Book Image

Learn Java with Projects

By : Dr. Seán Kennedy, Maaike van Putten
5 (3)
Book Image

Learn Java with Projects

5 (3)
By: Dr. Seán Kennedy, Maaike van Putten

Overview of this book

Learn Java with Projects stands out in the world of Java guides; while some books skim the surface and others get lost in too much detail, this one finds a nice middle ground. You’ll begin by exploring the fundamentals of Java, from its primitive data types through to loops and arrays. Next, you’ll move on to object-oriented programming (OOP), where you’ll get to grips with key topics such as classes, objects, encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, and more. The chapters are designed in a way that focuses on topics that really matter in real-life work situations. No extra fluff here, so that you get more time to spend on the basics and form a solid foundation. As you make progress, you’ll learn advanced topics including generics, collections, lambda expressions, streams and concurrency. This book doesn't just talk about theory—it shows you how things work with little projects, which eventually add up to one big project that brings it all together. By the end of this Java book, you’ll have sound practical knowledge of Java and a helpful guide to walk you through the important parts of Java.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Part 1: Java Fundamentals
9
Part 2: Object-Oriented Programming
15
Part 3: Advanced Topics

Understanding instance and static blocks

As we know, in Java, a block is delimited by curly braces, {}, and these code blocks are no different. What is different about instance and static code blocks is where these blocks appear – in other words, their scope. Both of these code blocks appear outside every method but inside the class.

We will discuss each in turn and then present a code example to demonstrate them in operation. We will start with instance blocks.

Instance blocks

An instance block is a set of braces that appear outside of any method but inside the class. Assuming an instance block is present in a class, every time an object is created (using new), the instance block is executed. Note that the instance block executes before the constructor. To be technically accurate, super() is executed first so that the parent constructor has a chance to execute; this is followed by the instance block, after which the rest of the constructor executes. Use the “...