Boost Java Development: Best Practices For 40% More Gain

Java has emerged as one of the world's most widely utilized software development languages over recent years.

Java is an indestructible, object-oriented programming language designed for dynamic web environments that has seen constant updates over the last 30 years from an active community of programmers and enthusiasts. Thus, its continued power remains immense today - the challenge now being: How can one fully exploit it by learning it?

Here in this blog we will highlight some of the best Java programming practices as selected by our experienced Java developers.

Programmers who wish to hone their coding abilities may find these ideas particularly helpful.

Java Development

What is Java development? Java has long been associated with backend development due to its focus on logic, data and functionality of an app or website.

Backend developers typically interact with databases, servers and APIs not visible to end users - although some projects have tried bringing Java's technology closer to users directly - yet rarely used as frontend solutions.

Java offers numerous web development tools - Servlets, JSP, and Struts are among them - that enable web admins to develop websites quickly.

These help develop backend logic, process data, manage database connections and handle HTTP requests and responses efficiently - therefore, many consider Java primarily to be used on backend functions of websites.

The Reasons Behind Java's Popularity

Java ranks fifth most commonly used programming language globally, and that speaks volumes: in one recent survey conducted on its usage, 64.96% of respondents reported Java as their go-to choice in their daily work life - this marks its ninth consecutive year reaching this high position.

Reasons exist as to why Java is so widely utilized commercially and how its core characteristics continue to make an impression first impression for experienced developers in 2024:

1. Scalability: Java provides many tools for building scalable enterprise software applications.

   These include modularity and static checking, as well as tools for analysis and debugging.

2. Garbage Collection: Java provides an automated memory management mechanism known as garbage collection to increase application speeds significantly.
3. Cross-Platform Capabilities: Java is cross-platform capable, meaning compiled programs written for it can run on many different devices with little difficulty. Java compiler plays an essential part in providing these cross-platform capabilities.
4. Multithreading: Multi-threading allows Java applications to simultaneously execute commands on multiple threads at the same time, improving software performance and hardware utilization.
5. Java Is Home To An Active Developer Community: developers utilizing this language find many sources of helpful knowledge essential to their work.
6. Energy Efficiency: Java stands out among object-oriented programming languages as one of the fastest and most resource-saving.

Java's Place In The Software Development Industry: Statistics

As of 2024, Java was still used by 30.55% of developers globally - even after 30 years, it remains one of the most sought-after programming languages available today.

According to Index, Java was once again the second-most-popular programming language globally in 2024, with usage growing by 1.2% since 2017. Oracle noted that over 69% of full-time developers worldwide utilize it, with 51 billion active Java Virtual Machines (JVMs).

Java's contribution was over 31% in 2008 and still holds 15.81% as of 2024 - though that may appear like an alarming decrease, in reality, Java remains at the core of many enterprise software solutions around the globe, providing performance, ease of use and scalability - qualities modern businesses depend on to thrive.

How Can Java Coding Skills Be Strengthened?

Do you already have some experience developing Java software products but want to take your coding abilities further? Excellent.

Here are a few essential tips for Java development:

Clear Your Basis

Before venturing further into more advanced topics, make sure you are acquainted with all of the fundamental concepts and tools - like IDE's and frameworks - necessary.

Once established, then, expand upon that foundation with more in-depth learning experiences.

Instead of struggling alone with something you aren't grasping, seek assistance. There is plenty of help out there such as YouTube tutorials, books and Stack Overflow forums; as well as help from coworkers at work that could prove invaluable in solving your dilemmas.

Read Documentation On New Updates And Stay Current

Every good Java developer must stay abreast of developments within the ecosystem. Stay current by joining relevant forums, following industry experts on LinkedIn, or subscribing to newsletters that cover this space.

Always Seek To Expand Knowledge

As a Java software developer, success requires adaptability. There is an abundance of technologies, integration tools and frameworks within the ecosystem of Java; therefore if you aim to become an expert in this field, your tech stack should encompass as much variety as possible.

Practice Coding

Nothing beats real-world practice when it comes to honing coding skills. Working on development projects is the fastest and surest way of honing them; use what you learn, practice programming online or offline and build confidence that way.

Set specific targets that must be completed within set periods to keep yourself on track toward mastery of programming languages and platforms.

Read More: Transform Your Business with Java App Development

Best Practices For Java Developers

Now, let's dive into ways you can boost your practical coding abilities. Below are the best practices for Java development and standards selected by experienced developers:

Adopt And Implement Naming Conventions That Are Concise

Before delving deeper into any project, naming conventions must be established for every class, interface method or variable in it.

Keep in mind that more advanced software development projects often involve several teams of developers working collaboratively on them. Approving and adopting one naming convention in order to keep things uniform and avoid confusion is of great importance; here are a couple of helpful naming schemes with easily understandable naming schemes:

1. Class-wise naming conventions dictate that names only contain nouns and begin with uppercase letters.
2. Package Names should all be written entirely in lowercase letters.
3. Interface Names should conform to the Camel Case for clarity.
4. Variables Names may adhere to a mixed case convention.
5. Method names should consist solely of verbs with every word capitalized.

These recommendations may seem insignificant at first, but after multiple mergers and adding functionalities, they become clear.

Appropriate naming schemes may even outshone impressive code comments when it comes to clarity in programming, especially since Java developers sometimes neglect that part of their job and forget to update comments when making modifications, resulting in further confusion and potential error.

Stay Aware Of Comments And Self-Documenting Codes When Writing Code

Since we've already mentioned it, let's now discuss one of the more often neglected parts of software development - commenting.

How can anyone reading a codebase understand it? First, they need a sense of what the code "should do," which can be achieved via comments.

Commenting is the practice of adding human-readable descriptions inside code that explain its functions to team members with various levels of experience with Java; team members will likely read your code with differing knowledge; these comments provide them with an easy overview of any chosen approaches or provide extra details that might otherwise not be easily discernible from looking at just its code alone.

Good comments can significantly simplify Java code maintenance as well as identify and resolve bugs faster. Some developers even go further by advocating for self-documenting code.

Make Sure That All Commits Are Clearly Documented

Code and variables aren't the only components of software development processes that must be accurately described; commits should also be thoroughly specified.

Commits not only store the content of your code, but they also record additional details, like author, timestamp and message - the latter provides other team members with valuable insight into what happened over time in your repository.

No Empty Catch Blocks

Now it is time to move beyond comments and descriptions into some concrete coding tips, practices and standards related to Java coding standards beginning with Catch Blocks.

Java's try-catch block is designed to handle exceptions in an efficient and organized fashion, placing any code that may throw exceptions within its try block and responding accordingly should any particular exception arise when something unplanned arises in that try block (i.e., divide by zero, file not found, etc.), an exception will be generated and dealt with accordingly by its respective catch block.

This system ensures any potential surprises don't become real problems that require further attention by humans (divide by zero error, etc); catch blocks are there for just such events.

Conceptually, an empty catch block may seem appealing; in practice though it should be avoided since this won't provide us with any insight into what has gone wrong and will delay bug-fixing efforts further.

Acknowledging Null Pointer Exceptions Correctly

Let's now discuss a very frequent exception in Java - NPE (Null Pointer Exceptions). An NPE occurs when a program attempts to access an object reference that contains null values - for instance, this could happen when:

1. Modifying or accessing the fields of an undefined object.
2. Calling a method from an object that does not exist.
3. Modifying or accessing the slots of a null object.
4. Throwing null as though it were an instance value is now supported.
5. Synchronizing over an empty object.
6. As a Java software developer, coming across null pointer exceptions is inevitable, but following some basic guidelines can help manage them successfully.

Prior to code execution, first check any Null values or variables which might contain Nulls so they can be eliminated from execution.

You should then modify your code so as to better handle exceptions that arise during its running time.

Employ Java Libraries Efficiently

One reason Java is still so widely popular among programmers worldwide is due to its support for various code libraries - commonly referred to as Java Class Libraries - used as software architect tools and to quickly assemble parts of code faster without manually writing every function themselves Overusing libraries is detrimental to software programming and could potentially have serious repercussions in the long run.

As each library requires dedicated system resources to load, they consume both memory and can impede performance of applications.

There may also be issues related to quality; certain libraries contain buggy code that does more harm than good. Java programmers should make an effort to choose libraries from reliable sources that serve multiple functions in order to conserve memory resources and ensure efficiency in utilizing these important memory assets.

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Conclusion

Java is an extremely flexible and powerful programming language used across numerous industries ranging from fintech and e-commerce, gaming and entertainment, and even agriculture.

To take full advantage of its vast capabilities, programmers must learn not just coding but coding smart in order to produce high-performance software as well as write code that's clear to other team members while being well composed with zero bugs - something our experienced Java team knows how to achieve, and explore our Java development services.

References

1. 🔗 Google scholar
2. 🔗 Wikipedia
3. 🔗 NyTimes