System - java.lang

System

The System class holds a collection of static methods and variables. The standard input, output, and error output of the Java run time are stored in the in, out, and err variables. The methods defined by System are shown in Table 17-13. Many of the methods throw a SecurityException if the operation is not permitted by the security manager.

Let’s look at some common uses of System.

Using currentTimeMillis( ) to Time Program Execution

One use of the System class that you might find particularly interesting is to use the currentTimeMillis( ) method to time how long various parts of your program take to execute. The currentTimeMillis( ) method returns the current time in terms of milliseconds since midnight, January 1, 1970. To time a section of your program, store this value just before beginning the section in question. Immediately upon completion, call currentTimeMillis( ) again. The elapsed time will be the ending time minus the starting time. The following program demonstrates this:

// Timing program execution.

class Elapsed {

public static void main(String args[]) { long start, end;

System.out.println("Timing a for loop from 0 to 100,000,000");

// time a for loop from 0 to 100,000,000

start = System.currentTimeMillis(); // get starting time

for(long i=0; i < 100000000L; i++) ;

end = System.currentTimeMillis(); // get ending time

System.out.println("Elapsed time: " + (end-start));

}

}

Here is a sample run (remember that your results probably will differ):

Timing a for loop from 0 to 100,000,000

Elapsed time: 10

If your system has a timer that offers nanosecond precision, then you could rewrite the preceding program to use nanoTime( ) rather than currentTimeMillis( ). For example, here is the key portion of the program rewritten to use nanoTime( ):

start = System.nanoTime(); // get starting time

for(long i=0; i < 100000000L; i++) ;

end = System.nanoTime(); // get ending time

Using arraycopy( )

The arraycopy( ) method can be used to copy quickly an array of any type from one place to another. This is much faster than the equivalent loop written out longhand in Java. Here is an example of two arrays being copied by the arraycopy( ) method. First, a is copied to b. Next, all of a’s elements are shifted down by one. Then, b is shifted up by one.

// Using arraycopy().

class ACDemo {

static byte a[] = { 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 }; static byte b[] = { 77, 77, 77, 77, 77, 77, 77, 77, 77, 77 };

public static void main(String args[]) {

System.out.println("a = " + new String(a));

System.out.println("b = " + new String(b));

System.arraycopy(a, 0, b, 0, a.length);

System.out.println("a = " + new String(a));

System.out.println("b = " + new String(b));

System.arraycopy(a, 0, a, 1, a.length - 1);

System.arraycopy(b, 1, b, 0, b.length - 1);

System.out.println("a = " + new String(a));

System.out.println("b = " + new String(b));

}

}

As you can see from the following output, you can copy using the same source and destination in either direction:

a = ABCDEFGHIJ b = MMMMMMMMMM a = ABCDEFGHIJ b = ABCDEFGHIJ a = AABCDEFGHI b = BCDEFGHIJJ

Environment Properties

The following properties are available in all cases:

file.separator

java.class.path

java.class.version

java.compiler

java.ext.dirs

java.home

java.io.tmpdir

java.library.path

java.specification.name

java.specification.vendor

java.specification.version

java.vendor

java.vendor.url

java.version

java.vm.name

java.vm.specification.name

java.vm.specification.vendor

java.vm.specification.version

java.vm.vendor

java.vm.version

line.separator

os.arch

os.name

os.version

path.separator

user.dir

user.home

user.name

You can obtain the values of various environment variables by calling the System.getProperty( ) method. For example, the following program displays the path to the current user directory:

class ShowUserDir {

public static void main(String args[]) { System.out.println(System.getProperty("user.dir"));

}

}

Object

As mentioned in Part I, Object is a superclass of all other classes. Object defines the methods shown in Table 17-14, which are available to every object.