The world of IT is always evolving, but in every area there are stable, core concepts that anyone just setting out needed to know last year, needs to know this year, and will still need to know next year. The purpose of the Foundations series is to identify these concepts and present them in a way that gives you the strongest possible starting point, no matter what your endeavor. Java Foundations provides essential knowledge about what has arguably become the world's most important programming language. What you learn here will benefit you in the short term, as you acquire and practice your skills, and in the long term, as you use them. Topics covered include: The history of Java Java fundamentals Keywords and operators Flow control Arrays Basic and advanced concepts in object-oriented programming Exception handling Standard Java API classes The collections framework