Tony Gaddis’s accessible, step-by-step presentation helps beginning students understand the important details necessary to become skilled programmers at an introductory level. Gaddis motivates the study of both programming skills and the Java programming language by presenting all the details needed to understand the “how” and the “why”—but never losing sight of the fact that most beginners struggle with this material. His approach is both gradual and highly accessible, ensuring that students understand the logic behind developing high-quality programs. In Starting Out with Java: Early Objects, Gaddis looks at objects—the fundamentals of classes and methods—before covering procedural programming.  As with all Gaddis texts, clear and easy-to-read code listings, concise and practical real-world examples, and an abundance of exercises appear in every chapter.

Table of Contents:
Preface Chapter 1: Introduction to Computers and Java 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Why Program?    1.3 Computer Systems: Hardware and Software 1.4 Programming Languages 1.5 What Is a Program Made of? 1.6 The Programming Process 1.7 Object-Oriented Programming Chapter 2: Java Fundamentals 2.1 The Parts of a Java Program 2.2 The print and println Methods, and the Java API 2.3 Variables and Literals 2.4 Primitive Data Types 2.5 Arithmetic Operators 2.6 Combined Assignment Operators 2.7 Conversion between Primitive Data Types 2.8 Creating Named Constants with final 2.9 The String Class 2.10 Scope 2.11 Comments 2.12 Programming Style 2.13 Reading Keyboard Input 2.14 Dialog Boxes 2.15 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 3: A First Look at Classes and Objects 3.1 Classes 3.2 More about Passing Arguments 3.3 Instance Fields and Methods 3.4 Constructors 3.5 A BankAccount Class 3.6 Classes, Variables, and Scope 3.7 Packages and import Statements 3.8 Focus on Object-Oriented Design: Finding the Classes and Their Responsibilities 3.9 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 4: Decision Structures 4.1 The if Statement 4.2 The if-else Statement 4.3 The Payroll Class 4.4 The if-else-if Statement 4.5 Nested if Statements 4.6 Logical Operators 4.7 Comparing String Objects 4.8 More about Variable Declaration and Scope 4.9 The Conditional Operator (Optional) 4.10 The switch Statement 4.11 Formatting Numbers with the DecimalFormat Class 4.12 Focus on Problem Solving: The SalesCommission Class 4.13 The Random Class 4.14 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 5: Loops and Files   5.1 The Increment and Decrement Operators 5.2 The while Loop 5.3 Using the while Loop for Input Validation 5.4 The do-while Loop 5.5 The for Loop 5.6 Running Totals and Sentinel Values 5.7 Nested Loops 5.8 The break and continue Statements 5.9 Deciding Which Loop to Use 5.10 Introduction to File Input and Output 5.11 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 6: A Second Look at Classes and Objects 6.1 Static Class Members 6.2 Overloaded Methods 6.3 Overloaded Constructors 6.4 Passing Objects as Arguments to Methods 6.5 Returning Objects from Methods 6.6 The toString Method 6.7 Writing an equals Method 6.8 Methods That Copy Objects 6.9 Aggregation 6.10 The this Reference Variable 6.11 Inner Classes 6.12 Enumerated Types 6.13 Garbage Collection 6.14 Focus on Object-Oriented Design: Class Collaboration 6.15 Common Errors to Avoid   Chapter 7: Arrays and the Array List Class 7.1 Introduction to Arrays 7.2 Processing Array Contents 7.3 Passing Arrays as Arguments to Methods 7.4 Some Useful Array Algorithms and Operations 7.5 Returning Arrays from Methods 7.6 String Arrays 7.7 Arrays of Objects 7.8 The Sequential Search Algorithm 7.9 The Selection Sort and the Binary Search Algorithms 7.10 Two-Dimensional Arrays 7.11 Arrays with Three or More Dimensions 7.12 Command-Line Arguments and Variable-Length Argument Lists 7.13 The ArrayList Class 7.14 Common Errors to Avoid   Chapter 8: Text Processing and Wrapper Classes   8.1 Introduction to Wrapper Classes   8.2 Character Testing and Conversion with the Character Class   8.3 More about String Objects   8.4 The StringBuilder Class   8.5 Tokenizing Strings   8.6 Wrapper Classes for the Numeric Data Types   8.7 Focus on Problem Solving: The TestScoreReader Class   8.8 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 9: Inheritance   9.1 What Is Inheritance?   9.2 Calling the Superclass Constructor   9.3 Overriding Superclass Methods   9.4 Protected Members   9.5 Classes That Inherit from Subclasses 9.6 The Object Class   9.7 Polymorphism   9.8 Abstract Classes and Abstract Methods   9.9 Interfaces   9.10 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 10: Exceptions and Advanced File I/O 10.1 Handling Exceptions   10.2 Throwing Exceptions   10.3 Advanced Topics: Binary Files, Random Access Files, and Object Serialization   10.4 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 11: GUI Applications—Part 1 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Dialog Boxes 11.3 Creating Windows 11.4 Equipping GUI Classes with a main Method 11.5 Layout Managers 11.6 Radio Buttons and Check Boxes 11.7 Borders 11.8 Focus on Problem Solving: Extending the JPanel Class 11.9 Splash Screens 11.10 Using Console Output to Debug a GUI Application 11.11 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 12: GUI Applications—Part 2 12.1 Read-Only Text Fields 12.2 Lists 12.3 Combo Boxes 12.4 Displaying Images in Labels and Buttons 12.5 Mnemonics and Tool Tips 12.6 File Choosers and Color Choosers 12.7 Menus 12.8 More about Text Components: Text Areas and Fonts 12.9 Sliders 12.10 Look and Feel 12.11 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 13: Applets and More   13.1 Introduction to Applets 13.2 A Brief Introduction to HTML   13.3 Creating Applets with Swing   13.4 Using AWT for Portability 13.5 Drawing Shapes   13.6 Handling Mouse Events   13.7 Timer Objects 13.8 Playing Audio   13.9 Common Errors to Avoid Chapter 14: Recursion 14.1 Introduction to Recursion 14.2 Solving Problems with Recursion 14.3 Examples of Recursive Methods 14.4 A Recursive Binary Search Method 14.5 The Towers of Hanoi 14.6 Common Errors to Avoid Appendix A Getting Started with Alice Index Appendixes and Case Studies on the Student CD-ROM Appendix B The ASCII/Unicode Characters Appendix C Operator Precedence and Associativity Appendix D Java Key Words Appendix E Installing the JDK and JDK Documentation Appendix F Using the javadoc Utility Appendix G More about the Math Class Appendix H Packages Appendix I Working with Records and Random Access Files Appendix J Using JBuilder 8 Appendix K The QuickSort Algorithm Appendix L Answers to Checkpoints Questions Appendix M Answers to Odd-Numbered Review Questions Case Study 1 The Amortization Class Case Study 2 The PinTester Class Case Study 3 Parallel Arrays Case Study 4 The SerialNumber Class Case Study 5 A Simple Text Editor Application