Let us write a simple Java program to print "Hello World".
/*
* HelloWorld.java - simple java program to print "Hello World"
*/
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String args[]) {
// print "Hello World"
System.out.println("Hello World");
}
}
Above is the simple Java program which would print "Hello World" on execution. While saving the Java program, please make sure that the file has .java extension and the name of the file matches with the name of the class that has main() function. We have stored the above source code in HelloWorld.java and the file names matches exactly with the name of the class in which main() function resides.
Let us compile the above Java program. Basically, Java compiler would take Java source code as input and provide us bytecode version of the input Java program as output. As a result of compiling HelloWorld.java, we will get a class file named HelloWorld.class which contains bytecode of HelloWorld.java.
d:\Java>javac HelloWorld.java
Java Virtual Machine would take the bytecode as input and prints the program output on the console. Let us execute our Java program by providing our class name HelloWorld as command line argument to Java command or Java application launcher. As a result of program execution, "Hello World" is printed on output screen.
d:\Java>java HelloWorld
Hello World
| /* */ | Multi-line comments using which we can be used to provide comments in multiple lines to explain code flow or programming logic. These comments are ignored by the compiler |
| // | Single line comments |
| public | access modifier which helps to control the visibility of classes, methods and other members |
| class HelloWorld | class is the Keyword used to declare class. HelloWorld is the class name |
| main() | Method where the program execution begins |
| static | static is the keyword which can be used on variables, methods or blocks. static methods can be called without instantiation. Here, main() is a static method |
| void | Return type of a function. void is used as return type when a function has nothing to return |
| System.out.println() | System is the built in class. out is the object and println() is a built-in method |
| { } | open and close brace |
