Java Viva Question and Answer

Q. Why Java?

A. The programs that we are writing are very similar to their counterparts in several other
languages, so our choice of language is not crucial. We use Java because it is widely
available, embraces a full set of modern abstractions, and has a variety of automatic
checks for mistakes in programs, so it is suitable for learning to program. There is no
perfect language, and you certainly will be programming in other languages in the future.

Q. Do I really have to type in the programs in the book to try them out?

A. Everyone should type in HelloWorld.java, but you can find all of the code in this
book (and much more) on this booksite.

Q. What are Java's rules regarding tabs, spaces and newline characters?

A. There are not many. Java compilers treat them all to be equivalent. For example, we
could also write HelloWorld as follows:

public class HelloWorld { public static void main (

String [] args) { System.out.println("Hello World") ; } }
But we do normally adhere to spacing and indenting conventions when we write Java
programs, just as we always indent paragraphs and lines consistently when we write
prose or poetry.

Q. What are the rules regarding quotation marks?

A. Material inside quotation marks is an exception to the rule of the previous question:
things within quotes are taken literally so that you can precisely specify what gets
printed. If you put any number of successive spaces within the quotes, you get that
number of spaces in the output. If you accidentally omit a quotation mark, the compiler
may get very confused, because it needs that mark to distinguish between characters in
the string and other parts of the program. To print a quotation mark, a newline, or a tab,
use \", \n, or \t, respectively, within the quotation marks.

Q. What is the meaning of the words public, static and void?

A. These keywords specify certain properties of main() that you will learn about later in
the book. For the moment, we just include these keywords in the code (because they are
required) but do not refer to them in the text.

Q. What happens when you omit a brace or misspell one of the words, like public or
static or main? A. It depends upon precisely what you do. Such errors are called syntax
errors. Try it out and see.

Q. Can a program use more than one command-line argument?

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

A. Yes, you can put several, though we normally use only a few. You refer to the second
one as args[1], the third one as args[2], and so forth. Note that we start counting from
0 in Java.

Q. What Java systems libraries and methods are available for me to use?

A. There are thousands of them, but we introduce them to you in a deliberate fashion in
this book to avoid overwhelming you with choices.

Q. How should I format my code? How should I comment my code?

A. Programmers use coding guidelines to make programs easier to read, understand, and
maintain. As you gain experience, you will develop a coding style, just as you develop
style when writing prose. Appendix B provides some guidelines for formatting and
commenting your code. We recommend returning to this appendix after you've written a
few programs.

Q. What exactly is a .class file?

A. It's a binary file (sequence of 0s and 1s). If you are using Unix or OS X, you can
examine its contents by typing od -x HelloWorld.class at the command prompt. This
displays the results in hexadecimal (base 16). In deference to Java's name, the first word
of every .class file is cafe.

Q. How do I get the | symbol on my keyboard?

A. It's there. Often it's above the \ symbol.

Q. Java prints out a ton of digits when I System.out.println() a double. How can I
format it so it displays only 3 digits after the decimal place?

A. Use the method System.out.printf() described in Section 1.5.

Q. Why does the integer quotient -0/3 yield 0, but the double quotient -0.0/3.0 yields -
0.0?

A. Java represent integers using something called two's complement notation, and there is
only one representation of 0. (You'll learn about this in Section 5.1.) Java represents
doubles using IEEE specifications, and there are two distinct representations of the
number zero, 0 and -0. (You'll learn about this in Section 9.1.)

Q. What happens when I use / and % with a negative numerator?

A. Try it and see. -47 / 5 = -9 and -47 % 5 = -2. The quotient is always rounded toward
zero. To ensure the Euclidean property b * (a / b) + (a % b) = a, the result of the
remainder operator can be negative. This convention was inherited from ancestral

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

languages like FORTRAN and C. Some languages (but not Java) include both remainder
and modulo operators because it is often convenient to have a version that returns only
nonnegative integers.

Q. Can I use % with real numbers?

A. Yes. If angle is nonnegative, then angle % (2 * Math.PI) converts the angle to be

between 0 and 2 .

Q. How do I print a "?

A. Since " is a special character when dealing with strings, you must escape the
convention rules by using \". For example, System.out.println("The pig said
\"Oink Oink\" afterwards");.

Q. OK, so then how do I print a \?

A. Use "\\".

Q. Are there any restrictions on the variable names I can use?

A. Yes. A Java identifier is a Java letter, followed by an unlimited sequence of Java

letters and Java digits. Java letters and digits can be drawn from the entire Unicode
character set, although we only use English language characters in this book. By
convention, variables usually begin with a lowercase letter. An identifier cannot be
named any of the following reserved words.

abstract default goto package this

assert do if private throw
boolean double implement protected throws
break else import public transient
byte enum instanceof return true
case extends int short try
catch false interface static void
char final long strictfp volatile
class finally native super while
const float new switch
continue for null synchronized
Q. What are the precedence rules for operators in Java?

A. This table provides the precedence order of operators in Java.

Q. Is there any difference between a += b and a = a + b, where a and b are primitive

types?

A. Possibly, if a and b are of different types. The assignment statement a += b is

equivalent to a = (int) (a + b) if a is of type int. Thus, if b is of type double, a +=
b is legal, but a = a + b is a compile-time error.

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

Q. Why do I need to declare the type of a variable in Java?

A. By specifying the type, the compiler can alert you of potential errors, say if you try to
multiply an integer with a string. For the same reason, when doing physics calculations, it
is always a good idea to keep track of the units and make sure they "type check." For
small programs, this may not seem important; for large programs it is crucial. The Ariane
5 rocket exploded 40 seconds after takeoff because of a bug in its software that
incorrectly converted a 64 bit real number into a 16 bit integer.

Q. Why is the type for real numbers called double?

A. Historically, the type for floating point numbers was float, but they had limited
accuracy. The type double was introduced as a floating point type with twice as much
accuracy.

Q. Is it correct to say that using parentheses can only change

A. Almost, with one surprising exception. The literal value 2147483648 (2^31) is only
permitted as an operand of the unary minus operator, i.e., -2147483648. Enclosing it in
parentheses, i.e., -(2147483648), leads to a compile-time error.

Q. My program is stuck in an infinite loop. How do I stop it?

A. For DrJava, click the menu option Tools -> Reset Interactions. For OS X Terminal
and Linux shell, type <ctrl-c>. That is, hold down the key labeled ctrl or control and
press the c key. For Windows Command Prompt type <ctrl-z>.

Q. How can I check whether two strings are equal? Using == doesn't work.

A. This is one of the difference between primitive types (int, double, boolean) and
reference types (String). We'll learn about testing strings for equality in Section 3.1.

Q. Why doesn't the statement if (a <= b <= c) work?

A. The <= operator cannot be chained. Instead, use if (a <= b && b <= c).

Q. Is there an example where you cannot remove the curly braces from a one-statement
block?

A. The first code fragment is legal (but pointless), while the second is a compile-time
error. Technically, the second line in the second fragment is a declaration and not a
statement.

// legal
for (int i = 0; i <= N; i++) {
int x = 5;

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

// illegal
for (int i = 0; i <= N; i++)
int x = 5;

Java Virtual Machines

The JVM is a crucial component of the Java Platform. Because JVMs are available for
many hardware and software platforms, Java can be both middleware and a platform in
its own right hence the trademark write once, run anywhere. The use of the same
bytecode for all platforms allows Java to be described as "compile once, run anywhere",
as opposed to "write once, compile anywhere", which describes cross-platform compiled
languages. The JVM also enables such features as Automated Exception Handling that
provides 'root-cause' debugging information for every software error (exception)
independent of the source code.

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

The JVM is distributed along with a set of standard class libraries that implement the
Java API (Application Programming Interface). An application programming interface is
what a computer system, library or application provides in order to allow data exchange
between them. They are bundled together as the Java Runtime Environment.

Java Buzzwords

Java Virtual Machine:-

Java was designed with a concept of write once and run everywhere.
Java Virtual Machine plays the central role in this concept. The JVM is the
environment in which Java programs execute. It is a software that is
implemented on top of real hardware and operating system. When the source

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

code (.java files) is compiled, it is translated into byte codes and then placed
into (.class) files. The JVM executes these bytecodes. So Java byte codes
can be thought of as the machine language of the JVM. A JVM can either
interpret the bytecode one instruction at a time or the bytecode can be
compiled further for the real microprocessor using what is called a just-in-
time compiler. The JVM must be implemented on a particular platform
before compiled programs can run on that platform.

Object Oriented Programming:-

Since Java is an object oriented programming language it has following

features:

Reusability of Code
Emphasis on data rather than procedure
Data is hidden and cannot be accessed by external functions
Objects can communicate with each other through functions
New data and functions can be easily added.

Java has powerful features. The following are some of them:-

Simple
Reusable
Portable (Platform Independent)
Distributed
Robust
Secure
High Performance
Dynamic

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

Threaded
Interpreted

Object Oriented Programming is a method of implementation in which

programs are organized as cooperative collection of objects, each of which
represents an instance of a class, and whose classes are all members of a
hierarchy of classes united via inheritance relationships.
OOP Concepts
Four principles of Object Oriented Programming are
Abstraction
Encapsulation
Inheritance
Polymorphism
Abstraction
Abstraction denotes the essential characteristics of an object that distinguish
it from all other kinds of objects and thus provide crisply defined conceptual
boundaries, relative to the perspective of the viewer.
Encapsulation
Encapsulation is the process of compartmentalizing the elements of an
abstraction that constitute its structure and behavior ; encapsulation serves to
separate the contractual interface of an abstraction and its implementation.

Encapsulation
* Hides the implementation details of a class.
* Forces the user to use an interface to access data
* Makes the code more maintainable.
Inheritance

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

Inheritance is the process by which one object acquires the properties of

another object.

Polymorphism :-
Polymorphism is the existence of the classes or methods in different forms
or single name denoting different
implementations.

Java is Distributed
With extensive set of routines to handle TCP/IP protocols like HTTP
and FTP java can open and access the objects across net via URLs.

Java is Multithreaded
One of the powerful aspects of the Java language is that it allows
multiple threads of execution to run concurrently within the same program A
single Java program can have many different threads executing
independently and continuously. Multiple Java applets can run on the
browser at the same time sharing the CPU time.

Java is Secure
Java was designed to allow secure execution of code across network.
To make Java secure many of the features of C and C++ were eliminated.
Java does not use Pointers. Java programs cannot access arbitrary addresses
in memory.

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 Java Viva Question and Answer

NOTE:
Why do we need public static void main(String args[]) method in Java
We need

public: The method can be accessed outside the class /package

static: You need not have an instance of the class to access the method
void: Your application need not return a value, as the JVM launcher would return the
value when it exits
main(): This is the entry point for the application

Garbage collection
Automatic garbage collection is another great feature of Java with
which it prevents inadvertent corruption of memory. Similar to C++, Java
has a new operator to allocate memory on the heap for a new object. But it
does not use delete operator to free the memory as it is done in C++ to free
the memory if the object is no longer needed. It is done automatically with
garbage collector.

Java Applications
Java has evolved from a simple language providing interactive
dynamic content for web pages to a predominant enterprise-enabled
programming language suitable for developing significant and critical
applications. Today, It is used for many types of applications including Web
based applications, Financial applications, Gaming applications, embedded
systems, Distributed enterprise applications, mobile applications, Image
processors, desktop applications and many more.

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 Java Viva Question and Answer
If the main() was not static, you would require an instance of the class in order to execute
the method.
If this is the case, what would create the instance of the class? What if your class did not
have a public constructor?

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