Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

Declaring a Method

Line 6

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// main method begins execution of Java application

is an end-of-line comment indicating the purpose of lines 7–10 of the program. Line 7

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public static void main(String[] args)

is the starting point of every Java application. The parentheses after the identifier main indicate that it’s a program building block called a method. Java class declarations normally contain one or more methods. For a Java application, one of the methods must be called main and must be defined as shown in line 7; otherwise, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) will not execute the application. Methods perform tasks and can return information when they complete their tasks. We’ll explain ...