Preparation for Sun Certified Java Programmer Exam

1. Java Introduction , Variables and Primitive Data types

• Features of Java
• Java SE, Java EE, Java ME editions
• Writing the first HelloWorld Java program
• Compiling and Executing a java program
• Comments in Java
• Legal identifiers for variable names
• Primitive data types in Java
• Implicit conversions of primitive types
• Explicit conversions: Casting of primitive types

2. Operators

• Understanding operators and operands
• Assignment operators
• Arithmetic operators
• Relational operators
• Logical operators
• Advanced operators: new , cast, shortcut if-else

3. Flow Control , Arrays and Enum

• Selection statements
  
  • The if statement
  • Switch statement
• Enumerations : using enum in a switch statement
• Iteration statements
  
  • while
  • do-while
  • for loop
  • for-each loop
• Arrays
  
  • Single dimensional
  • Two dimensional
• Block breaker statements
  • Simple and labeled continue
  • Simple and labeled break

4. Object Oriented programming -part 1

• Reference Variables
• Methods - With and without arguments , with variable length argument list , different return types
• Accepting command line arguments
• The this keyword
• Java Beans conventions
• Constructors
  
  • Default constructors and situations when they will be created
  • Declaring more than one constructor for a class

5. Object Oriented programming -part 2

• Static variables and Instance variables
• Static methods and instance methods
• Method overloading
• Inheritance - Superclass , Subclass
• The super keyword - Using super in constructors , Using super in methods

6. Object Oriented programming -part 3

• Method Overriding - Rules for method overriding, covariant return types
• The final keyword
• Understanding Polymorphism
• Abstract methods, Abstract classes
• Interfaces - Interface basics, Interfaces that extend one or more interfaces, Classes that implement interfaces

7. Object Oriented programming -part 4

• Usage modifiers : abstract, static, native, transient
• Package and import statements
• Static imports
• Access Modifiers : public, protected, default, private
• Nested Classes

8. Strings and Exception Handling Strings in Java

• The java.lang.String
• The java.lang.StringBuffer
• The java.lang,StringBuilder

Exception Handling

• Runtime Exceptions
• Checked Exceptions
• Using Try, catch, finally
• Throwing Exceptions
• Declaring exceptions in a throws clause
• Common Exceptions
• Assertions

9. Wrappers and Autoboxing

• Using primitive wrapper classes - Boolean, Character, Byte, Short, Integer, Long, Float, Double
• Autoboxing and Auto-unboxing

10. Collections interfaces, implementations and algorithms

• Collection and Map super interfaces - List interface, Set interface, Map interface
• Collection implementations -ArrayList, Vector,LinkedList, HashSet, LinkedhashSet, HashTable, HashMap
• Given a scenario, recognize which structure to use to store data

11. The Input-Output

• The File class
• FileInputStream, FileOutputStream
• DataInputStream, DataOutputStream
• FileReader, FileWriter
• BufferedReader, BufferedWriter
• ObjectInputStream, ObjectOutputStream
• Serialization
• Formatting - using Formatter and String class, Using formatting parameters %b %s %d %c %f
• PrintStream - format/printf methods

12. Threads

• Using Thread class
• Using Runnable interface
• Thread life cycle and transitions

13. Object class

• Methods in Object class
• Difference between equals method and == operator
• Overiding toString(), equals(..) methods

14. Scanner

• Using java.util.Scanner