Book Image

Introduction to Programming

By : Nick Samoylov
Book Image

Introduction to Programming

By: Nick Samoylov

Overview of this book

Have you ever thought about making your computer do what you want it to do? Do you want to learn to program, but just don't know where to start? Instead of guiding you in the right direction, have other learning resources got you confused with over-explanations? Don't worry. Look no further. Introduction to Programming is here to help. Written by an industry expert who understands the challenges faced by those from a non-programming background, this book takes a gentle, hand-holding approach to introducing you to the world of programming. Beginning with an introduction to what programming is, you'll go on to learn about languages, their syntax, and development environments. With plenty of examples for you to code alongside reading, the book's practical approach will help you to grasp everything it has to offer. More importantly, you'll understand several aspects of application development. As a result, you'll have your very own application running by the end of the book. To help you comprehensively understand Java programming, there are exercises at the end of each chapter to keep things interesting and encourage you to add your own personal touch to the code and, ultimately, your application.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)

List - ArrayList preserves order

List is an interface, while the ArrayList class is its most often used implementation. Both are residing in the java.util package. The ArrayList class has a few more methods - in addition to those declared in the List interface. The removeRange() method, for example, is not present in the List interface but available in the ArrayList API.

Prefer variable type List

It is a good practice, while creating an object of an ArrayList, to assign its reference to a variable of type List:

List listOfNames = new ArrayList();

More likely than not, using a variable of type ArrayList will not change anything in your program, not today, nor in the future:

ArrayList listOfNames = new ArrayList();

The preceding...