Building an Application
Okay, so now let's look at the rest of the Test class because the Test class is pretty special.
The Test class is actually a very small Java Application that can be compiled and executed!
Here is the code again...
public class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Announcer a = new Announcer();
a.printAnnouncement();
}
}
You should already be comfortable with the definition of the class from the last section.
You should also be familiar with the contents of the main() method since we just discussed it.
But what is the main() method and why is there no constructor for Test?
Well, the main() method is a very special method because it works without an instantiation of the class.
It does this because the main() method is static.
static is a keyword that, when applied to classes means that no instantiation is necessary in order to run it.
Notice also that the main method may take an array of strings as arguments.
This is used so that we can pass information to our application from the command line if we want.
However, in this case we won't be passing any arguments.
NEXT
Selena Sol contributes to the JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java. Selena curently works for Barclays Capital in London, one of the leading global investment banks in Europe and has worked as a software developer for the National Center for Human Genome research, Microline Software, Neuron Data, and Electric Eye in Singapore. Selena is perhaps best-known for creating the Public Domain Web Script Archive (Extropia) and writing several books on Web Programming (Perl, CGI, Java).
Email: selena@extropia.com
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