This article will help give you a thorough understanding of the underlying principles of object-oriented programming and its concepts.

Once you understand these concepts, you should have the confidence and ability to develop basic problem-solving applications using object-oriented programming principles in Java.

What is Object Oriented Programming?

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a fundamental programming paradigm based on the concept of “objects”. These objects can contain data in the form of fields (often known as attributes or properties) and code in the form of procedures (often known as methods).

What is Java?

Java is a general-purpose, class-based, object-oriented programming language, which works on different operating systems such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.

(Consider also a more advanced alternative to Java, D programming language.)

You can use Java to develop:

Desktop applications

Web applications

Mobile applications (especially Android apps)

Web and application servers

Big data processing

Embedded systems

And much more.

In Java, every application starts with a class name, and this class must match the file name. When saving a file, save it using the class name and add “.java” to the end of the file name.

Let’s write a Java program that prints the message “Hello freeCodeCamp community. My name is …”.

We are going to start by creating our first Java file called Main.java, which can be done in any text editor. After creating and saving the file, we are going to use the below lines of code to get the expected output.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand the above code at the moment. We are going to discuss, step by step, each line of code just below.

For now, I want you to start by noting that every line of code that runs in Java must be in a class.

You may also note that Java is case-sensitive. This means that Java has the ability to distinguish between upper and lower case letters. For example, the variable “myClass” and the variable “myclass” are two totally different things.

Alright, let’s see what that code’s doing:

Let’s first look at the main()  method: public static void main(String[] args).

This method is required in every Java program, and it is the most important one because it is the entry point of any Java program.

Its syntax is always public static void main(String[] args). The only thing that can be changed is the name of the string array argument. For example, you can change args to myStringArgs.

What is a Class in Java?

A class is defined as a collection of objects. You can also think of a class as a blueprint from which you can create an individual object.

What is an Object in Java?

An object is an entity in the real world that can be distinctly identified. Objects have states and behaviors. In other words, they consist of methods and properties to make a particular type of data useful.

A unique identity: Each object has a unique identity, even if the state is identical to that of another object.

What is the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)?

The Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs.

The JVM has two primary functions, which are:

To allow Java programs to run on any device or operating system (this is also known as the “Write once, run anywhere” principle).

And, to manage and optimize program memory.

How Access Modifiers Work in Java

In Java, access modifiers are keywords that set the accessibility of classes, methods, and other members.

These keywords determine whether a field or method in a class can be used or invoked by another method in another class or sub-class.

Access modifiers may also be used to restrict access.

In Java, we have four types of access modifiers, which are:

Default

Public

Private

Protected

Let’s look at each one in more detail now.

Default Access Modifier

The default access modifier is also called package-private. You use it to make all members within the same package visible, but they can be accessed only within the same package.

Note that when no access modifier is specified or declared for a class, method, or data member, it automatically takes the default access modifier.

Public Access Modifier

The public access modifier allows a class, a method, or a data field to be accessible from any class or package in a Java program. The public access modifier is accessible within the package as well as outside the package.

Private Access Modifier

The private access modifier is an access modifier that has the lowest accessibility level. This means that the methods and fields declared as private are not accessible outside the class. They are accessible only within the class which has these private entities as its members.

private String activity: The private access modifier makes the variable “activity” a private one.

SampleClass task = new SampleClass();: We have created an object of SampleClass.

task.activity = “We are learning the core concepts of OOP.”;: On this line of code we are trying to access the private variable and field from another class (which can never be accessible because of the private access modifier).

This is because we are trying to access the private variable and field from another class.

So, the best way to access these private variables is to use the getter and setter methods.

Getters and setters are used to protect your data, particularly when creating classes. When we create a getter method for each instance variable, the method returns its value while a setter method sets its value.

We are learning the core concepts of OOP.

As we have a private variable named task in the above example, we have used the methods getTask() and setTask() in order to access the variable from the outer class. These methods are called getter and setter in Java.

We have used the setter method (setTask()) to assign value to the variable and the getter method (getTask()) to access the variable.

To learn more about the this keyword, you can read this article here.

Protected Access Modifier

When methods and data members are declared protected, we can access them within the same package as well as from subclasses.

We can also say that the  protected access modifier is somehow similar to the default access modifier. It is just that it has one exception, which is its visibility in subclasses.

Note that classes cannot be declared protected. This access modifier is generally used in a parent-child relationship.

What’s this code doing?

In this example, the class  Test which is present in another package is able to call the  multiplyTwoNumbers() method, which is declared protected.

The method is able to do so because the Test class extends class Addition and the protected modifier allows the access of protected members in subclasses (in any packages).

What are Constructors in Java?

A constructor in Java is a method that you use to initialize newly created objects.

We have started by creating the Main class.

After that, we have created a class attribute, which is the variable a.

Third, we have created a class constructor for the Main class.

After that, we have set the initial value for variable a that we have declared. The variable a will have a value of 9. Our program will just take 3 times 3, which is equal to 9. You are free to assign any value to the variable a. (In programming, the symbol “*” means multiplication).

Every Java program starts its execution in the main() method. So, we have used the public static void main(String[] args), and that is the point from where the program starts its execution. In other words, the main() method is the entry point of every Java program.

Now I’ll explain what every keyword in the main() method does.

The public keyword.

The public keyword is an access modifier. Its role is to specify from where the method can be accessed, and who can access it. So, when we make the main() method public, it makes it globally available. In other words, it becomes accessible to all parts of the program.

The static keyword.

When a method is declared with a static keyword, it is known as a static method. So, the Java main() method is always static so that the compiler can call it without or before the creation of an object of the class.

If the main() method is allowed to be non-static, then the Java Virtual Machine will have to instantiate its class while calling the main() method.

The static keyword is also important as it saves unnecessary memory wasting which would have been used by the object declared only for calling the main() method by the Java Virtual Machine.

The Void keyword.

The void keyword is a keyword used to specify that a method doesn’t return anything. Whenever the main() method is not expected to return anything, then its return type is void. So, this means that as soon as the main() method terminates, the Java program terminates too.

Main.

Main is the name of the Java main method. It is the identifier that the Java Virtual Machine looks for as the starting point of the java program.

The String[] args.

This is an array of strings that stores Java command line arguments.

The next step is to create an object of the class Main. We have created a function call that calls the class constructor.

How Methods Work in Java

A method is a block of code that performs a specific task. In Java, we use the term method, but in some other programming languages such as C++, the same method is commonly known as a function.

In Java, there are two types of methods:

User-defined Methods: These are methods that we can create based on our requirements.Standard Library Methods: These are built-in methods in Java that are available to use.

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