?– A package is a collection of classes and interfaces that provides a high-level layer of access protection and name space management.
In Java, a package is a way to organize related classes and interfaces into a single unit. It helps in avoiding naming conflicts and provides a modular structure to the code. A package is essentially a collection of classes and interfaces grouped together under a common namespace.
Key points about packages in Java:
- Namespace Control: Packages provide a way to manage the namespace by grouping related classes and interfaces together. This helps in avoiding naming conflicts, as classes from different packages can have the same name.
- Access Control: Packages also play a role in access control by providing a mechanism to restrict access to the classes and interfaces. Members with default (package-private) access are only accessible within the same package.
- Organization: Packages help in organizing and structuring large codebases. They allow developers to group related classes and interfaces in a logical manner.
- Import Statement: To use classes or interfaces from another package, you need to use the
import
statement. This statement informs the compiler about the location of the classes or interfaces you want to use in your code.
Here’s a simple example:
// Declaration of a package
package com.example.myapp;
// Import statement to use classes from another package
import com.example.otherpackage.OtherClass;
// Class declaration within the package
public class MyClass {
// Class members and methods go here
}
In this example, com.example.myapp
is the package declaration for the class MyClass
. The import
statement is used to bring in the OtherClass
from the com.example.otherpackage
package.