teach us how to read/use Java APIs

[javaalien]

I have downloaded and bookmark the API documentation...
Kindly please anybody teach on how to read/use them...
for instance I browse Package java.io - then I check File.

There are Field Summary, Constructor Summary, Method Summary etc..
How can we use them...

I don't know how you guys so brilliant make use the java docs.

can we open one class how to use java docs?
thank you

[r035198x]

I have downloaded and bookmark the API documentation...
Kindly please anybody teach on how to read/use them...
for instance I browse Package java.io - then I check File.

There are Field Summary, Constructor Summary, Method Summary etc..
How can we use them...

I don't know how you guys so brilliant make use the java docs.

can we open one class how to use java docs?
thank you

Those classes and methods are also explained in those docs. If you need to find the size of a file for example, you can check the docs for the File class and see which method is best for you.

[rsrinivasan]

I have downloaded and bookmark the API documentation...
Kindly please anybody teach on how to read/use them...
for instance I browse Package java.io - then I check File.

There are Field Summary, Constructor Summary, Method Summary etc..
How can we use them...

I don't know how you guys so brilliant make use the java docs.

can we open one class how to use java docs?
thank you

Hi,

You can also use "javap" tools to view all the members for a particular class.

For example you want to know all the methods in Applet class just type in the command prompt...

c:\>java>javap java.applet.Applet
Thanks,
Srinivas r.

[JosAH]

I have downloaded and bookmark the API documentation...
Kindly please anybody teach on how to read/use them...

A very wise move; that documentation is necessary for almost everything you
write using Java.

short explanation:

From the index.html file scroll down to the header:

API, Language, and Virtual Machine Documentation

and click the entry:

Java Platform API Specification

Now you see three frames:

1) top left: a listing of all packages; the first link should've read 'all packages'
IMHO, but who am I? ;-)

2) bottom left: all classes present in the package you selected in frame 1)
in alphabetical order, or all classes present in the core library

3) right: either a short overview of all the packages or, a detailed description
of every class. The latter will only show up afer you've selected a class in frame 2)

The detailed class description is the most valuable one; scroll down in frame 2)
and select a class. Names in Italics are interfaces; names in normal font are
classes.

The top and bottom parts of that frame show some navigational links: previous
or next class in the alphabetical listing; summaries and detailed descriptions
of constructors, methods, fields, nested members etc.

The next section shows a general explanation of the class. Following sections
show what the links indicated (read the previous paragraphs), but of course you
can also simply scroll up and down to read those sections.

The summaries give you a quick overview of all the fields, methods etc. while
the detailed descriptions give you a, well, detailed description of the item.

Try to find the 'Object' class in frame 2), select it and see the consistent
structure of the page in frame 3). After a bit of playing with it you get the hang
of it and you never want to miss it again when you have to develop software.

All that documentation was generated by JavaDoc: that tool grabbed all comment
lines from the source files and built those nice html pages.
Your JDK comes with that same usefull JavaDoc tool so you can document your
own code in the same consistent way (hint, hint).

kind regards,

Jos

[emekadavid]

that explanation was nice, Jos. if you can't read the api that means you're new to java. fine. whenever you're reading up any topic in a textbook or tutorial, just ask yourself, how did the creators of the java programming language solve this problem or implement this feature in this tutorial? go to the api, read the description for the class or classes you're interested in first, then read up the explanation for the class, then read the summarised fields and methods of that class or the classes you're interested in. then switch back to your tutorial.
it'll help a lot if you read the api while learning java.
emekadavid