1.5 The java.util Package

The java.util package contains a number of useful classes and interfaces that support fundamental data structures and notification-related design patterns. Java depends directly on several of the classes in this package, and you may find many of these indispensable.

A number of classes in java.util are designed to help you manage a collection of objects. For example, the Vector class supports variable-length arrays of objects, while the Hashtable class can be used to create hashtables, or associative arrays, that contain key/value pairs of objects. In addition, the Enumeration interface defines methods for iterating through a collection of elements. Chapter 5, Collections, provides more detailed information on using these classes effectively in your Java programs.

The StringTokenizer class parses strings into distinct tokens separated by delimiter characters. This class is described in more detail in Chapter 2, Strings and Related Classes.

The java.util package contains a number of new classes in Java 1.1 to support internationalization. Many of these classes work in conjuction with the classes defined in the new java.text package. The most important new class is the Locale class, which represents a particular locale, or country and language, for internationalization purposes. The new Calendar and TimeZone classes interpret the value of a Date object in the context of a particular calendar system; the Date class existed in Java 1.0.2, but many of its methods are deprecated in Java 1.1. Finally, the ResourceBundle class and its subclasses, ListResourceBundle and PropertyResourceBundle, represent sets of localized data in Java 1.1.

Two other new entities in java.util are the EventObject class and the EventListener interface. These items form the basis of the new event model in Java 1.1.

See Chapter 17, The java.util Package, for complete reference material on all of the classes in the java.util package.