Direct from the creators of the Java™ programming language, the completely revised fourth edition of The Java™ Programming Language is an indispensable resource for novice and advanced programmers alike. Developers around the world have used previous editions to quickly gain a deep understanding of the Java programming language, its design goals, and how to use it most effectively in real-world development. Now, Ken Arnold, James Gosling, and David Holmes have updated this classic to reflect the major enhancements in Java™ 2 Standard Edition 5.0 (J2SE™ 5.0). The authors systematically cover most classes in Java’s main packages, java.lang.*, java.util, and java.io, presenting in-depth explanations of why these classes work as they do, with informative examples. Several new chapters and major sections have been added, and every chapter has been updated to reflect today’s best practices for building robust, efficient, and maintainable Java software. Key changes in this edition include New chapters on generics, enums, and annotations, the most powerful new language features introduced in J2SE 5.0 Changes to classes and methods throughout to reflect the addition of generics Major new sections on assertions and regular expressions Coverage of all the new language features, from autoboxing and variable argument methods to the enhanced for-loop and covariant return types Coverage of key new classes, such as Formatter and Scanner The Java™ Programming Language, Fourth Edition, is the definitive tutorial introduction to the Java language and essential libraries and an indispensable reference for all programmers, including those with extensive experience. It brings together insights you can only get from the creators of Java: insights that will help you write software of exceptional quality.

Table of Contents:
Preface   xxi Chapter 1: A Quick Tour   1 1.1  Getting Started   1 1.2  Variables   3 1.3  Comments in Code   6 1.4  Named Constants   7 1.5  Unicode Characters   8 1.6  Flow of Control   9 1.7  Classes and Objects   12 1.8  Methods and Parameters   15 1.9  Arrays   18 1.10  String Objects   21 1.11  Extending a Class   24 1.12  Interfaces   27 1.13  Generic Types   29 1.14  Exceptions   32 1.15  Annotations   35 1.16  Packages   36 1.17  The Java Platform   38 1.18  Other Topics Briefly Noted   39 Chapter 2: Classes and Objects   41 2.1  A Simple Class   42 2.2  Fields   44 2.3  Access Control   47 2.4  Creating Objects   49 2.5  Construction and Initialization   50 2.6  Methods   56 2.7  this   68 2.8  Overloading Methods   69 2.9  Importing Static Member Names   71 2.10  The main Method   73 2.11  Native Methods   74 Chapter 3: Extending Classes   75 3.1  An Extended Class   76 3.2  Constructors in Extended Classes   80 3.3  Inheriting and Redefining Members   84 3.4  Type Compatibility and Conversion   90 3.5  What protected Really Means   93 3.6  Marking Methods and Classes final   96 3.7  Abstract Classes and Methods   97 3.8  The Object Class   99 3.9  Cloning Objects   101 3.10  Extending Classes: How and When   107 3.11  Designing a Class to Be Extended   108 3.12  Single Inheritance versus Multiple Inheritance   114 Chapter 4: Interfaces   117 4.1  A Simple Interface Example   118 4.2  Interface Declarations   120 4.3  Extending Interfaces   122 4.4  Working with Interfaces   126 4.5  Marker Interfaces   130 4.6  When to Use Interfaces   131 Chapter 5: Nested Classes and Interfaces   133 5.1  Static Nested Types   133 5.2  Inner Classes   136 5.3  Local Inner Classes   142 5.4  Anonymous Inner Classes   144 5.5  Inheriting Nested Types   146 5.6  Nesting in Interfaces   148 5.7  Implementation of Nested Types   149 Chapter 6: Enumeration Types   151 6.1  A Simple Enum Example   151 6.2  Enum Declarations   152 6.3  Enum Constant Declarations   154 6.4  java.lang.Enum    159 6.5  To Enum or Not   160 Chapter 7: Tokens, Values, and Variables   161 7.1  Lexical Elements   161 7.2  Types and Literals   166 7.3  Variables   169 7.4  Array Variables   173 7.5  The Meanings of Names   178 Chapter 8: Primitives as Types   183 8.1  Common Fields and Methods   184 8.2  Void    187 8.3  Boolean    187 8.4  Number    188 8.5  Character    192 8.6  Boxing Conversions   198 Chapter 9: Operators and Expressions   201 9.1  Arithmetic Operations   201 9.2  General Operators   204 9.3  Expressions   214 9.4  Type Conversions   216 9.5  Operator Precedence and Associativity   221 9.6  Member Access   223 Chapter 10: Control Flow 229 10.1  Statements and Blocks   229 10.2  if-else    230 10.3  switch    232 10.4  while and do-while    235 10.5  for    236 10.6  Labels   241 10.7  break    241 10.8  continue    244 10.9  return    245 10.10  What, No goto?   246 Chapter 11: Generic Types   247 11.1  Generic Type Declarations   250 11.2  Working with Generic Types   256 11.3  Generic Methods and Constructors   260 11.4  Wildcard Capture   264 11.5  Under the Hood: Erasure and Raw Types   267 11.6  Finding the Right Method--Revisited   272 11.7  Class Extension and Generic Types   276 Chapter 12: Exceptions and Assertions 279 12.1  Creating Exception Types   280 12.2  throw    282 12.3  The throws Clause   283 12.4   try, catch, and finally   286 12.5  Exception Chaining   291 12.6  Stack Traces   294 12.7  When to Use Exceptions   294 12.8  Assertions   296 12.9  When to Use Assertions   297 12.10  Turning Assertions On and Off   300 Chapter 13: Strings and Regular Expressions   305 13.1  Character Sequences   305 13.2  The String Class   306 13.3  Regular Expression Matching   321 13.4  The StringBuilder Class   330 13.5  Working with UTF-16   336 Chapter 14: Threads   337 14.1  Creating Threads   339 14.2  Using Runnable   341 14.3  Synchronization   345 14.4  wait, notifyAll, and notify   354 14.5  Details of Waiting and Notification   357 14.6  Thread Scheduling   358 14.7  Deadlocks   362 14.8  Ending Thread Execution   365 14.9  Ending Application Execution   369 14.10   The Memory Model: Synchronization and volatile    370 14.11  Thread Management, Security, and ThreadGroup    375 14.12  Threads and Exceptions   379 14.13  ThreadLocal Variables   382 14.14  Debugging Threads   384 Chapter 15: Annotations   387 15.1  A Simple Annotation Example   388 15.2  Annotation Types   389 15.3  Annotating Elements   392 15.4  Restricting Annotation Applicability   393 15.5  Retention Policies   395 15.6  Working with Annotations   395 Chapter 16: Reflection   397 16.1  The Class Class   399 16.2  Annotation Queries   414 16.3  The Modifier Class   416 16.4  The Member classes   416 16.5  Access Checking and AccessibleObject   417 16.6  The Field Class   418 16.7  The Method Class   420 16.8  Creating New Objects and the Constructor Class   423 16.9  Generic Type Inspection   426 16.10   Arrays   429 16.11  Packages   432 16.12  The Proxy Class   432 16.13  Loading Classes   435 16.14  Controlling Assertions at Runtime   444 Chapter 17: Garbage Collection and Memory   447 17.1  Garbage Collection   447 17.2  A Simple Model   448 17.3  Finalization   449 17.4  Interacting with the Garbage Collector   452 17.5  Reachability States and Reference Objects   454 Chapter 18: Packages   467 18.1  Package Naming   468 18.2  Type Imports   469 18.3  Package Access   471 18.4  Package Contents   475 18.5  Package Annotations   476 18.6  Package Objects and Specifications   477 Chapter 19: Documentation Comments   481 19.1  The Anatomy of a Doc Comment   482 19.2  Tags   483 19.3  Inheriting Method Documentation Comments   489 19.4  A Simple Example   491 19.5  External Conventions   496 19.6  Notes on Usage   497 Chapter 20: The I/O Package   499 20.1  Streams Overview   500 20.2  Byte Streams   501 20.3  Character Streams   507 20.4  InputStreamReader and OutputStreamWriter   512 20.5  A Quick Tour of the Stream Classes   514 20.6  The Data Byte Streams   537 20.7  Working with Files   540 20.8  Object Serialization   549 20.9  The IOException Classes   563 20.10  A Taste of New I/O   565 Chapter 21: Collections   567 21.1  Collections   567 21.2  Iteration   571 21.3  Ordering with Comparable and Comparator    574 21.4  The Collection Interface   575 21.5  Set and SortedSet    577 21.6  List    580 21.7  Queue    585 21.8  Map and SortedMap   587 21.9  enum Collections   594 21.10  Wrapped Collections and the Collections Class   597 21.11  Synchronized Wrappers and Concurrent Collections   602 21.12  The Arrays Utility Class   607 21.13  Writing Iterator Implementations   609 21.14  Writing Collection Implementations   611 21.15  The Legacy Collection Types   616 21.16  Properties   620 Chapter 22: Miscellaneous Utilities   623 22.1  Formatter    624 22.2  BitSet   632 22.3   Observer/Observable    635 22.4  Random    639 22.5  Scanner    641 22.6  StringTokenizer    651 22.7  Timer and TimerTask   653 22.8  UUID   656 22.9   Math and StrictMath    657 Chapter 23: System Programming   661 23.1  The System Class   662 23.2  Creating Processes   666 23.3  Shutdown   672 23.4  The Rest of Runtime   675 23.5  Security   677 Chapter 24: Internationalization and Localization   685 24.1  Locale   686 24.2  Resource Bundles   688 24.3  Currency   694 24.4  Time, Dates, and Calendars   695 24.5  Formatting and Parsing Dates and Times   703 24.6  Internationalization and Localization for Text   708 Chapter 25: Standard Packages 715 25.1  java.awt--The Abstract Window Toolkit   717 25.2  java.applet--Applets   720 25.3   java.beans--Components   721 25.4  java.math--Mathematics   722 25.5  java.net--The Network   724 25.6  java.rmi--Remote Method Invocation   727 25.7  java.security and Related Packages--Security Tools   732 25.8  java.sql--Relational Database Access   732 25.9  Utility Subpackages   733 25.10  javax.* --Standard Extensions   737 25.11  javax.accessibility--Accessibility for GUIs   737 25.12  javax.naming--Directory and Naming Services   738 25.13  javax.sound--Sound Manipulation   739 25.14  javax.swing--Swing GUI Components   740 25.15  org.omg.CORBA--CORBA APIs   740 Appendix A: Application Evolution   741 A.1  Language, Library, and Virtual Machine Versions   741 A.2  Dealing with Multiple Dialects   743 A.3  Generics: Reification, Erasure, and Raw Types   744 Appendix B: Useful Tables   749 Further Reading   755 Index   761