CS61B

Notes

Language Constructs (Java vs. Python)

Types

Java is a statically typed language, which means that every variable has a type that is known at compile time, meaning you must specify it in your code. In contrast, Python is a dynamically typed language, which means that the type of variables are generally only known at runtime, meaning you do not need to specify them in your code.

In Java, there are two kinds of types: primitive types and reference types. Primitive types are lowercase, and we named these: boolean, int, char, double. Pretty much every other type is a reference type, such as String. If a type starts with a capital letter, it is likely a reference type.

Each primitive has a corresponding reference type (Boolean, Integer, Character, Double). If you are using “generics” to declare a data structure, you must use the reference type. You can (usually) seamlessly convert between a primitive type and its reference type.

null

Java also has null, which is the approximate equivalent of None in Python. Any reference type can be assigned a value of null. If we try to access an instance member or call an instance method from a value of null, we will see an error called a NullPointerException.

Arrays (fixed-size)

Java arrays are a lot like Python lists. However, Java arrays are fixed-size, so we can’t add or remove elements (that is, no append, remove, etc.).

python:

1
2
3
4
5
6


zeroedLst = [0, 0, 0]
lst = [4, 7, 10]
lst[0] = 5
print(lst[0])
print(lst)
print(len(lst))

java:

1
2
3
4
5
6


int[] zeroedArray = new int[3];
int[] array = {4, 7, 10};
array[0] = 5;
System.out.println(array[0]);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(array));
System.out.println(array.length);

In new int[3], the int is the type in the array; and 3 is the length. With this syntax, all elements take on their “default value”. For int, this is 0.
Arrays do not print nicely, for reasons beyond the scope of HW 0. To print an array, you can call Arrays.toString(array).
Arrays do not have a length method. It is an instance variable, so it does not have parentheses.
Java does not support negative indexing or slicing.

Foreach Loop / Enhanced For Loop

python:

1
2
3


lst = [1, 2, 3]
for i in lst:
    print(i)

java:

1
2
3
4


int[] array = {1, 2, 3};
for (int i : array) {
    System.out.println(i);
}

Notice the type declaration of the iterating variable, as well as the usage of : instead of in.
We can also use this syntax on certain other types, such as Lists and Sets.

Lists (resizable)

python:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11


lst = []
lst.append("zero")
lst.append("one")
lst[0] = "zed"
print(l[0])
print(len(l))
if "one" in lst:
    print("one in lst")

for elem in lst:
    print(elem)

java:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12


List<String> lst = new ArrayList<>();
lst.add("zero");
lst.add("one");
lst.set(0, "zed");
System.out.println(lst.get(0));
System.out.println(lst.size());
if (lst.contains("one")) {
    System.out.println("one in lst");
}
for (String elem : lst) {
    System.out.println(elem);
}

Java has the List interface. We largely use the ArrayList implementation. The List interface is parameterized by the type it holds, using the angle brackets < and >. Lists, again, do not support slicing or negative indexing.

Sets

python:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11


s = set()
s.add(1)
s.add(1)
s.add(2)
s.remove(2)
print(len(s))
if 1 in s:
    print("1 in s")

for elem in s:
    print(elem)

java:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12


Set<Integer> set = new HashSet<>();
set.add(1);
set.add(1);
set.add(2);
set.remove(2);
System.out.println(set.size());
if (set.contains(1)) {
    System.out.println("1 in set");
}
for (int elem : set) {
    System.out.println(elem);
}

Java has the Set interface. There are two main implementations: TreeSet, and HashSet. TreeSet keeps its elements in “sorted” order, and is fast. In contrast, HashSet does not have a defined “order”, but is (usually) really fast.
- We will formalize these notions of “fast” later on in the course when we learn about asymptotic analysis.
A Set cannot contain duplicate items. If we try to add an item already in the set, nothing happens.

Dictionaries / Maps

python:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10


d = {}
d["hello"] = "hi"
d["hello"] = "goodbye"
print(d["hello"])
print(len(d))
if "hello" in d:
    print("\"hello\" in d")

for key in d.keys():
    print(key)

java:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11


Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<>();
map.put("hello", "hi");
map.put("hello", "goodbye");
System.out.println(map.get("hello"));
System.out.println(map.size());
if (map.containsKey("hello")) {
    System.out.println("\"hello\" in map");
}
for (String key : map.keySet()) {
    System.out.println(key);
}

Java has the Map interface. There are two main implementations: TreeMap, and HashMap. Similarly to sets, TreeMap keeps its keys sorted and is fast; HashMap has no defined order and is (usually) really fast.
A Map cannot contain duplicate keys. If we try to add a key already in the map, the value is overwritten.
In the angle brackets, we have the “key type” first, followed by the “value type”.
Maps cannot directly be used with the : for loop. Typically, we call keySet to iterate over a set of the keys, and use those to retrieve the values. One may also iterate over the entrySet to get both the keys and values.

Classes

python:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14


class Point:
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        self.x = x
        self.y = y

    def distanceTo(self, other):
        return math.sqrt(
            (self.x - other.x) ** 2 +
            (self.y - other.y) ** 2
        )

    def translate(self, dx, dy):
        self.x += dx
        self.y += dy

java:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21


public class Point {
    public int x;
    public int y;
    public Point(int x, int y) {
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
    }
    public Point() {
        this(0, 0);
    }
    public double distanceTo(Point other) {
        return Math.sqrt(
            Math.pow(this.x - other.x, 2) +
            Math.pow(this.y - other.y, 2)
        )
    }
    public void translate(int dx, int dy) {
        this.x += dx;
        this.y += dy;
    }
}

We can use these classes as follows: python:

1
2
3
4
5
6


p1 = Point(5, 9)
p2 = Point(-3, 3)
print(f"Point 1: ({p1.x}, {p1.y})")
print("Distance:", p1.distanceTo(p2))
p1.translate(2, 2)
print(f"Point 1: ({p1.x}, {p1.y})")

java:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9


Point p1 = new Point(5, 9);
Point p2 = new Point(-3, 3);
System.out.println("Point 1: ( " + p1.x
    + ", " + p1.y + ")");
System.out.println("Distance: "
    + p1.distanceTo(p2));
p1.translate(2, 2);
System.out.println("Point 1: ( " + p1.x
    + ", " + p1.y + ")");

Main

Java programs may also have a special method called main. When you execute a program, the main method is called. The main method runs whatever code is inside, which may call other methods defined within the program.

We define the main method with the signature public static void main(String[] args). For now, you can treat main as a “play button” for the code you have written.

To run the code in the previous example, we may create a main method in the Point class like this: python:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12


class Point:

    # other methods...
    # end of Point class

if __name__ == '__main__':
    p1 = Point(5, 9)
    p2 = Point(-3, 3)
    print(f"Point 1: ({p1.x}, {p1.y})")
    print("Distance:", p1.distanceTo(p2))
    p1.translate(2, 2)
    print(f"Point 1: ({p1.x}, {p1.y})")

java:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18


public class Point {

    // other methods...

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Point p1 = new Point(5, 9);
        Point p2 = new Point(-3, 3);
        System.out.println("Point 1: ( " + p1.x
            + ", " + p1.y + ")");
        System.out.println("Distance: "
            + p1.distanceTo(p2));
        p1.translate(2, 2);
        System.out.println("Point 1: ( " + p1.x
            + ", " + p1.y + ")");
    }

    // end of Point class
}

Notice that in Java, the main method is defined within a class.

If you are coding in IntelliJ, you can actually “play” the main method! IntelliJ will display a green play button to the left of the main method’s signature. Click it to run the code inside.

Programs

Let’s look at some Java programs that use data structures and classes. Here are some simple ones that you might find yourself referring to if you forget how to do something.

Index of Minimum of a List of Numbers

python:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9


def min_index(numbers):
    # Assume len(numbers) >= 1
    m = numbers[0]
    idx = 0
    for i in range(len(numbers)):
        if numbers[i] < m:
            m = numbers[i]
            idx = i
    return idx

java:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12


public static int minIndex(int[] numbers) {
    // Assume numbers.length >= 1
    int m = numbers[0];
    int idx = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {
        if (numbers[i] < m) {
            m = numbers[i];
            idx = i;
        }
    }
    return idx;
}

Exceptions

Lastly, let’s look at how we can throw exceptions in Java compared to Python with previous example. python:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9


def minIndex(numbers):
    if len(numbers) == 0:
        raise Exception("There are no elements in the list!")
    m = numbers[0]
    idx = 0

    ...

    return m

java:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11


public static int minIndex(int[] numbers) {
    if (numbers.length == 0) {
        throw new Exception("There are no elements in the array!");
    }
    int m = numbers[0];
    int idx = 0;

    ...

    return m;
}