Java Keywords

Q1) What are different types of access modifiers in Java?

Ans) There are four different types of modifiers:

Modifer Accessible in the same package Accessible in different package

Private No No

Protected Yes Yes, only if the class extends the main

class

Default Yes No

Public Yes Yes

Q2) What is the use of final keyword?

Ans) The final keyword can be assigned to

1. Class level variable

2. method
3. class
4. Objects

If a final is assigned to a variable, the variable behaves as a constant. It means that the value of variable once set
cannot be changed.

final int i=1;

i =5; // error

If a final is assigned to a method then it cannot be overridden in its child class.

class Parent {

final void print(){

System.out.println(“Inside”);

class Child extends Parent{

public final void print(){ // error cannot override final method

System.out.println(“Inside”);
}

If a class is made as final, then no other class can extend it and make it as parent class. E.g. String Class.

Final objects are instantiated only once. i.e

final Map map = new HashMap();

map.put(“key”,”value”);
map = new HashMap(); // error

Q3) What is use of synchronized keyword?

Ans) This keyword is used to prevent concurrency. Synchronized keyword can be applied to static/non-static methods
or a block of code. Only one thread at a time can access synchronized methods and if there are multiple threads trying
to access the same method then other threads have to wait for the execution of method by one thread. Synchronized
keyword provides a lock on the object and thus prevents race condition. E.g.

public void synchronized method(){}

public void synchronized staticmethod(){}
public void myMethod(){

synchronized (this){ // synchronized keyword on block of code

}

Q4) What is volatile keyword?

Ans) In general each thread has its own copy of variable, such that one thread is not concerned with the value of same
variable in the other thread. But sometime this may not be the case. Consider a scenario in which the count variable is
holding the number of times a method is called for a given class irrespective of any thread calling, in this case
irrespective of thread access the count has to be increased. In this case the count variable is declared as volatile. The
copy of volatile variable is stored in the main memory, so every time a thread access the variable even for reading
purpose the local copy is updated each time from the main memory. The volatile variable also have performance
issues.

Q5) What is a transient variable?

Ans) If some of the properties of a class are not required to be serialized then the varaibles are marked as transient.
When an object is deserialized the transient variables retains the default value depending on the type of variable
declared and hence lost its original value.

Q6) What is a strictfp modifier?

Ans) Strictfp is used with variable only . It is used to restrict floating point calculations ( fp ) to ensure portability
( platform Independent ). When this modifier is specified, the JVM adheres to the Java specifications ( IEEE-754
floating-point specification ) and returns the consistent value independent of the platform. That is, if you want the
answers from your code (which uses floating point values) to be consistent in all platforms, then you need to specify
the strictfp modifier.

Q7) What is a static variable?

Ans) Static keyword can be used with the variables and methods but not with the class but there are static class.
Anything declared as static is related to class and not objects.

Static variable : Multiples objects of a class shares the same instance of a static variable.Consider the example:

public class Counter{

private static int count=0;

private int nonStaticcount=0;

public void incrementCounter(){

count++;

nonStaticcount++;

}
 public int getCount(){

return count;

public int getNonStaticcount(){

return nonStaticcount;

public static void main(String args[]){

Counter countObj1 = new Counter();

Counter countObj2 = new Counter();

countObj1.incrementCounter();

countObj1.incrementCounter();

System.out.println("Static count for Obj1: "+countObj1.getCount());

System.out.println("NonStatic count for Obj1: "+countObj1.getNonStaticcount());

System.out.println("Static count for Obj2: "+countObj2.getCount())

System.out.println("NonStatic count for Obj2: "+countObj2.getNonStaticcount())

Output

Static count for Obj1: 2

NonStatic count for Obj1: 2

Static count for Obj2: 2

NonStatic count for Obj2: 0

In the above program obj1 and obj2 share the same instance of static variable count hence if the value is incremented
by one object , the incremented value will be reflected across the other objects.

Q8) What is a static method?

Ans)A method defined as static is called static method. A static method can be accessed without creating the objects.
Just by using the Class name the method can be accessed.

Static method can only access static variables and not local or global non-static variables. For eg:

public class Test{

public static void printMe(){
System.out.println("Hello World");
}
}
public class MainClass{
public static void main(String args[]){
Test.printMe()

}
}
OutPut:
Hello World

Also static method can call only static methods and not non static methods. But non-static methods can call static
mehtods.

Q9) Why static methods cannot access non static variables or methods?
Ans) A static method cannot access non static variables or methods because static methods doesnt need the object to
be accessed. So if a static method has non static variables or non static methods which has instantiated variables they
will no be intialized since the object is not created and this could result in an error.

Q10) What is static class ?

Ans) A class cannot be declared static. But a class can be said a static class if all the variables and methods of the
class are static and the constructor is private. Making the constructor private will prevent the class to be instantiated.
So the only possibility to access is using Class name only

Q9) What is throw keyword?

Ans) Throw keyword is used to throw the exception manually. It is mainly used when the program fails to satisfy the
given condition and it wants to warn the application.The exception thrown should be subclass of Throwable.

public void parent(){

try{
child();
}catch(MyCustomException e){ }
}

public void child{

String iAmMandatory=null;
if(iAmMandatory == null){
throw (new MyCustomException("Throwing exception using throw keyword");
}
}

Q10) What is use of throws keyword?

Ans) If the function is not capable of handling the exception then it can ask the calling method to handle it by simply
putting the throws clauseat the function declaration.

public void parent(){

try{
child();
}catch(MyCustomException e){ }
}

public void child throws MyCustomException{

//put some logic so that the exception occurs.
}