In the first of a series of four blog posts, we’ll explore one of the “big three” methods in Java: the Object.toString() method. This method generates a String representation of an object and its state. By overriding the Object.toString() method in any class that we write, we can customize, for example, how objects of that class are displayed when printed to the console.
Tag: programming
Things I Wish I Had Known: Learning C++ After Learning Java
When I learned to program, I learned in Java. When I started studying my second language, C++, I found myself struggling to understand the subtle differences in syntax, the significant differences in how memory management works, and even the differences in the meaning of some terms between Java and C++. This blog post lays out three things I wish had realized right off the bat when I started learning C++.
Breaking Down Java’s “Hello World”
The first piece of code most Java students see is the “Hello World” application. Despite the simplicity of what the program does, the code itself has a lot going on. There are words like class, public, static, void, and String[]. Why is all of this code here, and what does it do? In this blog post, we’ll break down Java’s “Hello World” program, and explain what all of the component pieces actually mean.
Rewinding Time with Git
“It was working ten minutes ago”. I remember saying that numerous times as a student, and now many of my students say something similar. If only there were a way to rewind our code by ten minutes, or to see what’s changed about our code in the last ten minutes. This blog post demonstrates how we can do both of these things with Git.
Constant Pointers in C: Reading Right to Left
The “const” keyword in the C programming language, when applied to pointers, can be quite confusing to read. How do you read a variable declaration like “const char *const *const p”? This blog post explains how to read these declarations, and demonstrates the technique of reading them from right to left.