Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Third Edition

By : John Horton
Book Image

Android Programming for Beginners - Third Edition

By: John Horton

Overview of this book

Do you want to make a career in programming but don’t know where to start? Do you have a great idea for an app but don't know how to make it a reality? Or are you worried that you’ll have to learn Java programming to become an Android developer? Look no further! This new and expanded third edition of Android Programming for Beginners will be your guide to creating Android applications from scratch. The book starts by introducing you to all the fundamental concepts of programming in an Android context, from the basics of Java to working with the Android API. You’ll learn with the help of examples that use up-to-date API classes and are created within Android Studio, the official Android development environment that helps supercharge your mobile application development process. After a crash course on the key programming concepts, you’ll explore Android programming and get to grips with creating applications with a professional-standard UI using fragments and storing user data with SQLite. This Android Java book also shows you how you can make your apps multilingual, draw on the screen with a finger, and work with graphics, sound, and animations. By the end of this Android programming book, you'll be ready to start building your own custom applications in Android and Java.
Table of Contents (30 chapters)

Chapter 12: The Stack, the Heap, and the Garbage Collector

By the end of this chapter, the missing link between Java and our XML layouts will be fully revealed, leaving us with the power to add all kinds of widgets to our apps as we have done before, but this time, we will be able to control them through our Java code.

In this chapter, we will get to take control of some simple UI elements such as Button and TextView and in the next chapter, we will take things further and manipulate a whole range of UI elements.

To enable us to understand what is happening, we need to find out a bit more about the memory in an Android device and two areas of it – the Stack and the Heap.

In this chapter, we will learn about the following:

  • Android UI elements are classes
  • Garbage collection
  • Our UI is on the heap?
  • Special types of classes, including inner and anonymous

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