“If you get only one Java book, it should be Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days” –PC Magazine
In just 21 days, you can acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to develop three kinds of programs with Java: applications on your computer, servlets on a web server, and browser-launched Java Web Start applications.
No previous programming experience required. By following the 21 carefully organized lessons in this book, anyone can learn the basics of Java programming.
Learn at your own pace. You can work through each chapter sequentially to make sure you thoroughly understand all of the concepts and methodologies, or you can focus on specific lessons to learn the techniques that interest you most.
Test your knowledge. Each chapter ends with a Workshop section filled with questions, answers, and exercises for further study. There are even certification practice questions.
“Sams Teach Yourself Java is one of the best introductions to hands-on Java programming. If you buy one book on Java, this is the one to buy!” –Independent Web Review
Rogers Cadenhead is a web application developer who has written 22 books on Internet-related topics, including Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 24 Hours. He maintains this book’s official website at http://www.java21days.com.
Laura Lemay is one of the world’s most popular authors on Web development topics. She is the author of the bestselling Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML, as well as Sams Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days.
CD-ROM includes:
Category: Java Programming
Covers: Java 6 Platform Standard Edition
User Level: Beginning—Intermediate
$44.99 USA / $55.99 CAN / £31.99 Net UK (inc. of VAT)
Introduction 1
How This Book Is Organized... 2
Who Should Read This Book... 4
Conventions Used in This Book... 5
Week I: The Java Language
Day 1: Getting Started with Java 9
The Java Language.... 10
History of the Language... 10
Introduction to Java... 11
Selecting a Development Tool.. 11
Object-Oriented Programming... 12
Objects and Classes.... 14
Attributes and Behavior... 17
Attributes of a Class of Objects.. 17
Behavior of a Class of Objects.. 18
Creating a Class... 19
Running the Program... 21
Organizing Classes and Class Behavior.. 24
Inheritance.... 24
Creating a Class Hierarchy.. 26
Inheritance in Action... 28
Single and Multiple Inheritance.. 29
Interfaces.... 30
Packages.... 30
Summary..... 31
Q&A...... 31
Quiz...... 32
Questions.... 32
Answers.... 32
Certification Practice... 32
Exercises..... 33
Day 2: The ABCs of Programming 35
Statements and Expressions... 36
Variables and Data Types... 36
Creating Variables... 37
Naming Variables... 39
Variable Types.... 39
Assigning Values to Variables.. 41
Constants.... 41
Comments..... 43
Literals..... 44
Number Literals... 45
Boolean Literals... 46
Character Literals... 46
String Literals.... 47
Expressions and Operators... 48
Arithmetic.... 49
More About Assignment.. 51
Incrementing and Decrementing.. 52
Comparisons.... 53
Logical Operators... 54
Operator Precedence... 55
String Arithmetic.... 57
Summary..... 58
Q&A...... 59
Quiz...... 60
Questions.... 60
Answers.... 60
Certification Practice... 60
Exercises..... 61
Day 3: Working with Objects 63
Creating New Objects.... 64
Using new.... 64
What new Does.... 66
A Note on Memory Management. 66
Accessing and Setting Class and Instance Variables 67
Getting Values.... 67
Changing Values... 68
Class Variables.... 69
Calling Methods.... 70
Nesting Method Calls... 72
Class Methods.... 73
References to Objects.... 74
Casting and Converting Objects and Primitive Types 76
Casting Primitive Types... 77
Casting Objects.... 78
Converting Primitive Types to Objects and Vice Versa 80
Comparing Object Values and Classes.. 82
Comparing Objects... 82
Determining the Class of an Object. 84
Summary..... 84
Q&A...... 85
Quiz...... 86
Questions.... 86
Answers.... 86
Certification Practice... 86
Exercises..... 87
Day 4: Lists, Logic, and Loops 89
Arrays..... 90
Declaring Array Variables.. 90
Creating Array Objects... 91
Accessing Array Elements.. 92
Changing Array Elements.. 93
Multidimensional Arrays.. 95
Block Statements.... 96
if Conditionals.... 97
switch Conditionals.... 98
for Loops..... 104
while and do Loops.... 107
while Loops.... 107
do-while Loops... 109
Breaking Out of Loops... 109
Labeled Loops... 110
The Conditional Operator.. 110
Summary..... 112
Q&A..... 112
Quiz...... 112
Questions.... 112
Answers.... 113
Certification Practice... 113
Exercises..... 114
Day 5: Creating Classes and Methods 115
Defining Classes.... 116
Creating Instance and Class Variables.. 116
Defining Instance Variables.. 116
Class Variables... 117
Creating Methods.... 117
Defining Methods... 118
The this Keyword... 120
Variable Scope and Method Definitions. 121
Passing Arguments to Methods.. 122
Class Methods... 123
Creating Java Applications... 124
Helper Classes... 125
Java Applications and Command-line Arguments 126
Passing Arguments to Java Applications. 126
Handling Arguments in Your Java Application 127
Creating Methods with the Same Name, Different Arguments 128
Constructor Methods.... 132
Basic Constructor Methods.. 133
Calling Another Constructor Method. 133
Overloading Constructor Methods. 134
Overriding Methods.... 136
Creating Methods That Override Existing Methods 136
Calling the Original Method.. 137
Overriding Constructors.. 138
Finalizer Methods.... 140
Summary..... 141
Q&A..... 141
Quiz...... 142
Questions.... 142
Answers.... 143
Certification Practice... 143
Exercises..... 144
Day 6: Packages, Interfaces, and Other Class Features 145
Modifiers..... 146
Access Control for Methods and Variables 146
Static Variables and Methods... 152
Final Classes, Methods, and Variables.. 154
Variables.... 155
Methods.... 155
Classes.... 156
Abstract Classes and Methods... 156
Packages..... 157
Using Packages.... 157
Full Package and Class Names.. 158
The import Declaration.. 159
Class Name Conflicts... 160
A Note About Classpath and Where Classes Are Located 161
Creating Your Own Packages... 162
Picking a Package Name.. 162
Creating the Folder Structure.. 162
Adding a Class to a Package.. 163
Packages and Class Access Control. 163
Interfaces..... 164
The Problem of Single Inheritance. 164
Interfaces and Classes... 164
Implementing and Using Interfaces. 165
Implementing Multiple Interfaces. 165
Other Uses of Interfaces.. 166
Creating and Extending Interfaces.. 166
New Interfaces... 166
Methods Inside Interfaces.. 167
Extending Interfaces... 168
Creating an Online Storefront.. 169
Inner Classes..... 175
Summary..... 177
Q&A..... 178
Quiz...... 179
Questions.... 179
Answers.... 179
Certification Practice... 179
Exercises..... 181
Day 7: Exceptions, Assertions, and Threads 183
Exceptions..... 184
Exception Classes... 186
Managing Exceptions.... 187
Exception Consistency Checking. 188
Protecting Code and Catching Exceptions 188
The finally Clause... 190
Declaring Methods That Might Throw Exceptions 193
The throws Clause... 193
Which Exceptions Should You Throw?. 194
Passing On Exceptions... 195
throws and Inheritance... 196
Creating and Throwing Your Own Exceptions. 197
Throwing Exceptions... 197
Creating Your Own Exceptions.. 198
Combining throws, try, and throw. 199
When and When Not to Use Exceptions. 200
When to Use Exceptions.. 200
When Not to Use Exceptions.. 200
Bad Style Using Exceptions.. 201
Assertions..... 202
Threads..... 205
Writing a Threaded Program.. 206
A Threaded Application.. 207
Stopping a Thread... 211
Summary..... 212
Q&A..... 213
Quiz...... 214
Questions.... 214
Answers.... 215
Certification Practice... 215
Exercises..... 216
Week II: The Java Class Library
Day 8: Data Structures 219
Moving Beyond Arrays... 220
Java Structures.... 220
Iterator.... 222
Bit Sets.... 223
Vectors.... 226
Looping Through Data Structures. 229
Stacks.... 232
Map..... 233
Hash Tables.... 235
Generics..... 240
Summary..... 243
Q&A..... 244
Quiz...... 244
Questions.... 244
Answers..... 245
Certification Practice... 245
Exercises..... 246
Day 9: Working with Swing 247
Creating an Application... 248
Creating an Interface... 249
Developing a Framework.. 251
Displaying a Splash Page.. 253
Creating a Component... 253
Adding Components to a Container. 254
Working with Components... 256
Image Icons.... 257
Labels.... 259
Text Fields.... 259
Text Areas.... 260
Scrolling Panes... 262
Check Boxes and Radio Buttons. 263
Combo Boxes.... 266
Lists...... 267
Summary..... 269
Q&A..... 270
Quiz...... 270
Questions.... 270
Answers.... 271
Certification Practice... 271
Exercises..... 272
Day 10: Building a Swing Interface 273
Swing Features.... 274
Setting the Look and Feel.. 274
Standard Dialog Boxes... 277
Using Dialog Boxes... 282
Sliders.... 285
Scroll Panes.... 287
Toolbars.... 288
Progress Bars.... 291
Menus.... 293
Tabbed Panes.... 297
Summary..... 298
Q&A..... 299
Quiz...... 299
Questions.... 299
Answers.... 300
Certification Practice... 300
Exercises..... 301
Day 11: Arranging Components on a User Interface 303
Basic Interface Layout... 304
Laying Out an Interface.. 304
Flow Layout.... 305
Box Layout.... 307
Grid Layout.... 309
Border Layout.... 311
Mixing Layout Managers... 312
Card Layout..... 313
Using Card Layout in an Application. 315
Grid Bag Layout.... 321
Designing the Grid... 323
Creating the Grid... 324
Cell Padding and Insets.. 329
Summary..... 329
Q&A..... 330
Quiz...... 331
Questions.... 331
Answers.... 331
Certification Practice... 331
Exercises..... 332
Day 12: Responding to User Input 333
Event Listeners.... 334
Setting Up Components.. 335
Event-Handling Methods.. 336
Working with Methods... 338
Action Events.... 339
Focus Events.... 340
Item Events.... 342
Key Events.... 344
Mouse Events.... 345
Mouse Motion Events... 345
Window Events... 349
Using Adapter Classes... 350
Summary..... 351
Q&A..... 352
Quiz...... 353
Questions.... 353
Answers.... 353
Certification Practice... 353
Exercises..... 355
Day 13: Using Color, Fonts, and Graphics 357
The Graphics2D Class... 358
The Graphics Coordinate System. 359
Drawing Text..... 360
Improving Fonts and Graphics with Antialiasing 362
Finding Information About a Font. 363
Color..... 365
Using Color Objects... 366
Testing and Setting the Current Colors. 366
Drawing Lines and Polygons... 368
User and Device Coordinate Spaces. 368
Specifying the Rendering Attributes. 368
Creating Objects to Draw.. 371
Drawing Objects... 375
Summary..... 378
Q&A..... 378
Quiz...... 379
Questions.... 379
Answers.... 379
Certification Practice... 379
Exercises..... 380
Day 14: Developing Swing Applications 381
Java Web Start.... 382
Using Java Web Start.... 385
Creating a JNLP File... 386
Supporting Web Start on a Server. 391
Additional JNLP Elements.. 392
Improving Performance with SwingWorker. 394
Summary..... 399
Q&A..... 400
Quiz...... 400
Questions.... 400
Answers.... 401
Certification Practice... 401
Exercises..... 402
Week III: Java Programming
Day 15: Working with Input and Output 405
Introduction to Streams... 406
Using a Stream... 406
Filtering a Stream... 407
Handling Exceptions... 408
Byte Streams..... 408
File Streams.... 408
Filtering a Stream.... 413
Byte Filters.... 413
Character Streams.... 422
Reading Text Files... 422
Writing Text Files... 425
Files and Filename Filters... 426
Summary..... 429
Q&A..... 430
Quiz...... 431
Questions.... 431
Answers.... 431
Certification Practice... 432
Exercises..... 432
Day 16: Serializing and Examining Objects 433
Object Serialization.... 434
Object Output Streams... 435
Object Input Streams... 438
Transient Variables... 441
Checking an Object’s Serialized Fields. 442
Inspecting Classes and Methods with Reflection 443
Inspecting and Creating Classes. 443
Working with Each Part of a Class. 445
Inspecting a Class... 447
Summary..... 449
Q&A..... 449
Quiz...... 450
Questions.... 451
Answers.... 450
Certification Practice... 451
Exercises..... 452
Day 17: Communicating Across the Internet 453
Networking in Java.... 454
Opening a Stream over the Net.. 454
Sockets.... 459
Socket Servers... 463
Testing the Server... 466
The java.nio Package.... 467
Buffers.... 467
Channels.... 471
Summary..... 481
Q&A..... 481
Quiz...... 482
Questions.... 482
Answers.... 482
Certification Practice... 483
Exercises..... 483
Day 18: Accessing Databases with JDBC 485
Java Database Connectivity... 486
Database Drivers... 487
The JDBC-ODBC Bridge... 487
Connecting to an ODBC Data Source. 489
JDBC Drivers.... 502
Summary..... 507
Q&A..... 508
Quiz...... 508
Questions.... 508
Answers.... 509
Certification Practice... 509
Exercises..... 510
Day 19: Reading and Writing RSS Feeds 511
Using XML..... 512
Designing an XML Dialect... 515
Processing XML with Java... 516
Processing XML with XOM... 516
Creating an XML Document.. 518
Modifying an XML Document.. 521
Formatting an XML Document.. 525
Evaluating XOM... 528
Summary..... 530
Q&A..... 531
Quiz...... 531
Questions.... 531
Answers.... 532
Certification Practice... 532
Exercises..... 533
Day 20: XML Web Services 535
Introduction to XML-RPC... 536
Communicating with XML-RPC.. 537
Sending a Request... 538
Responding to a Request.. 539
Choosing an XML-RPC Implementation. 540
Using an XML-RPC Web Service.. 542
Creating an XML-RPC Web Service.. 546
Summary..... 551
Q&A..... 551
Quiz...... 552
Questions.... 552
Answers.... 552
Certification Practice... 552
Exercises..... 553
Day 21: Writing Java Servlets and Java Server Pages 555
Using Servlets.... 556
Developing Servlets.... 559
Using Cookies... 565
Using Sessions... 568
JSP...... 572
Writing a JSP Page... 574
Creating a Web Application.. 581
JSP Standard Tag Library... 587
Summary..... 594
Q&A..... 595
Quiz...... 596
Questions.... 596
Answers.... 596
Certification Practice... 597
Exercises..... 597
Appendixes
Appendix A: Using the Java Development Kit 601
Appendix B: Programming with the Java Development Kit 625
Appendix C: This Book’s Website 649
Index 651
Bonus Material on the Companion CD-ROM
CD1 Choosing Java
CD2 Writing Java Applets
CD3 Regular Expressions
CD4 Where to Go from Here: Java Resources
0672329433, TOC, 5/4/2007
TomD01
Posted February 15, 2010
I Also Recommend:
There are a lot of ways to learn a programming language. Teach Yourself JAVA in 21 Days, provides a good way for someone with some basic background in programming to branch out into JAVA and get exposure to a wide range of JAVA capabilities quickly.
The author uses general information about a topic, followed by code samples with detailed explanations of that code to cover a wide range of JAVA capabilities. Chapter summaries and "test" questions drive home important issues.
Knowledge of capabilities needs to be reinforced through use of those concepts. Because of the wide range of the capabilities and the book's already nearly 700-page length, the author uses examples that lend themselves to immediate use, and leaves further practice of these capabilities to the reader. A companion disk and a book website, contain; files with code samples from the book, additional JAVA components, answers to Certification Practice questions, and code for exercise solutions. There are also some bonus elements included on the disk (Choosing Java, Writing JAVA Applets, Regular Expressions, and Where to Go from Here).
I wouldn't suggest this book for a novice to programming, but as a vehicle for someone with some experience programming to expand his or her knowledge into JAVA, I think it is very good.
There were a few topics that I wish were explained in more detail, but in those rare cases, the author provides resources to find the info.
All in all a good choice!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.graphicfunk
Posted August 3, 2009
Outstanding work! The truth is that java is not so easy. Java continues to grow and all growth increases complexity. The killer, like in all languages, is the syntax. Once you accept the fact that Java is great and worth the study, then the next step is very easy. Get the right book to begin your adventure. Java 6 is your ticket to ride. My advise is to pace yourself and become familiar with the current lessons and avoid jumping ahead of the book. The learning ladder is the same in all fields. To jump ahead is to dilute and fragment your understanding. OOP is fascinating and while the beginner understands a class, it will take a while for full comprehension to settle in. The scheme is ever so wide with wheels within wheels. Meanwhile, the core aspect of the language can be digested since it is more concrete yet indispensable to embrace the entire concept with "Object" at the very pinnacle of the pyramid. But stay put and allow authors and first rate teachers, Rogers Cadenhead and Laura Lemay take you by the hand to explore this fascinating language and remove the veil away from the mystery.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 11, 2011
I'm going to give this rating 1 start ONLY because I paid extra for expedited shipping, then received an email stating that it wasn't going to ship in the time it was supposed to, yet I received no money back. Get the book, BUT DON'T UPGRADE THE SHIPPING becuase it's a rip off.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 5, 2009
I would not recommend this book to a beginning programmer. I think that most people with no prior programming experience will find this book very confusing.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 7, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
“If you get only one Java book, it should be Sams Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days” –PC Magazine
In just 21 days, you can acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to develop three kinds of programs with Java: applications on your computer, servlets on a web server, and browser-launched Java Web Start applications.
No previous programming experience required. By following the 21 carefully organized lessons in this book, anyone can learn the ...