This book is designed to serve as a textbook and reference for programming in the Java language. Although it does include programming techniques, it is organized around the features of the Java language rather than any particular curriculum of programming techniques. The main audience I had in mind when writing this book was undergraduate students who have not had extensive programming experience with the Java language. As such, it would be a suitable Java text or reference for either a first programming course or a later computer science course that uses Java. This book is designed to accommodate a wide range of users. The introductory chapters are written at a level that is accessible to beginners, while the boxed sections of those chapters serve to quickly introduce more experienced programmers to basic Java syntax. Later chapters are still designed to be accessible, but are written at a level suitable for students who have progressed to these more advanced topics.

Praised for providing an engaging balance of thoughtful examples and explanatory discussion,¿best-selling author Walter Savitch explains concepts and techniques in a straightforward style using understandable language and code enhanced by a suite of pedagogical tools.¿ Absolute Java is appropriate for both introductory and intermediate programming courses introducing Java.