7 Java coding tips to make the programming easier

Author: Zuzana Kocáková

Digitization

6 reading minutes

Read our colleagues’ Java coding tips and make Java programming easier for you. If you’ve decided to take up Java programming, you’ll probably want to take a course first. Regardless of whether you’ve just started your education or you’ve already taken a few classes, there are some rules you won’t normally learn about in a training course. Developers who work in Java on a daily basis have invaluable hands-on experience. We asked our colleagues about it and have written it up in this article. Programming in Java is practical for many reasons. It’s a popular programming language – many employers are looking for Java developers to join their team, so you’ll have no shortage of job offers. Have you already chosen a suitable programming course? To become an experienced Java developer senior, knowledge and valuable experience are needed, but good advice from more experienced colleagues will make it easier and faster. Other programming languages work on a similar principle and if you don’t program yet, you should think about it.

Don’t miss books on Java programming

When it comes to IT and programming books, it’s a bit impractical with them. Technology is evolving at such a rate that by the time a book is published, it is largely out of date. However, some of it remains relevant for a very long time, so this source is not to be entirely condemned either. More effective, however, may be the various periodicals, web sites, blogs or forums and groups for programmers, where you can find many tips on how to solve various problems in Java programming. They are also an effective way to read as much as possible about the experiences of professional and especially experienced programmers.

The teacher is able to detect and explain mistakes from practice, while the student makes mistakes from ignorance. However, in the age of pseudo-experts, there is a fairly good chance that you will come across something that is not quite true. That is why we recommend you to check your sources and draw information only from those who have a long tradition and from people that are specialists in their field.

Join the group of beginner programmers

Like-minded people are going through the same problems as you, so you can learn lessons or find solutions together with others. If you join a Java programming group on a social media, you can solve your own mistakes, help others and, last but not least, stay up to date on the latest trends. Helping each other is the most effective way to move forward.

Code dutifully

“If you want to learn how to code, you have to code,” says Yablko, one of Slovakia’s most popular programming teachers. All the theory in the world won’t replace writing all those tags, syntax and logical relationships. Learn something new all the time, because your knowledge might not be up to date. You’re bound to forget something. Practice is the only way to professionalism, especially when you already know all the basic concepts. Besides, today’s technology is changing so fast that if you don’t keep improving your skills and learning new ones, you will quickly fall behind others.

Make the code as short as possible

A bit of a strange advice, isn’t it? Isn’t it a programmer’s job to write code? Yes and no. Of course, working in Java must involve writing code, but you should still try to write as little as possible to solve a particular problem or task. This doesn’t mean that you should make your code as compact as possible and, for example, name all variables only with single letters of the alphabet. It means that you should try to write only the code that is actually needed to implement the desired functionality. It sometimes happens to Java developers that they create long code in an attempt to cover all possible variations of situations. However, this may not always be efficient. Such additional code may not add any value, but it can still cause a lot of harm. The more code you write, the more chances there are for errors, not to mention the difficulty of maintaining such a mass of data.

Avoid writing comments

It is almost impossible not to have heard at least once in a Java programming course the sentence, “Write comments on the code you create.” Instructors usually argue that when you come back to the code years later, you’ll know what its purpose was. Well, yes. If you’re new to programming, that’s definitely good advice. However, professionals in Java programming and in other languages as well try to avoid comments.

We don’t mean that you’re not supposed to use any comments ever again, but that they can mostly be avoided. Instead, focus on naming things better. Experts say that comments should only be written when you can’t clearly express the intent of a variable or method with a name. So a comment could tell you that, for example, the strange order in which some operations occurred in the code was not a bug, but an intention due to a bug in the underlying operating system. In general, comments are bad not just because they can be avoided in many cases, but especially because they can be deceptive. This is because comments do not automatically update with the rest of the code, and so over time they can become misleading because they can point you in the wrong direction. Well, if you have to check every time whether the code really does what the comment says it does, such a comment is useless.

Learn programming languages gradually

When you’re trying to learn the language of another country, you don’t start with English, Spanish and Esperanto at the same time. It takes time, patience and complete focus to learn any language, including programming languages. Want to learn React? Develop mobile apps? Cross-platform apps using Flutter or React Native? Would you like to finally learn C# or develop games? You’re not alone. Having big plans and high goals is good, but you have to be smart about it. You can learn HTML and CSS at the same time, but you can hardly master both frontend and backend languages at the same time. Choose according to what you want to do.

Java error as a challenge

Don’t be afraid of failure, but instead, learn from your mistakes. Love your error messages, because they will teach you how to program correctly in Java. Repeat to yourself over and over again that if you want to be able to code, you have to code. Step by step. Before you know it, you’ll be proficient in Java programming. Then don’t forget to check out our latest job offers!

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7 Java coding tips to make the programming easier

Zuzana Kocáková

At msg life Slovakia I take care of the company culture, events and I am part of the marketing team. I like a job where I can be creative and contribute to making my colleagues at msg feel good. I regularly prepare for you not only news and interesting things from the world of information technology and insurance, but also from behind the scenes events at msg life Slovakia.