Course Overview

Geared for experienced developers, the Basic Java Programming for Developers New to OO hands-on, workshop-style course will provide you with an immersive learning experience that will expand your skillset and open doors to new opportunities within the ever-growing technology landscape. Mastering Java and its powerful capabilities will provide you with the competitive edge you need to stand out in today's fast-paced development world.

Working in a hands-on learning environment led by our expert coach, you’ll thoroughly explore the foundations of the Java platform, essential programming concepts, and advanced topics, ensuring you acquire a strong understanding of the language and its ecosystem. The object-oriented programming principles taught in this course promote code reusability and maintainability, enabling you to streamline development processes and reduce long-term costs.

As you progress through the course, you will also gain familiarity with using an IDE, enhancing your development workflow and collaboration with other Java developers, enabling you to integrate seamlessly into new projects and teams. You’ll also gain practical experience in applying the concepts and techniques learned, solidifying your newly acquired skills, and facilitating their direct application in real-world scenarios. You’ll exit this course empowered to create robust, scalable, and efficient Java-based applications that drive innovation and growth for your organization.

Key Learning Areas

  • Understand the fundamentals of the Java platform, its lifecycle, and the responsibilities of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), enabling you to create efficient and reliable Java applications.
  • Gain proficiency in using the JDK, including navigating its file structure, utilizing the command-line compiler, and executing Java applications, ensuring a smooth development process.
  • Master the course IDE, including its interface, project management, and module creation, to enhance productivity, collaboration, and overall development workflow.
  • Develop solid skills in writing Java classes, defining instance variables, creating object instances, and implementing main methods, forming a strong foundation in Java programming.
  • Acquire expertise in adding methods to Java classes, writing constructors, and leveraging the 'this' keyword, allowing you to create more sophisticated and customizable Java applications.
  • Comprehend and apply core object-oriented programming concepts, such as encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism, to create modular, maintainable, and reusable code.
  • Enhance your knowledge of Java language statements, including arithmetic, comparison, and logical operators, as well as loops and switch expressions, to develop more complex and efficient Java applications.
  • Learn to effectively handle exceptions, create custom exception classes, and use try/catch blocks to ensure the robustness and reliability of your Java applications, minimizing potential runtime issues.

Course Outline

Java: A First Look
The Java Platform

  • The Java Platform
  • Lifecycle of a Java Program
  • Responsibilities of JVM
  • Documentation and Code Reuse

Using the JDK

  • Explain the JDK’s file structure
  • Use the command line compiler to compile a Java class
  • Use the command line Java interpreter to run a Java application class
  • Lab: Exploring MemoryViewer

The IntelliJ Paradigm

  • Introduce the IntelliJ IDE
  • The Basics of the IntelliJ interface
  • IntelliJ Projects and Modules
  • Creating and running Java applications
  • Tutorial: Working with IntelliJ

Getting Started with Java
Writing a Simple Class

  • Write a Java class that does not explicitly extend another class
  • Define instance variables for a Java class
  • Create object instances
  • Primitives vs Object References
  • Implement a main method to create an instance of the defined class
  • Lab: Create a Simple Class

Adding Methods to the Class

  • Write a class with accessor methods to read and write instance variables
  • Write a constructor to initialize an instance with data
  • Write a constructor that calls other constructors of the class to benefit from code reuse
  • Use the this keyword to distinguish local variables from instance variables
  • Lab: Create a Class with Methods

OO Concepts
Object-Oriented Programming

  • Real-World Objects
  • Classes and Objects
  • Object Behavior
  • Methods and Messages
  • Lab: Define and use a New Java class

Inheritance, Abstraction, and Polymorphism

  • Encapsulation
  • Inheritance
  • Method Overriding
  • Polymorphism
  • Lab: Define and use Another Java Class

Essential Java Programming
Language Statements

  • Arithmetic operators
  • Operators to increment and decrement numbers
  • Comparison operators
  • Logical operators
  • Return type of comparison and logical operators
  • Use for loops
  • Switch Expressions
  • Switch Expressions and yield
  • Lab: Looping
  • Lab: Language Statements

Using Strings and Text Blocks

  • Create an instance of the String class
  • Test if two strings are equal
  • Get the length of a string Parse a string for its token components
  • Perform a case-insensitive equality test
  • Build up a string using StringBuffer
  • Contrast String, StringBuffer, and StringBuilder
  • Compact Strings
  • Text Blocks
  • Lab: Fun with Strings
  • Lab: Using StringBuffers and StringBuilders

Specializing in a Subclass

  • Constructing a class that extends another class
  • Implementing equals and toString
  • Writing constructors that pass initialization data to parent constructor
  • Using instanceof to verify type of an object reference
  • Pattern matching for instanceof
  • Overriding subclass methods
  • Safely casting references to a more refined type
  • Lab: Creating Subclasses

Fields and Variables

  • Discuss Block Scoping Rules
  • Distinguish between instance variables and method variables within a method
  • Explain the difference between the terms field and variable
  • List the default values for instance variables
  • Final and Static fields and methods
  • Local Variable type inference
  • Lab: Field Test

Using Arrays

  • Declaring an array reference
  • Allocating an array
  • Initializing the entries in an array
  • Writing methods with a variable number of arguments
  • Lab: Creating an Array

Records

  • Data Objects in Java
  • Introduce records as carrier of immutable data
  • Defining records
  • Lab: Record

Java Packages and Visibility

  • Use the package keyword to define a class within a specific package
  • Discuss levels of accessibility/visibility
  • Using the import keyword to declare references to classes in a specific package
  • Using the standard type naming conventions
  • Visibility in the Java Modular System
  • Correctly executing a Java application class
  • The Java modular system
  • Defining Modules
  • Lab: Defining Modules

Object-Oriented Development
Inheritance and Polymorphism

  • Write a subclass with a method that overrides a method in the superclass
  • Group objects by their common supertype
  • Utilize polymorphism
  • Cast a supertype reference to a valid subtype reference
  • Use the final keyword on methods and classes to prevent overriding
  • Lab: Salaries – Polymorphism

Interfaces and Abstract Classes

  • Define supertype contracts using abstract classes
  • Implement concrete classes based on abstract classes
  • Define supertype contracts using interfaces
  • Implement concrete classes based on interfaces
  • Explain advantage of interfaces over abstract classes
  • Explain advantage of abstract classes over interfaces
  • Static, default and private methods in interfaces
  • Lab: Mailable – Interfaces

Sealed classes

  • Introduce Sealed classes
  • The sealed and permits modifiers
  • Sealed Interfaces

Exception Handling
Introduction to Exception Handling

  • Introduce the Exception architecture
  • Defining a try/catch blocks
  • Checked vs Unchecked exceptions
  • Lab: Exceptions

Exceptions

  • Defining your own application exceptions
  • Automatic closure of resources
  • Suppressed exceptions
  • Handling multiple exceptions in one catch
  • Helpful Nullpointers
  • Enhanced try-with-resources
  • Lab: Exceptional

Java Developer's Toolbox
Developing applications

  • Introduce the wrapper classes
  • Explain Autoboxing and Unboxing
  • Converting String representations of primitive numbers into their primitive types
  • Defining Enumerations
  • Using static imports
  • Deprecating methods
  • Lab: Using Primitive Wrappers
  • Lab: Enumerations (optional)

Advanced Java Programming
Introduction to Generics

  • Generics and Subtyping
  • Bounded Wildcards
  • Generic Methods
  • Legacy Calls to Generics
  • When Generics Should Be Used
  • Lab: DynamicArray

Lambda Expressions and Functional Interface

  • Understanding the concept of functional programming
  • Writing lambda expressions
  • Understanding functional interfaces
  • Lab: Using Lambda

Working with Collections
Collections

  • Provide an overview of the Collection API
  • Review the different collection implementations (Set, List and Queue)
  • Explore how generics are used with collections
  • Examine iterators for working with collections
  • Lab: Create a simple Game using Collections

Using Collections

  • Collection Sorting
  • Comparators
  • Using the Right Collection
  • Lambda expressions in Collections
  • Lab: Using Collections

Bonus Topics: Time Permitting
Streams

  • Understanding the problem with collections in Java
  • Thinking of program solutions in a declarative way
  • Use the Stream API to process collections of data
  • Understand the difference between intermediate and terminal stream operations
  • Filtering elements from a Stream
  • Finding element(s) within a Stream
  • Collecting the elements from a Stream into a List
  • takeWhile and dropWhile intermediate operations
  • Lab: Working with Streams

Collectors

  • Using different ways to collect the items from a Stream
  • Grouping elements within a stream
  • Gathering statistics about numeric property of elements in a stream
  • Lab: Collecting

Who Benefits

This course is not for non-developers or new developers. Possible roles that may attend this course include:

  • Software Developers: Professionals who have been working with other programming languages and want to expand their skillset by learning Java and its object-oriented features.
  • Web Developers: Those who work on web applications and want to enhance their back-end development capabilities with Java.
  • Mobile App Developers: Developers who wish to enter the world of Android app development, where Java is a widely used language for creating mobile applications.
  • Full-Stack Developers: Professionals who have experience with front-end technologies and want to deepen their knowledge of back-end development using Java.
  • Game Developers: Developers who are interested in creating games for various platforms, including desktop, mobile, and web, using Java as their primary programming language.

Prerequisites

To be successful in this course you should have incoming hands-on experience with another programming language.