Reading Class Documentation

Key question: For any class, how do we know

• what methods are available,
• whether they are Do-Something or Return-Something methods,
• and whether they need information passed to them?

Read the Class Documentation!

Class documentation pages are generated by a tool called javadoc from the javadoc comments in a Java source file. These are the comments that start with two asterisks (/** ... */) that come before the class and before each method.

Class Documentation Structure

Every class documentation page has a similar structure.

• Overall class information, including a description of the purpose of the class, plus @author and @version information.
• Constructor Summary: brief summary of every constructor
• Method Summary: brief summary of every method
• Constructor Detail: full description and details about expected parameters
• Method Detail: full description and details about expected parameters and the return value
• A class documentation page also has information about how the class relates to other classes.

Example: Simplified Clock Class