Home
2. Hello World
Tips!
Traditionally, we start our first experiment with a "Hello World" application.
Create a new file, named "HelloWorld.java".
In this new file, we add the following code.
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main (String[] args) {
String txt = "Hello World";
System.out.println(txt);
}
}
- Public Class. Java requires us to "package" our code in a public class. By convention, this has the same name as the file, which you see in this first line. All our code starts after this line, after which we finish the class with a closing bracket
}. - Entry Point. A Java application also needs an "entry point", the main class which is started and can call all other methods, that's the second line, and again we need to close this method with a bracket
}. - Class Body. Within the main method, any code can be added. In this case, we create a String variable
txtthat holds "Hello World". Notice each line needs to end with a;. - Indentation. As you may notice, the indentation (empty space on the lines), is used to make the code easy to read as you can link the line that starts a block, with the location of the closing bracket. This is not required in Java but helps you as a developer.
System.out.println(txt)is similar to console.log in JavaScript or print in Python.
Save this file, and now we can execute it in the terminal. We need to start Java with the name of the file we just created as an argument:
$ java HelloWorld.java Hello World
And there it is... our first working Java code!