Learning Java, 6th Edition

Chapter 4. The Java Language

As humans, we learn the subtleties of spoken language through trial and error. We learn where to put the subject in relation to the verb and how to handle things like tenses and plurals. We certainly learn advanced language rules in school, but even the youngest students can ask their teachers intelligible questions. Computer languages have similar features: there are “parts of speech” that work as composable building blocks. There are ways of declaring facts and asking questions. In this chapter, we look at those fundamental programming units in Java. Trial and error remains a great teacher, so we’ll also look at how to play with these new units and practice your skills.

Since Java’s syntax is derived from C, we make some comparisons to features of that language, but no prior knowledge of C is necessary. Chapter 5 builds on this chapter by talking about Java’s object-oriented side and completing the discussion of the core language. Chapter 7 discusses generics and records, features that enhance the way types work in the Java language, allowing you to write certain kinds of classes more flexibly and safely.

After that, we dive into the Java APIs and see what we can do with the language. The rest of this book is filled with brief examples that do useful things in a variety of areas. If you are left with any questions after these introductory chapters, we hope they’ll be answered as you look at the code. There is always more to learn, of course! We’ll ...