Get Start to JavaTutorials

The Java Tutorials are practical guides for programmers who want to use the Java programming language to create applications. They include hundreds of complete, working examples, and dozens of lessons. Groups of related lessons are organized into "trails".
For the most accurate and up-to-date tutorials, please access the latest version from Oracle's official website for the Java SE Tutorials (Last Updated 10/18/2010), which can be found at: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial.
The Java SE Tutorials primarily describe features in Java SE 6. For best results, download JDK 6.

What's New

As part of the Oracle Author Podcast Series, a podcast on the Java Tutorials has just been released. You can hear the 10-minute podcast through the Oracle Author Podcasts website.
Enjoy quizzes? Take a minute to answer this quiz about Java applets.
The Java Tutorials are continuously updated to keep up with changes to the Java Platform and to incorporate feedback from our readers. Included in the most recent release:

• For several months the Java SE Tutorials were not available as a download. We are happy to report that the very popular bundle is back and available through the link under the "Tutorial Resources" box to the right.
• Do the Java Tutorials seem overwhelming to you? We have added a new Learning Paths page. Please let us know what you think!
• The new Fork/Join page, part of the Concurrency lesson, describes how you can use the Fork/Join framework to take advantage of multiple processors. This feature is available now in the JDK 7 release available on java.net.
• The JDBC Basics lesson has been completely revamped, including updated sample code that you can download, compile, and run – the code has been configured for Java DB and MySQL. See Getting Started for more information.
• Finally, a small, but notable, change is that the standalone JNDI tutorial, previously available on java.sun.com, has been moved to the Java SE documentation archive on download.oracle.com and many broken links in the tutorial have been fixed. The front page of the JNDI tutorial has been modified accordingly, and redirects are in place ensuring a seamless transition.

Trails Covering the Basics

These trails are available in book form as The Java Tutorial, Fourth Edition. To buy this book, refer to the box to the right.

• Getting Started — An introduction to Java technology and lessons on installing Java development software and using it to create a simple program.
• Learning the Java Language — Lessons describing the essential concepts and features of the Java Programming Language.
• Essential Java Classes — Lessons on exceptions, basic input/output, concurrency, regular expressions, and the platform environment.
• Collections — Lessons on using and extending the Java Collections Framework.
• Swing — An introduction to the Swing GUI toolkit, with an overview of features and a visual catalog of components. See below for a more comprehensive tutorial on Swing.
• Deployment — How to package applications and applets using JAR files, and deploy them using Java Web Start and Java Plug-in.
• Preparation for Java Programming Language Certification — List of available training and tutorial resources.

Creating Graphical User Interfaces

This trail is available in book form as The JFC Swing Tutorial. To buy this book, refer to the box to the right.

• Creating a GUI with Swing — A comprehensive introduction to GUI creation on the Java platform.

Specialized Trails and Lessons

These trails and lessons are only available as web pages.

• Custom Networking — An introduction to the Java platform's powerful networking features.
• The Extension Mechanism — How to make custom APIs available to all applications running on the Java platform.
• Full-Screen Exclusive Mode API — How to write applications that more fully utilize the user's graphics hardware.
• Generics — An enhancement to the type system that supports operations on objects of various types while providing compile-time type safety. Note that this lesson is for advanced users. The Java Language trail contains a Generics lesson that is suitable for beginners.
• Internationalization — An introduction to designing software so that it can be easily be adapted (localized) to various languages and regions.
• JavaBeans — The Java platform's component technology.
• JDBC Database Access — Introduces an API for connectivity between the Java applications and a wide range of databases and a data sources.
• JMX— Java Management Extensions provides a standard way of managing resources such as applications, devices, and services.
• JNDI— Java Naming and Directory Interface enables accessing the Naming and Directory Service such as DNS and LDAP.
• JAXP — Introduces the Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.4 technology.
• RMI — The Remote Method Invocation API allows an object to invoke methods of an object running on another Java Virtual Machine.
• Reflection — An API that represents ("reflects") the classes, interfaces, and objects in the current Java Virtual Machine.
• Security — Java platform features that help protect applications from malicious software.
• Sound — An API for playing sound data from applications.
• 2D Graphics — How to display and print 2D graphics in applications.
• Sockets Direct Protocol — How to enable the Sockets Direct Protocol to take advantage of InfiniBand.