Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners

By : John Horton, Paresh Mayani
Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners

By: John Horton, Paresh Mayani

Overview of this book

Android is the most popular OS in the world. There are millions of devices accessing tens of thousands of applications. It is many people's entry point into the world of technology; it is an operating system for everyone. Despite this, the entry-fee to actually make Android applications is usually a computer science degree, or five years’ worth of Java experience. Android Programming for Beginners will be your companion to create Android applications from scratch—whether you’re looking to start your programming career, make an application for work, be reintroduced to mobile development, or are just looking to program for fun. We will introduce you to all the fundamental concepts of programming in an Android context, from the Java basics to working with the Android API. All examples 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, make location-aware apps with Google Maps integration, and store your user’s data with SQLite. In addition, you’ll see how to make your apps multilingual, capture images from a device’s camera, 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 (37 chapters)
Android Programming for Beginners
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

FAQ


  1. What is wrong with this method definition?

    doSomething(){
      // Do something here
    }

    No return type is declared. You do not have to return a value from a method, but its return type must be void in this case. This is how the method should look:

    void doSomething(){
      // Do something here
    }
  2. What is wrong with this method definition?

    float getBalance(){
      String customerName = "Linus Torvalds";
      float balance = 429.66f;
      return customerName;
    }

    The method returns a String (userName) variable, but the signature states that it must return a float. With a method name like getBalance, this code is probably what was intended:

    float getBalance(){
      String customerName = "Linus Torvalds";
      float balance = 429.66f;
      return balance;
    }
  3. When do we call the onCreate method? !Trick question alert!

    We don't. Android decides when to call onCreate as well as all the other methods that make up the lifecycle of an Activity. We just override the ones that are useful to us. We do, however, call super.onCreate so...