Murach's Beginning Java 2, JDK 5

For the current edition of this book, please see Murach's Java SE 6 (ISBN 9781890774424).

If you want to be a professional Java developer, this book is designed for you. It moves at a quick professional pace, yet doesn't leave you wondering what in the world it's talking about. As one programmer said in an email to us: "It cuts right to the essential information, providing the perfect balance between too many details and too much information. Example apps are incredible - they give a great starting point. I bought another well-known Java book, but they crammed too much information in it, to the point that I spent several hours trying to learn what I learned from your book in about 45 minutes."

As you'd expect, this book teaches you all the core Java skills you need on the job, showing you how to take advantage of time-saving Java features like:

* the Scanner class
* type-safe enumerations
* enhanced for loops
* typed collections
* generics
* autoboxing
* the StringBuilder class

But beyond that, it gives you the practical training you need in both object-oriented programming and data access programming. In particular, it shows you how to use a 3-tiered architecture to separate the business classes, presentation classes, and database classes of an application. It shows you practical techniques for populating business objects with data from files or databases. And it shows you how to use inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, and the factory pattern in a way that is not just understandable but also reflects what's done in the real world. The result is, you'll soon be writing Java applications the way the best professionals do.

To download the book applications...
You can download the code for the book applications, the starting code and test data for the exercises in the book, and sample chapters from the Murach web site.

The Contents for Murach s Beginning Java 2, JDK 5

SECTION 1: Get going fast In the first two chapters, you ll learn how to install the JDK and write applications that use the Scanner class to get user input. Then, you ll learn how to code, test, and debug applications that use BigDecimal arithmetic, validate input data, and won t crash.

SECTION 2: Object-oriented programming Take the mystery out of object-oriented programming as you learn how to create and use your own business classes and objects in a three-tiered architecture. Then, learn how to use inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, type-safe enumerations, and the factory pattern.

SECTION 3: Core Java features through JDK 5 Master the use of arrays, collections, dates, strings, exceptions, and threads. Along the way, learn new 5.0 features like enhanced for loops, typed collections, generics, autoboxing, assertions, and the StringBuilder class.

SECTION 4: GUI programming Learn how to write presentation classes that use Swing components to develop GUI desktop applications that handle events, validate data, and work with business objects. Then, learn how to develop applets, a special type of GUI application that can be downloaded from a web server and run within a client s web browser.

SECTION 5: Data access programming Learn how to write database classes that map business objects to permanent data storage mechanisms like text, binary, or XML files, including random-access files. Then, learn how write database classes that use JDBC to work with a database.

What programmers said about the previous edition...

"This is one of the BEST books on learning any language I ve ever read. So I made it an Editor s Choice on the site, and it says so on every page."
Paul J. Wilczynski, Webmaster, LearningJava.net

"I bought your Java book a week ago and I am already writing useful programs, not toys! "
Richard Cooper, Programmer

"The best book on Java I have seen. I bought my first Murach book in 1987, have bought several more over the years, and have never been disappointed."
Patrick Smith, Sr. Software Engineer, Dayton, Ohio

"If I d seen this book first, I would not have wasted money (and time) on 6 other books! This one is highly organized, clear, and very effective as a learning tool."
Posted at Amazon.com

"Your book is one of the finest I have seen in getting a person ramped up quickly in Java."
Martin D. Chicknavorian, Quality Assurance Engineer, Massachusetts

"The style is clean, very user friendly, and simple. The narrative is totally accurate and focuses on important issues. It is not dumbed down even though it is aimed at the beginning Java programmer. This book is a winner!"
Dr. Richard Wiener, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Object Technology