Javax.swing.* - vs - javax.swing.JTable - any tradeoff?

Question

I'm new to java and have noticed that sometimes people write:
import javax.swing.*;and sometimes they write
import javax.swing.JTable;Is there a performance hit using the first example? Any info on this or pointers to relevant web pages would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt

Answer 1

No, there is no performance hit between the two options. The difference lies in readablity and name spaces. Some people prefer to use java.package.* when importing for ease in coding, but it is ambiguous and does not give much information on specific classes used which can hurt readablity. In terms of name spaces using .* can be detrimental. For instance if you were creating a GUI using swing components and imported javax.swing.* That would also give you access to javax.swing.Box class, and if you had your own package with a Box class call my.package.Box which you also imported there would be conflicts in which class would be refrenced. So it can be benifical to explicitly state your imports.