Introduction to Core Java Programming for OO Experienced Developers (C#, C++ etc.)

Course Objectives

This “skills-centric” course is about 50% hands-on lab and 50% lecture, designed to train attendees in core OO coding and Java development skills, coupling the most current, effective techniques with the soundest industry practices. Our engaging instructors and mentors are highly experienced practitioners who bring years of current "on-the-job" experience into every classroom.

Working in a hands-on learning environment, guided by our expert team, attendees will learn to:

• Understand not only the fundamentals of the Java language, but also its importance, uses, strengths and weaknesses
• Understand the basics of the Java language and how it relates to OO programming and the Object Model
• Learn to use Java multi-threading and exception handling features
• Understand and use classes, inheritance and polymorphism
• Understand and use collections, generics, autoboxing, and enumerations including new Java features and capabilities
• Become familiar with the concept of functional programming using Lambda Expressions
• Process large amounts of data using the Stream API introduced in Java 8
• Take advantage of the Java tooling that is available with the programming environment being used in the class
• Specific Java 8 features: The new Date API, Lambda Expressions, Streams, Collectors

Need different skills or topics?  If your team requires different topics or tools, additional skills or custom approach, this course may be further adjusted to accommodate.  We offer additional Java and JEE programming, design, testing and application security courses which may be blended with this course for a track that best suits your development objectives. Our team will collaborate with you to understand your needs and will target the course to focus on your specific learning objectives and goals.

Course Prerequisites

This is an introductory-level Java programming course, designed for experienced developers who wish to get up and running with Java, or who need to reinforce sound Java coding practices, immediately.  Attendees should have a working knowledge of developing OO software applications. 

Follow-On Courses / Take After: Our core Java training courses provide students with a solid foundation for continued learning based on role, goals, or their areas of specialty.  Our Java developer learning paths offer a wide variety of follow-on courses such as:

• Continued Java & JEE training: Intermediate to Advanced Java, JEE Essentials, Java for Web, Spring / Spring Boot, Microservices / Web Services / REST, Reactive Java Programming / RxJava, Tuning & Performance, Design Patterns & More
• TDD / Test Driven Development, JUnit / Unit Testing, Agile development training
• Secure Java Coding / Java Security and secure application development training
• Mobile developer / Android training

Please see the Related Courses tab for specific Pre-Requisite courses, Related Courses or Follow On training options. Our team will be happy to help you with recommendations for next steps in your Learning Journey.

Course Agenda

Please note that this list of topics is based on our standard course offering, evolved from typical industry uses and trends. We’ll work with you to tune this course and level of coverage to target the skills you need most.

Session: Java: A First Look

Lesson: The Java Platform

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

Lesson: Using the JDK

• Setting Up Environment
• Locating Class Files
• Compiling Package Classes
• Source and Class Files
• Java Applications
• Lab: Exploring MemoryViewer
• Lab: Exploring ColorPicker

Lesson: The Eclipse Paradigm

• Workbench and Workspace
• Views
• Editors
• Perspectives
• Projects
• Tutorial: Working with Eclipse Photon

Session: Getting Started with Java

Lesson: Writing a Simple Class

• Classes in Java
• Class Modifiers and Types
• Class Instance Variables
• Primitives vs. Object References
• Creating Objects
• Lab: Create a Simple Class

Lesson: Adding Methods to the Class

• Passing Parameters into Methods
• Returning a Value from a Method
• Overloaded Methods
• Constructors
• Optimizing Constructor Usage
• Lab: Create a Class with Methods

Lesson: Language Statements

• Operators
• Comparison and Logical Operators
• Looping
• Continue and Break Statements
• The switch Statement
• The for-each() Loop
• Lab: Looping
• Lab: Language Statements

Lesson: Using Strings

• Strings
• String Methods
• String Equality
• StringBuffer
• StringBuilder
• Lab: Fun with Strings
• Lab: Using StringBuffers and StringBuilders

Lesson: Specializing in a Subclass

• Extending a Class
• Casting
• The Object Class
• Default Constructor
• Implicit Constructor Chaining
• Lab: Creating Subclasses
• Lab: Defining the Student Subclass

Session: Essential Java Programming

Lesson: Fields and Variables

• Instance vs. Local Variables: Usage Differences
• Data Types
• Default Values
• Block Scoping Rules
• Final and Static Fields
• Static Methods
• Lab: Field Test

Lesson: Using Arrays

• Arrays
• Accessing the Array
• Multidimensional Arrays
• Copying Arrays
• Variable Arguments
• Lab: Creating an Array
• Lab: Defining the Student Array

Lesson: Java Packages and Visibility

• Class Location of Packages
• The Package Keyword
• Importing Classes
• Executing Programs
• Java Naming Conventions

Session: Advanced Java Programming

Lesson: Inheritance and Polymorphism

• Polymorphism: The Subclasses
• Upcasting vs. Downcasting
• Calling Superclass Methods From Subclass
• The final Keyword
• Lab: Salaries - Polymorphism

Lesson: Interfaces and Abstract Classes

• Separating Capability from Implementation
• Abstract Classes
• Implementing an Interface
• Abstract Classes vs. Interfaces
• Lab: Mailable - Interfaces

Lesson: Exceptions

• Exception Architecture
• Handling Multiple Exceptions
• Automatic Closure of Resources
• Creating Your Own Exceptions
• Throwing Exceptions
• Checked vs. Unchecked Exceptions
• Lab: Exceptions

Session: Java Developer's Toolbox

Lesson: Utility Classes

• Wrapper Classes
• The Number Class
• Random Numbers
• Autoboxing/Unboxing
• The Date Class
• Lab: Using Primitive Wrappers

Lesson: Enumerations and Static Imports

• Enumeration Syntax
• When You Should Use Enumerations
• Using Static Imports
• When You Should Use Static Imports
• Lab: Enumerations

Lesson: The new Date/Time API

• Introduce the new Date/Time API
• LocalDate, LocalDateTime, etc.
• Formatting Dates
• Working with time zones
• Manipulate date/time values
• Lab: Agenda

Session: Collections and Generics

Lesson: Introduction to Generics

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

Lesson: Collections

• Characterizing Collections
• Collection Interface Hierarchy
• Iterators
• The Set Interface
• The List Interface
• Queue Interface
• Map Interfaces
• Using the Right Collection
• Collections and Multithreading
• Lab: Using Hashtable and HashMap
• Lab: Collections Poker
• Lab: Writing a Collection

Session: Lambda Expressions; Collections and Streams

Lesson: Introduction to Lambda Expressions

• Functional vs OO Programming
• Anonymous Inner-classes
• Lambda Expression Syntax
• Functional Interfaces
• Method references
• Constructor references

Lesson: Java 8 Collection Updates

• Introduce the ConcurrentHashMap
• Lambda expressions and Collections
• Lab: Functional Collections

Lesson: Streams

• Processing Collections of data
• The Stream interface
• Reduction and Parallelism
• Filtering collection data
• Sorting Collection data
• Map collection data
• Find elements in Stream
• Numeric Streams
• Create infinite Streams
• Sources for using Streams
• Lab: Working with Streams

Lesson: Collectors

• Creating Collections from a Stream
• Group elements in the Stream
• Multi-level grouping of elements
• Partitioning Streams
• Lab: Collecting

Session: Multithreading and Concurrency

Lesson: Multithreading

• Principles of Multithreading
• Creating a Threaded Class
• Basic Features of the Thread Class
• Thread Scheduling
• Thread Synchronization
• Lab: Simple Thread Class
• Lab: Simple Runnable Class

Lesson: Concurrent Java

• Concurrent Locks are Explicit and Flexible
• Executor Interfaces Provide Thread Management
• Challenges for Concurrent Use of Collections
• Concurrent Collections
• Atomic Variables Avoid Synchronization
• Lab: Working with Concurrent Java
• Lab: Sleeping Threads
• Lab: Safe Data Access
• Lab: Producer/Consumer

Session: Java Application Development

Lesson: Introduction to Annotations

• Annotations Overview
• Working with Java Annotations
• Lab: Annotations
• Lab: Using Annotations

Lesson: Java Data Access JDBC API

• Connecting to the Database
• Statement and PreparedStatement
• ResultSet
• Executing Inserts, Updates, and Deletes
• Controlling Transactions and Concurrency
• Tutorial: Setup The Derby Database
• Lab: Reading Table Data
• Lab: Using JdbcRowSet
• Lab: Executing within a Transaction

Additional Topics: Time Permitting

Lesson: Formatting Strings

• StringJoiner
• String.format
• System.out.printf
• The Formatter class
• Using the formatting syntax

Lesson: Java 8 Concurrency Updates

• The common thread pool
• Atomic variables
• LongAdder and LongAccumulator
• CompletableFuture
• Non-blocking asynchronous tasks
• Lab: CompletableFuture

Course Materials

Each student will receive a Student Guide with course notes, code samples, software tutorials, step-by-step written lab instructions, diagrams and related reference materials and links (as applicable). Students will also receive the project files (or code, if applicable) and solutions required for the hands-on work.

Hands-on Setup Made Simple! Our dedicated tech team will work with you to ensure your student machines and learning environment is setup, tested and ready to go well in advance of the course delivery date, ensuring a smooth start to class and seamless hands-on experience for your students. We offer several flexible student machine setup options including guided manual set up for simple installation directly on student machines, or cloud based / remote hosted lab solutions where students can log in to a complete separate lab environment minus any installations, or we can supply complete turn-key, pre-loaded equipment to bring ready-to-go student machines to your students or in-person facility.  Please inquire for details.