Learning Java, 4th Edition

Chapter 10. Working with Text

If you’ve been reading this book sequentially, you’ve read all about the core Java language constructs, including the object-oriented aspects of the language and the use of threads. Now it’s time to shift gears and start talking about the Java Application Programming Interface (API), the collection of classes that compose the standard Java packages and come with every Java implementation. Java’s core packages are one of its most distinguishing features. Many other object-oriented languages have similar features, but none has as extensive a set of standardized APIs and tools as Java does. This is both a reflection of and a reason for Java’s success. Table 10-1 lists some of the important packages in the API and their corresponding chapters in this book.

Table 10-1. Java API packages

Package	Contents	Chapter
java.lang	Basic language classes	4–9
java.lang.reflect	Reflection	7
java.util.concurrent	Thread utilities	9
java.text java.util.regex	International text classes and regular expressions	10
java.util	Utilities and collections classes	10–12
java.io java.nio	Input and output Input and output	12 12
java.net	Networking and Remote Method Invocation classes	13–14
java.rmi	Remote Method Invocation classes	13
javax.servlet	Web applications	15
javax.swing java.awt	Swing GUI and 2D graphics	16–20
java.awt.image javax.imageio javax.media	Images, sound, and video	21
java.beans	JavaBeans API	22
java.applet	The Applet API	23
javax.xml	The XML API	24

As you can see in Table 10-1, we have examined some classes in java.lang in earlier chapters while looking at the core language constructs. Starting with this chapter, we throw open the Java toolbox and begin examining the rest of the API classes, starting with text-related utilities, because they are fundamental to all kinds of applications.