Introduction to Java Training in Ireland

Core Programming Concepts

• Variables, functions and libraries
• Compiled programs vs interpreted scripts
• Typed and untyped programming
• Static vs dynamic typing
• Threads and call stacks
• Errors and exceptions

Core Java Concepts

• Origins and goals of the Java language
• Bytecode and the Java Virtual Machine
• Packages and dynamic class loading
• Garbage collection in Java

Creating Simple Programs

• Writing Hello World! in Java
• Declaring variables to hold numbers
• Declaring variables to hold strings
• Casting and converting between types
• Reading and writing from the console

Making Choices and Looping

• Conditional execution using the if statement
• Conditional execution using the switch statement
• Bounded iteration using the for loop
• Unbounded iteration using the while and do … while loops
• Alerting the execution of a loop using break and continue
• Different ways of writing infinite loops

Java Methods in Depth

• What does the static keyword mean?
• Understanding how parameters are passed
• Choosing if a method should be public or private
• Understanding recursion and writing recursive methods

Introduction to Object Orientation

• What is a data structure?
• Why are data structures dangerous?
• What are classes and objects?
• What makes an object different from a class?
• Key principle one – Abstraction
• Key principle two – Encapsulation
• How do you avoid repetition in classes?
• Key principle three – Inheritance
• How do you change inherited behavior?
• Key principle four – Polymorphism

Support for OO in Java

• Allocating objects from the heap
• Linking to objects via references
• Moving references to other objects
• Pointing a reference at null
• Ensuring an object is no longer referenced
• A brief introduction to the theory of garbage collection

Built in Objects in Java

• Strings are objects in Java
• Arrays are objects in Java
• Every class has an instance of Class

Object Oriented Development Part One

• Creating basic Java classes
• Choosing accessibility levels
• Overloading and overriding methods
• Overriding the toString method
• Comparing references using the instanceof operator
• Comparing references using class objects
• Inheriting from a base class
• Creating abstract and final classes

Object Oriented Development Part Two

• Writing appropriate class constructors
• Private constructors and singletons
• Static and instance initialization blocks
• Top down class and object initialization
• Declaring and using interfaces
• Using inner and anonymous classes
• Implementing equal and hashcode
• Cloning and copy constructors
• GUI Development in Java
• How the Swing library works
• Creating a window class via inheritance
• Adding widgets to the window
• Positioning widgets using layout managers
• Adding event handling to the GUI

Exception Handling in Java

• Introducing errors, runtime exceptions and checked exceptions
• Exceptions in constructors and finalizers
• Implementing an effective exception handling strategy
• The correct use of finally blocks
• Using Java assertions

Java I/O

• Introducing input and output streams
• Introducing readers and writers
• Using File objects to resolve file paths
• Text based file I/O with buffered streams
• Binary based file I/O using data streams
• Serializing Java objects
• Customizing Java Serialization