who learn best by example) should find this a valuable chapter.

This chapter explains the Java security architecture that allowsuntrusted code to run in a secure environment from which it cannot doany malicious damage to the host system. It is important for all Javaprogrammers to have at least a passing familiarity with Java securitymechanisms.

This chapter documents important and widely adopted Java programmingconventions, including JavaBeans naming conventions. It also explainshow you can make your Java code self-documenting by includingspecially formatted documentation comments.

Sun's JDK includes a number of useful Javadevelopment tools, most notably the Java interpreter and the Javacompiler. This chapter documents those tools.

These first eight chapters teach you the Java language and get you upand running with the Java APIs. Part II of the book is a succinct butdetailed API reference formatted for optimum ease of use. Please besure to read in Part II; it explains howto get the most out of the quick reference section. Also, please notethat the quick reference chapters are followed by one final chaptercalled "Class, Method, and FieldIndex." This special index allows you to look up thename of a type and find the package in which it is defined or to lookup the name of a method or field and find the type in which it it isdefined.