Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Second Edition

By : John Horton
Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Second Edition

By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Are you trying to start a career in programming, but haven't found the right way in? Do you have a great idea for an app, but don't know how to make it a reality? Or maybe you're just frustrated that in order to learn Android, you must know Java. If so, then this book is for you. This new and expanded second edition of Android Programming for Beginners will be your companion to create Android Pie applications from scratch. We will introduce you to all the fundamental concepts of programming in an Android context, from the basics of Java to working with the Android API. All examples use the up-to-date API classes, and are created from within Android Studio, the official Android development environment that helps supercharge your application development process. After this crash course, we'll dive deeper into Android programming and you'll learn how to create applications with a professional-standard UI through fragments and store your user's data with SQLite. In addition, you'll see how to make your apps multilingual, draw to the screen with a finger, and work with graphics, sound, and animations too. By the end of this book, you'll be ready to start building your own custom applications in Android and Java.
Table of Contents (35 chapters)
Android Programming for Beginners - Second Edition
Contributors
Preface
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index

Inheritance example app


We have looked at the way we can create hierarchies of classes to model the system that fits our app. So, let's try out some simple code that uses inheritance. The completed code is in the chapter 11 folder of the code download. It is called Inheritance Example.

Create a new project called Inheritance Example using the Empty Activity template and then add three new classes in the usual way. Name one AlienShip, another Fighter, and the last one Bomber.

Here is the code for the AlienShip class. It is very similar to our previous class demo AlienShip. The differences are that the constructor now takes an int parameter, which it uses to set the shield strength.

The constructor also outputs a message to the logcat so that we can see when it is being used. The AlienShip class also has a new method, fireWeapon, which is declared abstract.

Declaring a class as abstract guarantees that any class that are subclasses of AlienShip must implement their own version of fireWeapon...