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Module-5 Java - Java

programming in JAVA (Visvesvaraya Technological University)

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MODULE 5
Syllabus:
• Enumerations
• Type Wrappers
• I/O: I/O Basics, Reading Console Input, Writing Console Output, The PrintWriter Class, Reading
and Writing Files
• Applets: Applet Fundamentals
• String Handling: The String Constructors, String Length, Special String Operations, Character
Extraction, String Comparison, Searching Strings, Modifying a String, Data Conversion Using
valueOf(), Changing the Case of Characters Within a String , Additional String Methods,
StringBuffer, StringBuilder.
• Other Topics: The transient and volatile Modifiers, Using instanceof, strictfp, Native Methods,
Using assert, Static Import, Invoking Overloaded Constructors Through this()

5.1 Enumerations
An enumeration is a list of named constants. In Java, enumerations define class types. That is,
in Java, enumerations can have constructors, methods and variables. An enumeration is
created using the keyword enum. Following is an example –

enum Person
{
Married, Unmarried, Divorced, Widowed
}

The identifiers like Married, Unmarried etc. are called as enumeration Constants. Each such
constant is implicitly considered as a public static final member of Person.

After defining enumeration, we can create a variable of that type. Though enumeration is a
class type, we need not use new keyword for variable creation, rather we can declare it just
like any primitive data type. For example,
Person p= Person.Married;

We can use == operator for comparing two enumeration variables. They can be used in
switch-case
also. Printing an enumeration variable will print the constant name. That is,
System.out.println(p); // prints as Married

Consider the following program to illustrate working of enumerations:

enum Person
{
Married, Unmarried, Divorced, Widowed
}

class EnumDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
Person p1;

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p1=Person.Unmarried;
System.out.println("Value of p1 :" + p1);

Person p2= Person.Widowed;

if(p1==p2)
System.out.println("p1 and p2 are same");
else
System.out.println("p1 and p2 are different");

switch(p1)
{
case Married: System.out.println("p1 is Married");
break;
case Unmarried: System.out.println("p1 is Unmarried");
break;
case Divorced: System.out.println("p1 is Divorced");
break;
case Widowed: System.out.println("p1 is Widowed");
break;
}
}
}

5.1.1 The values() and valueOf() Methods

All enumerations contain two predefined methods: values() and valueOf(). Their general
forms are shown here:
public static enum-type[] values()
public static enum-type valueOf(String str)

The values() method returns an array of enumeration constants. The valueOf() method
returns the enumeration constant whose value corresponds to the string passed in str.

enum Person
{
Married, Unmarried, Divorced, Widowed
}
class EnumDemo
{ public static void main(String args[])
{ Person p;

System.out.println("Following are Person constants:");

Person all[]=Person.values();

for(Person p1:all)
System.out.println(p1);

p=Person.valueOf("Married");
System.out.println("p contains "+p);
}
}

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Output:
Following are Person constants:
Married
Unmarried
Divorced
Widowed
p contains Married

5.1.2 Java Enumerations are Class Types

Java enumeration is a class type. That is, we can write constructors, add instance variables
and methods, and even implement interfaces. It is important to understand that each
enumeration constant is an object of its enumeration type. Thus, when you define a constructor
for an enum, the constructor is called when each enumeration constant is created. Also,
each enumeration constant has its own copy of any instance variables defined by the
enumeration.

enum Apple
{
Jonathan(10), GoldenDel(9), RedDel(12), Winesap(15), Cortland(8);

private int price;

Apple(int p)
{
price = p;
}

int getPrice()
{
return price;
}
}

class EnumDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
Apple ap;
System.out.println("Winesap costs " + Apple.Winesap.getPrice());

System.out.println("All apple prices:");

for(Apple a : Apple.values())
System.out.println(a + " costs " + a.getPrice() + " cents.");
}
}

Output:
Winesap costs
15 All apple
prices:
Jonathan costs 10 cents.
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GoldenDel costs 9
cents. RedDel costs
12 cents. Winesap
costs 15 cents.
Cortland costs 8
cents.

Here, we have member variable price, a constructor and a member method. When the
variable ap is declared in main( ), the constructor for Apple is called once for each constant
that is specified.

Although the preceding example contains only one constructor, an enum can offer two or
more overloaded forms, just as can any other class. Two restrictions that apply to
enumerations:
– an enumeration can’t inherit another class.
– an enum cannot be a superclass.

5.1.3 Enumerations Inherits Enum

All enumerations automatically inherited from java.lang.Enum. This class defines several
methods that are available for use by all enumerations. We can obtain a value that indicates
an enumeration constant’s position in the list of constants. This is called its ordinal value, and
it is retrieved by calling the ordinal() method, shown here:
final int ordinal( )

It returns the ordinal value of the invoking constant. Ordinal values begin at zero. We can
compare the ordinal value of two constants of the same enumeration by using the
compareTo() method. It has this general form:
final int compareTo(enum-type e)

The usage will be –

e1.compareTo(e2);

Here, e1 and e2 should be the enumeration constants belonging to same enum type. If the
ordinal value of e1 is less than that of e2, then compareTo() will return a negative value. If
two ordinal values are equal, the method will return zero. Otherwise, it will return a positive
number.

We can compare for equality an enumeration constant with any other object by using
equals( ), which overrides the equals( ) method defined by Object.

enum Person
{
Married, Unmarried, Divorced, Widowed
}

enum MStatus
{
Married, Divorced
}

class EnumDemo
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{
public static void main(String args[])
{
Person p1, p2, p3;

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MStatus m=MStatus.Married;

System.out.println("Ordinal values are: ");

for(Person p:Person.values())
System.out.println(p + " has a value " + p.ordinal());

p1=Person.Married;
p2=Person.Divorced;
p3=Person.Married;

if(p1.compareTo(p2)<0)
System.out.println(p1 + " comes before "+p2);
else if(p1.compareTo(p2)==0)
System.out.println(p1 + " is same as "+p2);
else
System.out.println(p1 + " comes after "+p2);

if(p1.equals(p3))
System.out.println("p1 & p3 are same");

if(p1==p3)
System.out.println("p1 & p3 are same");

if(p1.equals(m))
System.out.println("p1 & m are same");
else
System.out.println("p1 & m are not same");

//if(p1==m) Generates error

//System.out.println("p1 & m are same");
}
}

5.2 Type Wrappers

Java uses primitive types (also called simple types), such as int or double, to hold the basic
data types supported by the language. Primitive types, rather than objects, are used for
these quantities for the sake of performance. Using objects for these values would add an
unacceptable overhead to even the simplest of calculations. Thus, the primitive types are
not part of the object hierarchy, and they do not inherit Object. Despite the performance
benefit offered by the primitive types, there are times when you will need an object
representation. For example, you can’t pass a primitive type by reference to a method. Also,
many of the standard data structures implemented by Java operate on an object, which
means that you can’t use these data structures to store primitive types. To handle these
(and other) situations, Java provides type wrappers, which are classes that encapsulate a
primitive type within an object.

The type wrappers are Double, Float, Long, Integer, Short, Byte, Character, and Boolean.
These classes offer a wide array of methods that allow you to fully integrate the primitive
types into Java’s object hierarchy.

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Primitive Wrapper
boolean java.lang.Boolean
byte java.lang.Byte
char java.lang.Charact
er
double java.lang.Double
float java.lang.Float
int java.lang.Integer
long java.lang.Long
short java.lang.Short
void java.lang.Void

 Character Wrappers: Character is a wrapper around a char. The constructor for

Character is Character(char ch)

Here, ch specifies the character that will be wrapped by the Character object being
created. To obtain the char value contained in a Character object, call charValue(),
shown here:
char charValue( )

It returns the encapsulated character.

 Boolean Wrappers: Boolean is a wrapper around boolean values. It defines these

constructors: Boolean(boolean boolValue)
Boolean(String boolString)

In the first version, boolValue must be either true or false. In the second version, if
boolString
contains the string “true” (in uppercase or lowercase), then the new Boolean object
will be true.
Otherwise, it will be false. To obtain a boolean value from a Boolean
object, use boolean booleanValue( )

It return the boolean equivalent of the invoking object.

 The Numeric Type Wrappers: The most commonly used type wrappers are those that
represent numeric values. All of the numeric type wrappers inherit the abstract class
Number. Number declares methods that return the value of an object in each of the
different number formats. These methods are shown here:
byte byteValue( )
double doubleValue( )
float floatValue( )
int intValue( )
long longValue( )

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short shortValue( )

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For example, doubleValue( ) returns the value of an object as a double, floatValue( )
returns the value as a float, and so on. These methods are implemented by each of
the numeric type wrappers.

All of the numeric type wrappers define constructors that allow an object to be
constructed from a given value, or a string representation of that value. For example,
here are the constructors defined for Integer:
Integer(int num)
Integer(String str)

If str does not contain a valid numeric value, then a NumberFormatException is

thrown. All of the type wrappers override toString(). It returns the human-readable
form of the value contained within the wrapper. This allows you to output the value
by passing a type wrapper object to println(), for example, without having to convert
it into its primitive type.

Ex:
class TypeWrap
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
Character ch=new Character('#');
System.out.println("Character is " + ch.charValue());

Boolean b=new Boolean(true);

System.out.println("Boolean is " + b.booleanValue());

Boolean b1=new Boolean("false");

System.out.println("Boolean is " + b1.booleanValue());

Integer iOb=new Integer(12); //boxing

int i=iOb.intValue(); //unboxing
System.out.println(i + " is same as " + iOb);

Integer a=new Integer("21");

int x=a.intValue();
System.out.println("x is " + x);

String s=Integer.toString(25);
System.out.println("s is " +s);
}
}

Output:
Character is #
Boolean is true
Boolean is
false 12 is
same as 12
x is 21
s is 25

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5.3 I/O Basics
Java programs perform I/O through streams. A stream is a logical device that either produces
or consumes information. A stream is linked to a physical device by the Java I/O system. All
streams behave in the same manner, even if the actual physical devices to which they are
linked differ. Thus, the same I/O classes and methods can be applied to any type of device.
Java defines two types of streams: byte and character. Byte streams are used for reading or
writing binary data. Character streams provide a convenient means for handling input and
output of characters.

5.3.1 Reading Console Input

In Java, console input is accomplished by reading from System.in. To obtain a character
based stream that is attached to the console, wrap System.in in a BufferedReader object.
BufferedReader supports a buffered input stream. Its most commonly used constructor is
shown here:
BufferedReader(Reader inputReader)

Here, inputReader is the stream that is linked to the instance of BufferedReader that is being
created. To obtain an InputStreamReader object that is linked to System.in, use the following
constructor:
InputStreamReader(InputStream inputStream)

Because System.in refers to an object of type InputStream, it can be used for inputStream.

Putting it all together, the following line of code creates a BufferedReader that is connected
to the keyboard:

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

After this statement executes, br is a character-based stream that is linked to the console
through System.in. To read a character from a BufferedReader , we use read() method. Each
time that read( ) is called, it reads a character from the input stream and returns it as an
integer value. It returns –1 when the end of the stream is encountered.

import java.io.*;
class BRRead
{
public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException
{
char c;
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

System.out.println("Enter characters, 'q' to quit.");

do
{
c = (char) br.read();
System.out.println(c);
} while(c != 'q');
}
}
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Sample Output:
Enter characters, 'q' to
quit. abcdjqmn
a
b
c
d
j
q

The above program allows reading any number of characters and stores them in buffer.
Then, all the characters are read from the buffer till the ‘q’ is found and are displayed.

In Java, the data read from the console are treated as strings (or sequence of characters).
So, if we need to read numeric data, we need to parse the string to respective numeric type
and use them later in the program. Following is a program to read an integer value.

import java.io.*;
class BRRead
{
public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException
{
int x;
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

System.out.println("Enter a number:");

x=Integer.parseInt((br.readLine()).toString());

x=x+5;
System.out.println(x);
}
}

5.3.2 Writing Console Output

Console output can be achieved using print() and println() methods. The PrintStream class
provides another method write() which is capable of printing only low-order 8-bit values.

Ex:
int b;
b = 'A';
System.out.write(b);
System.out.write('\n');

5.3.3 PrintWriter Class

PrintWriter is one of the character-based classes. System.out is used to write stream of bytes.
As there is a limitation for size of bytes, for most generic program (that supports various
languages in the world), it is better to use PrintWriter class object to display the output. We
can decide whether to flush the stream from the buffer after every newline by setting 2nd
argument of the PrintWriter class constructor as true.

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import java.io.*;
public class PrintWriterDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(System.out, true);
pw.println("This is a string");

int i = -7;
pw.println(i);
double d = 4.5e-7;
pw.println(d);
}
}

5.3.4 Reading and Writing Files

Java provides a number of classes and methods that allow you to read and write files. In
Java, all files are byte-oriented, and Java provides methods to read and write bytes from and
to a file. However, Java allows you to wrap a byte-oriented file stream within a character-
based object. Two classes used:
FileInputStrea
m
FileOutputStrea
m

To open a file, you simply create an object of one of these classes, specifying the name of
the file as an argument to the constructor. Two constructors are of the form:
FileInputStream(String fileName) throws FileNotFoundException
FileOutputStream(String fileName) throws FileNotFoundException

Here, fileName specifies the name of the file that you want to open. When you create an input stream,
if the file does not exist, then FileNotFoundException is thrown. For output streams, if the file
cannot be created, then FileNotFoundException is thrown. When an output file is opened, any
preexisting file by the same name is destroyed. When you are done with a file, you should
close it by calling close( ). To read from a file, you can use a version of read( ) that is defined
within FileInputStream. To write data into a file, you can use the write( ) method defined by
FileOutputStream.

Program to read data from a file:

Note to students: First create a file(using Notepad) with name “test.txt” and save it in the
folder (same place where you are going to keep your Java programs). Write some contents
into this file. Then create a Java program as shown below –

import java.io.*;

class ReadFile
{
public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException
{
int i;
FileInputStream f;

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try
{

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f = new FileInputStream("test.txt");
} catch(FileNotFoundException e)
{
System.out.println("File Not Found");
return;
}

do
{
i = f.read();
if(i != -1)
System.out.print((char) i);
} while(i != -1);

f.close();
}
}

When you run above program, contents of the “test.txt” file will be displayed. If you have not
created the
test.txt file before running the program, then “File Not Found” exception will be caught.

Program to write data into a File:

To read the data from a file, it is obvious that the file must already exist in readable format.
But, to write a data into a file, the file need not exist in the folder. Instead, when the
statement to open a file to write the data is encountered in the program a file with
specified name will be created. The data written will be then stored into it. If the specified
file already exists inside the folder, it will be overwritten by the new data. Hence, the
programmer must be careful.

Consider the below given program:

import java.io.*;

class WriteFile
{
public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException
{
int i;
FileOutputStream fout;
char c;

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));

System.out.println("Enter characters, 'q' to quit.");

try
{
fout = new FileOutputStream("test1.txt");
} catch(FileNotFoundException e)
{
System.out.println("Error Opening Output File");
return;
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}

do
{
c = (char) br.read();
fout.write((int)c);
} while(c != 'q');
}
}

When you run above program, it will ask you to enter few characters. Give some random
characters as an input and provide ‘q’ to quit. The program will read all these characters
from the buffer and write into the file “test1.txt”. Go the folder where you have saved this
program and check for a text file “test1.txt”. Open the file manually (by double clicking on it)
and see that all characters that you have entered are stored in this file.

5.4 Applets
Using Java, we can write either Application or Applet. Applets are small applications that are
accessed on an Internet server, transported over the Internet, automatically installed, and
run as part of a web document. After an applet arrives on the client, it has limited access to
resources so that it can produce a graphical user interface and run complex computations
without introducing the risk of viruses or breaching data integrity.

To write an applet, we need to import Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) classes. Applets
interact with the user (either directly or indirectly) through the AWT. The AWT contains
support for a window-based, graphical user interface. We also need to import applet
package, which contains the class Applet. Every applet that you create must be a subclass
of Applet. Consider the below given program:

import java.awt.*;
import java.applet.*;

/*
<applet code="SimpleApplet" width=200 height=60>
</applet>
*/

public class SimpleApplet extends Applet

{
public void paint(Graphics g)
{
g.drawString("A Simple Applet", 20, 20);
}
}

The class SimpleApplet must be declared as public, because it will be accessed by code that
is outside the program. The paint() method is defined by AWT and must be overridden by the
applet. paint( ) is called each time that the applet must redisplay its output. This situation
can occur for several reasons:
– the window in which the applet is running can be overwritten by another
window and then uncovered.
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– the applet window can be minimized and then restored.

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– when the applet begins execution.
The paint( ) method has one parameter of type Graphics. This parameter contains the
graphics context, which describes the graphics environment in which the applet is running.
This context is used whenever output to the applet is required. drawString( ) is a member of
the Graphics class used to output a string beginning at the specified X,Y location. (Upper left
corner is 0,0)

The compilation of the applet is same as any normal Java program. But, to run the applet,
we need some HTML (HyperText Markup Language) support. <applet> tag is used for this
purpose with the attributes code which is assigned with name of the class file, and size of
the applet window in terms of width and height. The HTML script must be written as
comment lines. Use the following statements:

javac SimpleApplet.java //for compilation

appletviewer SimpleApplet.java //for execution

When you run above program, you will get an applet window as shown below –

Applet Life Cycle: Applet class has five important methods, and any class extending Applet
class may override these methods. The order in which these methods are executed is
known as applet life cycle as explained below:

 init(): This is the first method to be called. This is where you should initialize variables.
This method is called only once during the run time of your applet.
 start( ) : It is called after init(). It is also called to restart an applet after it has been
stopped. start() is called each time an applet’s HTML document is displayed onscreen.
So, if a user leaves a web page and comes back, the applet resumes execution at
start().
 paint( ): This is called each time your applet’s output must be redrawn.
 stop( ) : This method is called when a web browser leaves the HTML document
containing the applet—when it goes to another page, for example. When stop() is
called, the applet is probably running. You should use stop() to suspend threads that
don’t need to run when the applet is not visible. You can restart them when start() is
called if the user returns to the page.
 destroy( ) : This method is called when the environment determines that your applet
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needs to be removed completely from memory. At this point, you should free up any
resources the applet may be using. The stop() method is always called before
destroy().

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Diagrammatic representation of applet life-cycle is shown in figure given below:

Few key points about applets:

– Applets do not need a main() method.
– Applets must be run under an applet viewer or a Java-compatible browser.
– User I/O is not accomplished with Java’s stream I/O classes. Instead,
applets use the interface provided by the AWT or Swing

5.5 String Handling

A string is a sequence of character and Java implements strings as objects of type String.
Implementing strings as built-in objects allows Java to provide a full complement of features
that make string handling convenient. For example, Java has methods to compare two
strings, search for a substring, concatenate two strings, and change the case of letters
within a string. Also, String objects can be constructed a number of ways, making it easy to
obtain a string when needed. Once a String object has been created, you cannot change the
characters of that string. Whenever we need any modifications, a new string object
containing modifications has to be created. However, a variable declared as String reference
can point to some other String object, and hence can be changed.

In case, we need a modifiable string, we should use StringBuffer or StringBuilder classes.

String, StringBuffer and StringBuilder classes are in java.lang and are final classes. Thus, no
class can inherit these classes. All these classes implement CharSequence interface.

5.5.1 The String Constructors

There are several constructors for String class.

1. To create an empty string, use default constructor:

String s= new String();

2. To create a string and initialize:

String s= new String(“Hello”);

3. To create a string object that contains same characters as another string object:
String(String strObj);

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For example,
String s= new String(“Hello”);
String s1= new String(s);

4. To create a string having initial values:

String(char chars[])

For example,
char ch[]={‘h’, ‘e’, ‘l’, ‘l’, ‘o’};
String s= new String(ch); //s contains hello

5. To specify a sub-range of a character array as an initializer use the following

constructor:
String(char chars[ ], int startIndex, int numChars)

For example,
char ch[]={‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’, ‘f’’, ‘g’};
String s= new String(ch, 2, 3); //Now, s contains cde

• Even though Java’s char type uses 16 bits to represent the basic Unicode character
set, the typical format for strings on the Internet uses arrays of 8-bit bytes
constructed from the ASCII character set. Because 8-bit ASCII strings are common,
the String class provides constructors that initialize a string when given a byte array.

6. The general forms are:

String(byte asciiChars[ ])
String(byte asciiChars[ ], int startIndex, int numChars)

For example,
byte ascii[] = {65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70 };
String s1 = new String(ascii); // s1 contains ABCDEF
String s2 = new String(ascii, 2, 3); // s2 contains CDE

• JDK 5 and higher versions have two more constructors. The first one supports the
extended Unicode character set.

7. The general form:

String(int codePoints[ ], int startIndex, int numChars)

here, codePoints is array containing Unicode points.

8. Another constructor supports StringBuilder:

String(StringBuilder strBuildObj)

5.5.2 String Length

The length of a string is the number of characters that it contains. To obtain this value, call
the length()
method. For example,
String s=new String(“Hello”);
System.out.println(s.length()); //prints 5

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5.5.3 Special String Operations
Java supports many string operations. Though there are several string handling methods
are available, for the use of programmer, Java does many operations automatically without
requiring a call for separate method. This adds clarity to the program. We will now see few
of such operations.

• String Literals: Instead of using character arrays and new operator for creating string
instance, we can use string literal directly. For example,
char ch[]={‘H’, ‘e’, ‘l’, ‘l’, ‘o’};
String s1=new String(ch);
or
String s2= new String (“Hello”);
Can be re-written, for simplicity, as –
String s3=“Hello”; //usage of string literal

A String object will be created for every string literal and hence, we can even use,
System.out.println(“Hello”.length()); //prints 5

• String Concatenation: Java does not allow any other operator than + on strings.
Concatenation of two or more String objects can be achieved using + operator. For
example,
String age = “9”;
String s = "He is " + age + " years old.";
System.out.println(s); //prints He is 9 years old.

One practical use of string concatenation is found when you are creating very long
strings. Instead of letting long strings wrap around within your source code, you can
break them into smaller pieces, using the + to concatenate them.
String longStr = "This could have been " +
"a very long line that would have " +
"wrapped around. But string concatenation " +
"prevents this.";
System.out.println(longStr);

 String Concatenation with Other Data Types: We can concatenate String with other data
types. For example,
int age = 9;
String s = "He is " + age + " years old.";
System.out.println(s); //prints He is 9 years old.

Here, the int value in age is automatically converted into its string representation
within a String object. The compiler will convert an operand to its string equivalent
whenever the other operand of the + is an instance of String. But, we should be
careful while mixing data types:
String s= “Four : ” + 2 + 2;
System.out.println(s); //prints Four : 22

This is because, “Four :” is concatenated with 2 first, then the resulting string is again
concatenated with 2. We can prevent this by using brackets:
String s = “Four : ” + (2+2);
System.out.println(s); //prints Four : 4

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• String Conversion and toString(): Java uses valueOf( ) method for converting data into
its string representation during concatenation. valueOf( ) is a string conversion
method defined by String. valueOf( ) is overloaded for all the primitive types and for
type Object. For the primitive types, valueOf( ) returns a string that contains the
human-readable equivalent of the value with which it is called. For objects, valueOf( )
calls the toString( ) method on the object. Every class implements toString( ) because
it is defined by Object. However, the default implementation of toString( ) is seldom
sufficient. For our own classes, we may need to override toString() to give our own
string representation for user-defined class objects. The toString( ) method has this
general form:
String toString( )

To implement toString( ), simply return a String object that contains the human-
readable string that appropriately describes an object of our class.

class Box
{
double width, height, depth;

Box(double w, double h, double d)

{ width = w;
height = h;
depth = d;
}

public String toString()

{
return "Dimensions are " + width + "by" + depth + "by" + height;
}
}

class StringDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
Box b = new Box(10, 12, 14);
String s = "Box b: " + b; // concatenate Box object
System.out.println(s); // convert Box to string
System.out.println(b);
}
}

Output:
Box b: Dimensions are 10.0 by 14.0 by 12.0
Dimensions are 10.0 by 14.0 by 12.0

Note: Observe that, Box’s toString( ) method is automatically invoked when a Box
object is used in a concatenation expression or in a call to println( ).

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5.5.4 Character Extraction Methods
The String class provides different ways for extracting characters from a string object.
Though a String object is not a character array, many of the String methods use an index
into a string object for their operation.

• charAt() : This method is used to extract a single character from a String. It has
this general form:
char charAt(int where)

Here, where is the index of the character that you want to obtain. The value of where
must be nonnegative and specify a location within the string. For example,
char ch;
ch= “Hello”.charAt(1); //ch now contains e

• getChars() : If you need to extract more than one character at a time, you can use this
method. It has the following general form:

void getChars(int sourceStart, int sourceEnd, char target[], int targetStart)

sourceStart specifies the index of the beginning of the substring

sourceEnd specifies an index that is one past the end of the desired
substring. (i.e. the substring contains the characters from sourceStart
through sourceEnd–1)
target specifies the array which receives the substring
targetStart is the index within target at which the substring will be copied

Care must be taken to assure that the target array is large enough to hold the
number of characters in the specified substring.
class StringDemo1
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
String s = "This is a demo of the getChars method.";
int start = 10;
int end = 14;
char buf[] = new char[end - start];
s.getChars(start, end, buf, 0);
System.out.println(buf);
}
}
Output:
demo

• getBytes() : It is an alternative to getChars() that stores the characters in an array of

bytes. It uses the default character-to-byte conversions provided by the platform.
Here is its simplest form:
byte[ ] getBytes( )

Other forms of getBytes( ) are also available. getBytes( ) is most useful when you are
exporting a String value into an environment that does not support 16-bit Unicode
characters. For example, most Internet protocols and text file formats use 8-bit ASCII
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for all text interchange.

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• toCharArray() : If you want to convert all the characters in a String object into a
character array, the easiest way is to call toCharArray( ). It returns an array of
characters for the entire string. It has this general form:
char[ ] toCharArray( )

This function is provided as a convenience, since it is possible to use getChars( ) to

achieve the same result.

String s1="hello";
char[] ch=s1.toCharArray();

for(int i=0;i<ch.length;i++)
System.out.print(ch[i]);

5.5.5 String Comparison Methods

The String class provides several methods to compare strings or substrings within strings.

• equals() and equalsIgnoreCase(): To compare two strings for equality, we have two
methods:
boolean equals(Object str)
boolean equalsIgnoreCase(String str)

Here, str is the String object being compared with the invoking String object. The first
method is case sensitive and returns true, if two strings are equal. The second
method returns true if two strings are same, whatever may be their case.

String s1 = "Hello";
String s2 = "Hello";
String s3 = "Good-bye";
String s4 = "HELLO";
System.out.println(s1.equals(s2)); //true
System.out.println(s1.equals(s3)); //false
System.out.println(s1.equals(s4)); //false
System.out.println(s1.equalsIgnoreCase(s4)); //true

• regionMatches(): The regionMatches( ) method compares a specific region inside a

string with another specific region in another string. There is an overloaded form that
allows you to ignore case in such comparisons. Here are the general forms for these
two methods:

boolean regionMatches(int startIndex, String str2, int str2StartIndex, int numChars)

boolean regionMatches(boolean ignoreCase, int startIndex, String str2, int str2StartIndex, int numChars)

startIndex specifies the index at which the region begins within the invoking
String.
str2 the String being compared.
str2StartIndex The index at which the comparison will start
within str2. numChars The length of the substring being
compared.
ignoreCase used in second version. If it is true, the case of the characters is
ignored.
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Otherwise, case is significant.

String s1= "Hello How are you?";

String s2= "how";

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System.out.println(s1.regionMatches(6,s2,0,3)); //false
System.out.println(s1.regionMatches(true,6,s2,0,3)); //true

Here, the statement s1.regionMatches(6,s2,0,3) will check whether 3 characters

of s2 starting from 0th position will match 3 characters of s1 starting from 6 th position.
Note that, 3 characters starting from 6th position in s1 are “How”. And, s2 is “how”.
These two do not match. If we take another argument true for regionMatches() method,
then case is ignored, and hence it will return true.

• startsWith( ) and endsWith(): These are the specialized versions of the regionMatches()
method. The startsWith() method determines whether a given String begins with a
specified string. The endsWith() method determines whether the String in question
ends with a specified string. They have the following general forms:
boolean startsWith(String str)
boolean endsWith(String str)

Ex:
"Foobar".endsWith("bar") //true
"Foobar".startsWith("Foo") //true

A second form of startsWith( ), lets you specify a starting point:

boolean startsWith(String str, int startIndex)

Here, startIndex specifies the index into the invoking string at which point the search will
begin.
"Foobar".startsWith("bar", 3) //returns true.

• equals( ) v/s == : The equals( ) method compares the characters inside a String object.
The ==
operator compares two object references to see whether they refer to the same
instance.

String s1 = "Hello";
String s2 = new String(s1);
System.out.println(s1.equals(s2)); //true
System.out.println((s1 == s2)); //false

• compareTo(): This method is used to check whether a string is less than, greater than or
equal to the other string. The meaning of less than, greater than refers to the dictionary
order (based on Unicode). It has this general form:
int compareTo(String str)

This method will return 0, if both the strings are same. Otherwise, it will return the
difference between the ASCII values of first non-matching character. If you want to
ignore case differences when comparing two strings, use compareToIgnoreCase(), as
shown here:
int compareToIgnoreCase(String str)

Ex:
String str1 = "String method tutorial";
String str2 = "compareTo method example";

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String str3 = "String method tutorial";

int var1 = str1.compareTo( str2 );

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System.out.println("str1 & str2 comparison: "+var1); // -16

int var2 = str1.compareTo( str3 );

System.out.println("str1 & str3 comparison: "+var2); //0

5.5.6 Searching Strings

The String class provides two methods indexOf() and lastIndexOf() that allow you to
search a string for a specified character or substring. Both these methods are overloaded to
take different types of arguments for doing specific tasks as listed in the table given below –

Method Purpose
int indexOf(int ch) To search for the first occurrence
of a character
int lastIndexOf(int ch) To search for the last occurrence
of a character,
int indexOf(String str) To search for the first or last
occurrence of a substring
int lastIndexOf(String str)
int indexOf(int ch, int startIndex) Used to specify a starting point for
the search. Here, startIndex specifies
int lastIndexOf(int ch, int the index at which point the search
startIndex) begins.
int indexOf(String str, int For indexOf() method, the search
startIndex) runs from startIndex to the end of the
int lastIndexOf(String str, int string.
startIndex) For lastIndexOf( ) method, the
search runs from startIndex to zero.

Following program demonstrates working of all these functions –

class Demo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
String s = "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their
country.";
System.out.println(s.indexOf('t')); //7
System.out.println(s.lastIndexOf('t')); //65
System.out.println(s.indexOf("the")); //7
System.out.println(s.lastIndexOf("the")); //55
System.out.println(s.indexOf('t', 10)); //11
System.out.println(s.lastIndexOf('t', 60)); //55
System.out.println(s.indexOf("the", 10)); //44
System.out.println(s.lastIndexOf("the", 60)); //55
}
}

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5.5.7 Modifying a String
Since String objects cannot be changed, whenever we want to modify a String, we must
either copy it into a StringBuffer or StringBuilder, or use one of the following String methods,
which will construct a new copy of the string with our modifications complete.

 substring(): Used to extract a substring from a given string. It has two formats:
o String substring(int startIndex): Here, startIndex specifies the index at which the
substring will begin. This form returns a copy of the substring that begins at
startIndex and runs to the end of the invoking string.
o String substring(int startIndex, int endIndex): Here, startIndex specifies the
beginning index, and endIndex specifies the stopping point. The string returned
contains all the characters from the beginning index, up to, but not including,
the ending index.

Ex:
String org = "This is a test. This is, too.";
String result ;

result=org.substring(5);
System.out.println(result); //is a test. This is, too.

result=org.substring(5, 7);
System.out.println(result); //is

 concat(): This method can be used to concatenate two

strings: String concat(String str)
This method creates a new object that contains the invoking string with the
contents of str
appended to the end. concat( ) performs the same function as +.
String s1 = "one";
String s2 = s1.concat("two");
is same as
String s1 = "one";
String s2 = s1 + "two";

 replace():The first form of this method replaces all occurrences of one character in the
invoking string with another character.
String replace(char original, char replacement)

Here, original specifies the character to be replaced by the character specified by

replacement. For example,
String s = "Hello".replace('l',
'w'); puts the string “Hewwo” into
s.

The second form of replace( ) replaces one character sequence with

another. String replace(CharSequence original, CharSequence
replacement)

 trim():The trim( ) method returns a copy of the invoking string from which any leading

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and trailing white-space has been removed. It has this general form:
String
trim( ) Here is an
example:

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String s = “ Hello World ".trim();
This puts the string “Hello World” into s by eliminating white-spaces at the beginning
and at the end.

5.5.8 Data Conversion using valueOf()

The valueOf() method converts data from its internal format into a human-readable form. It
is a static method that is overloaded within String for all of Java’s built-in types so that each
type can be converted properly into a string. valueOf() is also overloaded for type Object, so
an object of any class type you create can also be used as an argument. Here are a few of
its forms:
static String valueOf(double num)
static String valueOf(long num)
static String valueOf(Object ob)
static String valueOf(char chars[ ])

For
example, int value=30;
String s1=String.valueOf(value);
System.out.println(s1+10); //prints 3010

5.5.9 Changing Case of Characters within a String

The method toLowerCase() converts all the characters in a string from uppercase to
lowercase. The toUpperCase() method converts all the characters in a string from lowercase
to uppercase. Non- alphabetical characters, such as digits, are unaffected. Here are the
general forms of these methods:
String
toLowerCase()
String
toUpperCase()

For
example, String str = "Welcome!";
String s1 = str.toUpperCase();
System.out.println(s1); //prints WELCOME!
String s2= str.toLowerCase();
System.out.println(s2); //prints welcome!

5.5.10 Additional String Methods

Java provides many more methods as shown in the table given below –

Method Description
int codePointAt(int i) Returns the Unicode code point at the location specified
by i.
int codePointBefore(int i) Returns the Unicode code point at the location that
precedes that specified by i.
int codePointCount(int start, int end) Returns the number of code points in the portion of
the invoking String that is between start and end–1.

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boolean contains(CharSequence str) Returns true if the invoking object contains the string
specified by str. Returns false, otherwise.
boolean contentEquals(CharSequence Returns true if the invoking string contains the same
str) string as str. Otherwise, returns false.

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boolean contentEquals(StringBuffer str) Returns true if the invoking string contains the same
string as str. Otherwise, returns false.
static String format(String Returns a string formatted as specified by fmtstr.
fmtstr, Object ... args)
static String format(Locale Returns a string formatted as specified by fmtstr.
loc, String fmtstr, Object Formatting is governed by the locale specified by loc.
... args)
boolean matches(string regExp) Returns true if the invoking string matches the
regular expression passed in regExp. Otherwise,
returns false.
int offsetByCodePoints(int start, int num) Returns the index with the invoking string that is num
code pointsbeyond the starting index specified by start.

String replaceFirst(String regExp, Returns a string in which the first substring that
String newStr) matches the regular expression specified by regExp is
replaced by newStr.
String replaceAll(String regExp, Returns a string in which all substrings that match
String newStr) the regular expression specified by regExp are
replaced by newStr.
String[ ] split(String regExp) Decomposes the invoking string into parts and
returns an array that contains the result. Each part
is delimited by the regular expression passed in
regExp.
String[ ] split(String Decomposes the invoking string into parts and returns
regExp, an array that contains the result. Each part is
int max) delimited by the regular expression passed in regExp.
The number of pieces is specified by max. If max is
negative, then the invoking string is fully decomposed.
Otherwise, if max contains a nonzero value, the last
entry in the returned array contains the remainder of
the invoking string. If max is zero, the invoking string
is fully decomposed.
CharSequence subSequence(int Returns a substring of the invoking string, beginning
startIndex, at startIndex and stopping at stopIndex. This method
int stopIndex) is required by the CharSequence interface, which is
now implemented by String.

5.5.11 StringBuffer Class

We know that, String represents fixed-length, immutable character sequences. In contrast,
StringBuffer represents growable and writeable character sequences. We can insert
characters in the middle or append at the end using this class. StringBuffer will automatically
grow to make room for such additions and often has more characters pre-allocated than are
actually needed, to allow room for growth.

Constructors: The StringBuffer class has four constructors:

 StringBuffer() : Reserves space for 16 characters without reallocation.
 StringBuffer(int size) : accepts an integer argument that explicitly sets the
size of the buffer
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 StringBuffer(String str) : accepts a String argument that sets the initial contents
of the
StringBuffer object and reserves room for 16 more characters without reallocation.

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 StringBuffer(CharSequence chars) : creates an object that contains the character
sequence contained in chars

StringBuffer class provides various methods to perform certain tasks, which are mainly
focused on changing the content of the string (Remember, String class is immutable –
means content of the String class objects cannot be modified). Some of them are discussed
hereunder:

 length() and capacity(): These two methods can be used to find the length and total
allocated capacity of StringBuffer object. As an empty object of StringBuffer class gets
16 character space, the capacity of the object will be sum of 16 and the length of
string value allocated to that object. Example:

StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer("Hello");

System.out.println(“Original string = " + sb);
System.out.println("length = " + sb.length()); //prints 5
System.out.println("capacity = " + sb.capacity()); //prints 21

 ensureCapacity(): If you want to preallocate room for a certain number of characters

after a StringBuffer has been constructed, you can use this method to set the size of
the buffer. This is useful if you know in advance that you will be appending a large
number of small strings to a StringBuffer. The method ensureCapacity() has this
general form:
void ensureCapacity(int
capacity) Here, capacity specifies the size of
the buffer.

• charAt() and setCharAt(): The value of a single character can be obtained from a
StringBuffer via the charAt() method. You can set the value of a character within a
StringBuffer using setCharAt(). Their general forms are shown here:
char charAt(int where)
void setCharAt(int where, char ch)
For charAt(), where specifies the index of the character being obtained. For setCharAt(),
where specifies the index of the character being set, and ch specifies the new value of
that character. Example:

StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer("Hello");

System.out.println("buffer before = " + sb);
System.out.println("charAt(1) before = " + sb.charAt(1));
sb.setCharAt(1, 'i');
sb.setLength(2); System.out.println("buffer
after = " + sb);
System.out.println("charAt(1) after = " + sb.charAt(1));

Output would be –
buffer before =
Hello charAt(1)
before = e buffer
after = Hi
charAt(1) after = i
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 getChars(): To copy a substring of a StringBuffer into an array, use the getChars( )

method. It has this general form:

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void getChars(int sourceStart, int sourceEnd, char target[ ], int
targetStart)

Here, sourceStart specifies the index of the beginning of the substring, and sourceEnd
specifies an index that is one past the end of the desired substring. This means that
the substring contains the characters from sourceStart through sourceEnd–1. The array
that will receive the characters is specified by target. The index within target at which
the substring will be copied is passed in targetStart. Care must be taken to assure that
the target array is large enough to hold the number of characters in the specified
substring.

• append(): The append() method concatenates the string representation of any other
type of data to the end of the invoking StringBuffer object. It has several overloaded
versions. Here are a few of its forms:
StringBuffer append(String
str) StringBuffer append(int
num) StringBuffer
append(Object obj)
String.valueOf() is called for each parameter to obtain its string representation. The
result is appended to the current StringBuffer object. The buffer itself is returned by
each version of append( ) to allow subsequent calls.

String s;
int a = 42;
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(40);
s = sb.append("a=").append(a).append("!").toString();
System.out.println(s); //prints a=42!

• insert(): The insert() method inserts one string into another. It is overloaded to
accept values of all the simple types, plus Strings, Objects, and CharSequences. Like
append(), it calls String.valueOf( ) to obtain the string representation of the value it
is called with. This string is then inserted into the invoking StringBuffer object. Few
forms are:
– StringBuffer insert(int index, String str)
– StringBuffer insert(int index, char ch)
– StringBuffer insert(int index, Object obj)

Here, index specifies the index at which point the string will be inserted into the
invoking
StringBuffer object. Example:
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer("I Java!");
sb.insert(2, "like ");
System.out.println(sb); //I like Java

• reverse(): Used to reverse the characters within a string.

StringBuffer s = new StringBuffer("abcdef");
System.out.println(s); //abcdef
s.reverse();
System.out.println(s); //fedcba

• delete() and deleteCharAt(): You can delete characters within a StringBuffer by

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using the methods delete() and deleteCharAt(). These methods are shown here:
StringBuffer delete(int startIndex, int endIndex)
It deletes a sequence of characters from the invoking object. Here, startIndex
specifies the index of the first character to remove, and endIndex specifies an index
one past the last character to

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remove. Thus, the substring deleted runs from startIndex to endIndex–1.The
resulting
StringBuffer object is returned.
StringBuffer deleteCharAt(int loc)
It deletes the character at the index specified by loc. It returns the resulting
StringBuffer object. Example:

StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer("This is a test");

sb.delete(4, 7);
System.out.println("After delete: " + sb); //This a test
sb.deleteCharAt(0);
System.out.println("After deleteCharAt: " + sb); //his a test

• replace(): You can replace one set of characters with another set inside a StringBuffer
object by calling replace( ). Its signature is shown here:
StringBuffer replace(int startIndex, int endIndex, String str)

The substring being replaced is specified by the indexes startIndex and endIndex. Thus,
the substring at startIndex through endIndex–1 is replaced. The replacement string is
passed in str. The resulting StringBuffer object is returned.

StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer("This is a test");

sb.replace(5, 7, "was");
System.out.println("After replace: " + sb); //This was a test

• substring() : You can obtain a portion of a StringBuffer by calling substring(). It has the
following two forms:
String substring(int startIndex)
String substring(int startIndex, int endIndex)
The first form returns the substring that starts at startIndex and runs to the end of the
invoking StringBuffer object. The second form returns the substring that starts at
startIndex and runs through endIndex–1. These methods work just like those defined for
String that were described earlier.

Additional StringBuffer Methods

Method Description
StringBuffer Appends a Unicode code point to the end of the
appendCodePoint(int ch) invoking object. A reference to the object is returned.
int codePointAt(int i) Returns the Unicode code point at the location specified
by i.
int codePointBefore(int i) Returns the Unicode code point at the location that
precedes that specified by i.
int codePointCount(int start, Returns the number of code points in the portion of
int end) the invoking String that is between start and end–1.
int indexOf(String str) Searches the invoking StringBuffer for the first
occurrence of str. Returns the index of the match, or –1
if no match is found.

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int indexOf(String str, Searches the invoking StringBuffer for the first
int startIndex) occurrence of str, beginning at startIndex. Returns the
index of the match, or
–1 if no match is found.
int lastIndexOf(String str) Searches the invoking StringBuffer for the last
occurrence of str. Returns the index of the match, or –
1 if no match is found.
int lastIndexOf(String str, Searches the invoking StringBuffer for the last
int startIndex) occurrence of str, beginning at startIndex. Returns the
index of the match, or
–1 if no match is found.
int offsetByCodePoints(int Returns the index with the invoking string that is
start, int num) num code points beyond the starting index
specified by start.
CharSequence subSequence Returns a substring of the invoking string, beginning
(int startIndex, int at startIndex and stopping at stopIndex. This method
is required by the CharSequence interface, which is
stopIndex)
now implemented by StringBuffer.

void trimToSize( ) Reduces the size of the character buffer for the
invoking object to exactly fit the current contents.

5.5.12 StringBuilder Class

J2SE 5 adds a new string class to Java’s already powerful string handling capabilities. This
new class is called StringBuilder. It is identical to StringBuffer except for one important
difference: it is not synchronized, which means that it is not thread-safe. The advantage of
StringBuilder is faster performance. However, in cases in which you are using
multithreading, you must use StringBuffer rather than StringBuilder.

5.6 Other Topics

5.6.1 Using instanceof
Sometimes, we need to check type of the object during runtime of the program. We may
create multiple classes and objects to these classes in a program. In such situations, the
instanceof operator is useful The instanceof operator will return Boolean value – true or false.

class A
{
int i, j;
}
class B
{
int i, j;
}
class C extends A
{
int k;
}

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class InstanceOfEx
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
A a = new A();
B b = new B();
C c = new C();

if(a instanceof A) //this is true

System.out.println("a is instance of A"); //will be printed

if(b instanceof A) //this is false

System.out.println("b is instance of B"); //will not be printed

A ob;
ob = c;

if(ob instanceof C) // true because of inheritance

System.out.println("ob is instance of C"); // will be printed
}
}

5.6.2 Static Import

The statement static import expands the capabilities of the import keyword. By following
import with the keyword static, an import statement can be used to import the static
members of a class or interface. When using static import, it is possible to refer to static
members directly by their names, without having to qualify them with the name of their
class. This simplifies and shortens the syntax required to use a static member.
We have observed earlier that when we need to use some Math functions, we need to use
Math.sqrt(), Math.pow() etc. Using static import feature, we can just use sqrt(), pow() etc. as
shown below –

import static java.lang.Math.sqrt;

import static java.lang.Math.pow;

class Hypot
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
double side1, side2;
double hypot;
side1 = 3.0;
side2 = 4.0;
hypot = sqrt(pow(side1, 2) + pow(side2, 2));
System.out.println(" the hypotenuse is " + hypot);
}
}

5.6.3 Invoking Overloaded Constructors through this()

When working with overloaded constructors, it is sometimes useful for one constructor to
invoke another. In Java, this is accomplished by using another form of the this keyword. The
general form is shown here:
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this(arg-list)

When this() is executed, the overloaded constructor that matches the parameter list
specified by arg-list is executed first. Then, if there are any statements inside the original
constructor, they are executed. The call to this() must be the first statement within the
constructor.

class MyClass
{
int a, b;
MyClass(int i, int j)
{
a = i;
b = j;
}
MyClass(int i)
{
this(i, i); // invokes MyClass(i, i)
}
MyClass( )
{
this(0); // invokes MyClass(0)
}

void disp()
{
System.out.println(“a=”+a + “ b=”+b);
}
}

class thisDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
MyClass m1 = new MyClass();
m1.disp();

MyClass m2 = new MyClass(8);

m2.disp();

MyClass m3 = new MyClass(2,3);

m3.disp();
}
}

Output:
a= 0 b=0
a= 8 b=8
a= 2 b=3

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Questions:
1. Define Enumerations. Give an example.
2. Discuss values() and valueOf() methods in Enumerations with suitable examples.
3. "Enumerations in Java are class types" - justify this statement with appropriate examples.
4. Write a note on ordinal() and compareTo() methods.
5. What are wrapper classes? Explain with examples.
6. Write a program to read n integers from the keyboard and find their average.
7. Write a program to read data from keyboard and to store it into a file.
8. Write a program to read data from an existing file and to display it on console.
9. Define an Applet. Write a program to demonstrate simple applet.
10.Explain life cycle of an applet.
11.List and explain any four constructors of String class with suitable examples.
12.Write a note on following String class methods:
(i) charAt()
(ii)toCharArray()
(iii) regionMatches()
(iv)startsWith() and endsWith()
(v)replace()
(vi)trim()
(vii) substring()

13.Explain various forms of indexOf() and lastIndexOf() methods with a code snippet.
14.Differentiate StringBuffer class methods length() and capacity().
15.Write a note on StringBuffer class methods:
(i) setCharAt()
(ii)append()
(iii) insert()
(iv)reverse()
(v)delete()
(vi)deleteCharAt()
16.Write a note on
(i) instanceof Operator
(ii)static import
(iii) this()

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