A switch works with the byte, short, char, and int primitive data types. It also works with enumerated types and a few special classes that "wrap" certain primitive types: Character, Byte, Short, and Integer.
In the JDK 7 release, you can use a String object in the expression of a switch statement.
switch 不支持 long,是因为 swicth 的设计初衷是为那些只需要对少数几个值进行等值判断,如果值过于复杂,那么还是用 if 比较合适。
> [Why can't your switch statement data type be long, Java?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2676210/why-cant-your-switch-statement-data-type-be-long-java)
switch 使用查找表的方式来实现,JVM 中使用的指令是 lookupswitch。
```java
public static void main(String... args) {
switch (1) {
case 1:
break;
case 2:
break;
}
}
public static void main(java.lang.String[]);
Code:
Stack=1, Locals=1, Args_size=1
0: iconst_1
1: lookupswitch{ //2
1: 28;
2: 31;
default: 31 }
28: goto 31
31: return
```
> [How does Java's switch work under the hood?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12020048/how-does-javas-switch-work-under-the-hood)
-**Extensibility Features** : An application may make use of external, user-defined classes by creating instances of extensibility objects using their fully-qualified names.
-**Class Browsers and Visual Development Environments** : A class browser needs to be able to enumerate the members of classes. Visual development environments can benefit from making use of type information available in reflection to aid the developer in writing correct code.
-**Debuggers and Test Tools** : Debuggers need to be able to examine private members on classes. Test harnesses can make use of reflection to systematically call a discoverable set APIs defined on a class, to insure a high level of code coverage in a test suite.
**Drawbacks of Reflection**
Reflection is powerful, but should not be used indiscriminately. If it is possible to perform an operation without using reflection, then it is preferable to avoid using it. The following concerns should be kept in mind when accessing code via reflection.
-**Performance Overhead** : Because reflection involves types that are dynamically resolved, certain Java virtual machine optimizations can not be performed. Consequently, reflective operations have slower performance than their non-reflective counterparts, and should be avoided in sections of code which are called frequently in performance-sensitive applications.
-**Security Restrictions** : Reflection requires a runtime permission which may not be present when running under a security manager. This is in an important consideration for code which has to run in a restricted security context, such as in an Applet.
-**Exposure of Internals** :Since reflection allows code to perform operations that would be illegal in non-reflective code, such as accessing private fields and methods, the use of reflection can result in unexpected side-effects, which may render code dysfunctional and may destroy portability. Reflective code breaks abstractions and therefore may change behavior with upgrades of the platform.
> [Trail: The Reflection API](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/reflect/index.html)
Java 是纯粹的面向对象语言,所有的对象都继承自 java.lang.Object,C++ 为了兼容 C 即支持面向对象也支持面向过程。
比较详细的内容:
| Java | C++ |
| -- | -- |
| Java does not support pointers, templates, unions, operator overloading, structures etc. The Java language promoters initially said "No pointers!", but when many programmers questioned how you can work without pointers, the promoters began saying "Restricted pointers." Java supports what it calls "references". References act a lot like pointers in C++ languages but you cannot perform arithmetic on pointers in Java. References have types, and they're type-safe. These references cannot be interpreted as raw address and unsafe conversion is not allowed. | C++ supports structures, unions, templates, operator overloading, pointers and pointer arithmetic.|
| Java support automatic garbage collection. It does not support destructors as C++ does. | C++ support destructors, which is automatically invoked when the object is destroyed. |
| Java does not support conditional compilation and inclusion. | Conditional inclusion (#ifdef #ifndef type) is one of the main features of C++. |
| Java has built in support for threads. In Java, there is a `Thread` class that you inherit to create a new thread and override the `run()` method. | C++ has no built in support for threads. C++ relies on non-standard third-party libraries for thread support. |
| Java does not support default arguments. There is no scope resolution operator (::) in Java. The method definitions must always occur within a class, so there is no need for scope resolution there either. | C++ supports default arguments. C++ has scope resolution operator (::) which is used to to define a method outside a class and to access a global variable within from the scope where a local variable also exists with the same name. |
| There is no _goto_ statement in Java. The keywords `const` and `goto` are reserved, even though they are not used. | C++ has _goto_ statement. However, it is not considered good practice to use of _goto_ statement. |
| Java doesn't provide multiple inheritance, at least not in the same sense that C++ does. | C++ does support multiple inheritance. The keyword `virtual` is used to resolve ambiguities during multiple inheritance if there is any. |
| Exception handling in Java is different because there are no destructors. Also, in Java, try/catch must be defined if the function declares that it may throw an exception. | While in C++, you may not include the try/catch even if the function throws an exception. |
| Java has method overloading, but no operator overloading. The `String` class does use the `+` and `+=` operators to concatenate strings and `String`expressions use automatic type conversion, but that's a special built-in case. | C++ supports both method overloading and operator overloading. |
| Java has built-in support for documentation comments (`/** ... */`); therefore, Java source files can contain their own documentation, which is read by a separate tool usually `javadoc` and reformatted into HTML. This helps keeping documentation maintained in easy way. | C++ does not support documentation comments. |
| Java is interpreted for the most part and hence platform independent. | C++ generates object code and the same code may not run on different platforms. |
> [What are the main differences between Java and C++?](http://cs-fundamentals.com/tech-interview/java/differences-between-java-and-cpp.php)
## 4. JRE or JDK
- JRE is the JVM program, Java application need to run on JRE.
- JDK is a superset of JRE, JRE + tools for developing java programs. e.g, it provides the compiler "javac"