In this tutorial, we are going to discuss packages in Java with example programs. In small projects, all the java files have unique names. So, it is not difficult to put them in a single folder.

But, in the case of huge projects where the number of java files is large, it is very difficult to put files in a single folder because the manner of storing files would be disorganized.

Moreover, if different java files in various modules of the project have the same name, it is not possible to store two java files with the same name in the same folder because it may occur naming conflict. This problem of naming conflict can be overcome by using the concept of packages.

In Java, APIs consists of one or more packages where packages consist of many classes, classes contain several methods and fields. When you create an application in Java, you should create a proper folder structure for better reusability, maintenance and to avoid naming conflict but How?

Package in Java

A package is nothing but a physical folder structure (directories) that contains a group of related classes, interfaces, and sub-packages according to their functionality. It provides a convenient way to organize your work. The Java language has various in-built packages.



For example, java.lang, java.util, java.io, and java.net. All these packages are defined as a very clear and systematic packaging mechanism for categorizing and managing.

Let’s understand it with realtime examples.

Real-time Example of Package in Java

A real-life example is when you download a movie, song, or game, you make a different folder for each category like movie, song, etc. In the same way, a group of packages in java is just like a library.

The classes and interfaces of a package are like books in the library that can reuse several times when we need. This reusability nature of packages makes programming easy.

Therefore, when you create any software or application in Java programming language, they contain hundreds or thousands of individual classes and interfaces that must be organized into a meaningful package name to make proper sense, and reusing these packages in other programs could be easier.

Advantage of using packages in Java 1. Maintenance: Java packages are used for proper maintenance. If any developer newly joined a company, he can easily reach to files needed. 2. Reusability: We can place the common code in a common folder so that everybody can check that folder and use it whenever needed. 3. Name conflict: Packages help to resolve the naming conflict between the two classes with the same name. Assume that there are two classes with the same name Student.java. Each class will be stored in its own packages such as stdPack1 and stdPack2 without having any conflict of names. 4. Organized: It also helps in organizing the files within our project. 5. Access Protection: A package provides access protection. It can be used to provide visibility control. The members of the class can be defined in such a manner that they will be visible only to elements of that package. Types of Packages in Java There are two different types of packages in Java. They are: 1. User-defined Package The package which is defined by the user is called a User-defined package. It contains user-defined classes and interfaces. Creating package in Java Java supports a keyword called “package” which is used to create user-defined packages in java programming. It has the following general form: package packageName; Here, packageName is the name of package. The package statement must be the first line in a java source code file followed by one or more classes.



For example: package myPackage; public class A { // class body } For example: Naming Convention to declare User-defined Package in Real-time Project While developing your project, you must follow some naming convention regarding packages declaration. Let’s take an example to understand the convention. See below a complete package structure of the project. 1. Suppose you are working in IBM and the domain name of IBM is www.ibm.com. You can declare the package by reversing the domain like this: package com.ibm; where, com ➝ It is generally company specification name and the folder starts with com which is called root folder.

ibm ➝ Company name where the product is developed. It is the subfolder. 2. hdfc ➝ Client name for which we are developing our product or working for the project.

3. loan ➝ Name of the project. 4. homeloan ➝ It is the name of the modules of the loan project. There are a number of modules in the loan project like a Home loan, Car loan, or Personal loan. Suppose you are working for Home loan module. This is a complete packages structure like a professional which is adopted in the company.

Another example is: package com.tcs.icici.loan.carloan.penalty; Note: Keep in mind Root folder should be always the same for all the classes. How to create Package in Eclipse IDE? In Eclipse IDE, there are the following steps to create a package in java. They are as follows:

1. Right-click on the src folder as shown in the below screenshot. 2. Go to New option and then click on package.

3. A window dialog box will appear where you have to enter the package name according to the naming convention and click on Finish button. Once the package is created, a package folder will be created in your file system where you can create classes and interfaces. 2. Predefined Packages in Java (Built-in Packages) Predefined packages in java are those which are developed by Sun Microsystem. They are also called built-in packages in java. These packages consist of a large number of predefined classes, interfaces, and methods that are used by the programmer to perform any task in his programs. Java APIs contains the following predefined packages, as shown in the below figure: Core packages: 1. Java.lang: lang stands for language. The Java language package consists of java classes and interfaces that form the core of the Java language and the JVM. It is a fundamental package which is useful for writing and executing all Java programs. Examples are classes, objects, String, Thread, predefined data types, etc. It is imported automatically into the Java programs. 2. Java.io: io stands for input and output. It provides a set of I/O streams that are used to read and write data to files. A stream represents a flow of data from one place to another place. 3. Java util: util stands for utility. It contains a collection of useful utility classes and related interfaces that implement data structures like LinkedList, Dictionary, HashTable, stack, vector, Calender, data utility, etc. 4. Java.net: net stands for network. It contains networking classes and interfaces for networking operations. The programming related to client-server can be done by using this package. Window Toolkit and Applet: 1. Java.awt: awt stands for abstract window toolkit. The Abstract window toolkit packages contain the GUI(Graphical User Interface) elements such as buttons, lists, menus and text areas. Programmers can develop programs with colorful screens, paintings, and images, etc using this package. 2. Java.awt.image: It contains classes and interfaces for creating images and colors. 3. Java.applet: It is used for creating applets. Applets are programs which are executed from the server into the client machine on a network. 4. Java.text: This package contains two important classes such as DateFormat and NumberFormat. The class DateFormat is used to format dates and times. The NumberFormat is used to format numeric values. 5. Java.sql: SQL stands for structured query language. This package is used in a Java program to connect databases like Oracle or Sybase and retrieve the data from them. Key points:

1. Java predefined supports a group of packages that contains a group of classes and interfaces. These classes and interfaces consist of a group of methods. For example, Java language contains a package called java.lang which contains string class, StringBuffer class, StringBuilder class, all wrapper classes, runnable interface, etc. String class contains a number of methods such as length(), toUpperCase(), toLowerCase() etc. 2. Java contains 14 predefined packages which are main packages. These 14 predefined packages contain nearly 150 sub-packages that consist of minimum of 7 thousand classes. These 7 thousand classes contain approx 7 lakhs methods. 3. Up to Java 1.7 version contains 13 predefined packages. From Java 1.8 version onwards, one new package is introduced called java.time. How to see list of Predefined packages in Java? Follow the following steps to see the list of predefined packages in Java.

1. Go to programs files and open them.

2. Now go to Java folder and open it. You will see two folders such as JDK and JRE. 3. Go to JDK folder, extract the src folder. After extracting it, go to Java folder. Here, you will see 14 predefined packages folder such as applet, awt, beans, io, lang, math, net, nio, rmi, security, sql, text, time, and util. 4. Now you open lang package and scroll down. You can see classes like String, StringBuffer, StringBuilder, Thread, etc. Java Packages Example Program Let us make an example program where we will create a user-defined package in a systematic manner. Program source code 1:

// Save as Example.java Step 1: Declare package name by reversing domain name, project name 'java' and module name is core java. package com.scientecheasy.java.corejava; Step 2:Declare class name. public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println(" My first basic example"); } }

How to compile package in Java?

If you are not using any Eclipse IDE, you follow the syntax given below:

Syntax:

To Compile the application: javac -d directory javafilename

1. Here, javac means java compiler.

2. -d means directory. It creates the folder structure.

3. .(dot) means the current directory. It places the folder structure in the current working directory.

For example:

javac -d.Example.java // Here, Example.java is the file name.

So in this way, you must compile application if the application contains a package statement.

After the compilation, you can see the folder structure in your system like this:

com

|—> scientecheasy

|——> java

|——> corejava

|——> Example.class

How to run Java package program?

You have to use the fully qualified name to execute java code. The fully qualified name means class name with a complete package structure. Use below syntax to run java code.

Syntax:

java completePackageName.className

Now run the above Java code.

To Run: java com.scientecheasy.java.corejava.Example

Output: My first basic example.

Importing packages in Java

There are three approaches to import one package in another package in Java.

1. import package.*;

2. import package.classname;

3. Using fully qualified name.

1. Using package.*

An import is a keyword that is used to make the classes and interfaces of other packages accessible to the current package. If we use package.*, all the classes and interfaces of this package can be accessed (imported) from outside the packages.

Let’s understand it by a simple example program.

Program source code 2:

package com.scientecheasy.calculate; // Declare public with class name otherwise it cannot be accessible due to default which is accessible within the same package. public class Sum { // Declare instance variables. int a = 20; int b = 30; // Declare method. public void cal() { int s = a + b; System.out.println("Sum: " +s); } } package com.maths.calculator; // Now import package. import com.scientecheasy.calculate.*; class SumTest { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create an object of class and call the method using reference variable s. Sum s = new Sum(); s.cal(); } }

Output: Sum: 50

2. Using packageName.className

If you import packageName.className, you can only access the declared class of this package. Let’s understand it by an example program.

Suppose scientecheasy have information about the Dhanbad city and TCS need this information. So, we will declare two modules Dhanbad and TCS. TCS is using Dhanbad class but both have different package names.

So, whenever you are using a class of another package, you must import the package first of all.

Program source code 3:

// Declare complete package statement. package com.scientecheasy.state.cityinfo; public class Dhanbad { public void stateInfo() { System.out.println("Dhanbad is the first major city of Jharkhand"); } public void cityInfo() { System.out.println("Dhanbad city is called coal capital city of India."); } } // Declare complete package statement for TCS. package com.tcs.state.requiredinfo; // Import the package with class name. import com.scientecheasy.state.cityinfo.dhanbad; class Tcs { public static void main(String[] args) { Dhanbad d = new Dhanbad(); d.stateinfo(); d.cityinfo(); } }

Output: Dhanbad is the first major city of Jharkhand. Dhanbad city is called coal capital city of India.

3. Using the fully qualified name

If you use the fully qualified name, there is no need of using import statement but in this case, only declared class of this package can be accessible. It is generally used when two packages have the same class name.

Let’s take a scenario to understand the above concept.

Consider the below image.

In the com package, there are two sub-packages “scien” and “tech”. The sub-package “scien” contains two class files A.java and B.java. Whereas the sub-package tech contains three class files C.java, D.java, and A.java.

Q. How will you call m1 of class A of sub-package scien and m2 of class A of sub-package tech from class B of sub-package scien?

A. Let’s create a program using the first approach to call the following requirement.

Program source code 4:

package com.scien; import com.tech.A; class B { void m3() { System.out.println("Hello Java"); } public static void main(String[] args) { A a = new A(); a.m1(); A a1 = new A(); a1.m2; B b = new B(); b.m3(); } }

Will the above code compile?

1. No: because the statement A a = new A(); does not say anything about class A from which sub-packages (scien or tech) it is referring.

2. No: because the statement A a1 = new A(); is also not saying anything about class A of which sub-packages (scien or tech) it is referring.

3. No: because a.m1() and a1.m2() will get confused to call the method of which package’s class. Here, the compiler will be also confused.

In this case, the import is not working. So, we remove the import statement and use the fully qualified name.

package com.scien; class B { void m3() { System.out.println("Hello Java"); } public static void main(String[] args) { A a = new A(); // keep as it is because it is from same package "scien". a.m1(); com.tech.A a1 = new com.tech.A(); // It will direct go to tech package and call the method m2. a1.m2; B b = new B(); b.m3(); } }

Output: Hi Hello Hello Java

Suppose you are not using public with m2() method in the above program then it will give error ” The method m2() from the type A is not visible” because it is a default and default access modifier cannot be accessed from outside the package.

Key points to remember:

1. While importing another package, package declaration must be the first statement and followed by package import.

2. A class can have only one package statement but it can be more than one import package statement.

3. import can be written multiple times after the package statement and before the class statement.

4. You must declare the package with root folder name (No subfolder name) and the last file name must be class name with a semicolon.

5. When you import, it does mean that memory is allocated. It just gives the path to reach the file.

6. import com.scientecheasy.state.cityinfo.dhanbad; is always better than import com.scientecheasy.state.cityinfo.*;.



Hope that this tutorial has covered almost all the important topics related to Packages in Java with example programs. I hope that you will have understood this tutorial and enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading!!!

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