How do I search the downloaded Java? Platform, Standard Edition 6 API?

Question

I am a newbie to Java (I had done some limited programming in C ++ years ago). I have downloaded the Java? Platform, Standard Edition 6 API Specification, and can view this in my Firefox browser. How can I search to certain classes in this documentation easily? For instance, if I want to ding out all of the operations available for String or System.out, etc, , is there a way that I can type in System.out, or String somewhere, and get a list of what is available?
Thanks

Answer 1

Brian_Rohan wrote:
Here is the code that I compiled and it worked:Yeah, "args" there isn't part of the API. It's the name of the variable that is the first parameter to the main method defined there.
The stuff between the parentheses is a list of declarations of local variables that form the parameter list to that method, to put it technically.
The thing that's part of the API is the class String. In "String[] args", the bit on the left is the type of the variable, and the bit on the right is name of the variable. A name of something you define like that wouldn't be in the API. However, the name of the class String is.
If you look at the import statements, you'll see if the name "String" is actually shorthand for a class defined elsewhere. There's this:
import java.util.*;So you can know that "String" is either defined in the java.util package, in the "helloworld" package (which also wouldn't be in the API because you're defining in there using the package keyword), or in java.lang. (The "java.lang" package is automatically imported.)
You could look in the API docs for java.util.String or java.lang.String to find the class definition. But I'll save you the time by letting you know that it's actually java.lang.String.
Again I am new at this, what would args.length be?You'll see that the type of the "args" variable is "String[]". That means that it's an array of String objects. (The [] means arrays.) Arrays all have a field called "length". This also is part of the language, not the API, so it would be in a language guide, not the API.
The value of args.length would depend on how you ran your program. When you run a program on the command line like this:
java HelloWorldor this:
java HelloWorld foo bar bazThe java virtual machine takes all the things after the class name and sticks them in an array of String. Then it looks for a static method named "main" in the HelloWorld class, and passes it that array. So in the first case above, args.length would be zero, and in the second case it would be three.
By the way, when you post code, please wrap it in code tags. Highlight it, then click the "CODE" button above the text input box.
Edited by: paulcw on Nov 4, 2009 6:35 PM