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What Is Package in Java

Packages in Java help organize classes into a folder structure and provide a namespace to avoid naming conflicts. A package statement at the top of a Java file specifies the package that class belongs to. When a file is compiled with the -d option, it will place the class file in a directory structure matching the package. Subpackages can be created by specifying nested package names. The import statement allows referring to classes in a package without their fully qualified name.

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88 views6 pages

What Is Package in Java

Packages in Java help organize classes into a folder structure and provide a namespace to avoid naming conflicts. A package statement at the top of a Java file specifies the package that class belongs to. When a file is compiled with the -d option, it will place the class file in a directory structure matching the package. Subpackages can be created by specifying nested package names. The import statement allows referring to classes in a package without their fully qualified name.

Uploaded by

Varma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
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What is Package in Java?

A Package is a collection of related classes. It helps organize your classes into a folder
structure and make it easy to locate and use them. More importantly, it helps improve re-
usability.

Each package in Java has its unique name and organizes its classes and interfaces into a
separate namespace, or name group.

Although interfaces and classes with the same name cannot appear in the same package,
they can appear in different packages. This is possible by assigning a separate namespace
to each package.

Syntax:-

package nameOfPackage;

Let's study package with an example. We define a class and object and later compile this
it in our package p1. After compilation, we execute the code as a java package.

Step 1) Consider the following code,

Here,

1. To put a class into a package, at the first line of code define package p1
2. Create a class c1
3. Defining a method m1 which prints a line.
4. Defining the main method
5. Creating an object of class c1
6. Calling method m1
Step 2) In next step, save this file as demo.java

Step 3) In this step, we compile the file.

The compilation is completed. A class file c1 is created. However, no package is


created? Next step has the solution

Step 4) Now we have to create a package, use the command

javac –d . demo.java

This command forces the compiler to create a package.

--------------------------

Step 5) When you execute the code, it creates a package p1. When you open
the java package p1 inside you will see the c1.class file.

Step 6) Compile the same file using the following code

javac –d .. demo.java
Here ".." indicates the parent directory. In our case file will be saved in parent
directory which is C Drive

File saved in parent directory when above code is executed.

Step 7) Now let's say you want to create a sub package p2 within our existing
java package p1. Then we will modify our code as

package p1.p2

Step 8) Compile the file

As seen in below screenshot, it creates a sub-package p2 having class c1 inside


the package.
Step 9) To execute the code mention the fully qualified name of the class i.e. the
package name followed by the sub-package name followed by the class name -

java p1.p2.c1

This is how the package is executed and gives the output as "m1 of c1" from the
code file.

Importing packages/ using Packages


To create an object of a class (bundled in a package), in your code, you have to
use its fully qualified name.

Example:

java.awt.event.actionListner object = new java.awt.event.actionListner();

But, it could become tedious to type the long dot-separated package path name
for every class you want to use. Instead, it is recommended you use the import
statement.
Syntax

import packageName;

Once imported, you can use the class without mentioning its fully qualified name.

import java.awt.event.*; // * signifies all classes in this package are imported


import javax.swing.JFrame // here only the JFrame class is imported
//Usage
JFrame f = new JFrame; // without fully qualified name.

Example: To import package

Step 1) Copy the code into an editor.

package p3;
import p1.*; //imports classes only in package p1 and NOT in the sub-package p2
class c3{
public void m3(){
System.out.println("Method m3 of Class c3");
}
public static void main(String args[]){
c1 obj1 = new c1();
obj1.m1();
}
}

Step 2) Save the file as Demo2.java. Compile the file using the command javac
–d . Demo2.java

Step 3)Execute the code using the command java p3.c3

Packages - points to note:


• To avoid naming conflicts packages are given names of the domain name
of the company in reverse Ex: com.guru99. com.microsoft, com.infosys
etc.
• When a package name is not specified, a class is in the default package
(the current working directory) and the package itself is given no name.
Hence you were able to execute assignments earlier.
• While creating a package, care should be taken that the statement for
creating package must be written before any other import statements

// not allowed
import package p1.*;
package p3;

//correct syntax
package p3;
import package p1.*;

the java.lang package is imported by default for any class that you create in Java.

The Java API is very extensive, contains classes which can perform almost all
your programming tasks right from Data Structure Manipulation to Networking.
More often than not, you will be using API files in your code. You can see the API
documentation here.

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