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

Exploring method overloading

Consider a scenario where you have an algorithm, implemented by a method, that operates similarly on various input types – for example, String and int. It would be a shame to have two separately contrived method names, one for each input type, such as doStuffForString(String) and doStuffForInt(int). It would be much better if both methods had the same name – that is, doStuff – differentiated by their input types, which are doStuff(String) and doStuff(int). Thus, there will be no contrived method names. This is what method overloading provides. To discuss method overloading properly, we must first define the method signature.

Method signature

The method signature consists of the method’s name and the optional parameters. It does not consist of the return type. Let’s look at an example to explain this further:

Figure 7.7 – Method signature

Figure 7.7 – Method signature

In the preceding figure, the method signature...