Thursday 3 July 2014

Exception Handling in Java

Exception Handling
An exception is a problem that arises during the execution of a program. An exception can occur for many different reasons, including the following:
  • A user has entered invalid data.
  • A file that needs to be opened cannot be found.
  • A network connection has been lost in the middle of communications or the JVM has run out of memory.
Some of these exceptions are caused by user error, others by programmer error, and others by physical resources that have failed in some manner.
To understand how exception handling works in Java, you need to understand the three categories of exceptions:
  • Checked exceptions: A checked exception is an exception that is typically a user error or a problem that cannot be foreseen by the programmer. For example, if a file is to be opened, but the file cannot be found, an exception occurs. These exceptions cannot simply be ignored at the time of compilation.
  • Runtime exceptions: A runtime exception is an exception that occurs that probably could have been avoided by the programmer. As opposed to checked exceptions, runtime exceptions are ignored at the time of compilation.
  • Errors: These are not exceptions at all, but problems that arise beyond the control of the user or the programmer. Errors are typically ignored in your code because you can rarely do anything about an error. For example, if a stack overflow occurs, an error will arise. They are also ignored at the time of compilation.

Exception Hierarchy:

All exception classes are subtypes of the java.lang.Exception class. The exception class is a subclass of the Throwable class. Other than the exception class there is another subclass called Error which is derived from the Throwable class.
Errors are not normally trapped form the Java programs. These conditions normally happen in case of severe failures, which are not handled by the java programs. Errors are generated to indicate errors generated by the runtime environment. Example : JVM is out of Memory. Normally programs cannot recover from errors.
The Exception class has two main subclasses: IOException class and RuntimeException Class.
Java Exceptions
Here is a list of most common checked and unchecked Java's Built-in Exceptions.

Exceptions Methods:

Following is the list of important medthods available in the Throwable class.
SNMethods with Description
1public String getMessage()
Returns a detailed message about the exception that has occurred. This message is initialized in the Throwable constructor.
2public Throwable getCause()
Returns the cause of the exception as represented by a Throwable object.
3public String toString()
Returns the name of the class concatenated with the result of getMessage()
4public void printStackTrace()
Prints the result of toString() along with the stack trace to System.err, the error output stream.
5public StackTraceElement [] getStackTrace()
Returns an array containing each element on the stack trace. The element at index 0 represents the top of the call stack, and the last element in the array represents the method at the bottom of the call stack.
6public Throwable fillInStackTrace()
Fills the stack trace of this Throwable object with the current stack trace, adding to any previous information in the stack trace.
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CSE Department
SreeKavitha Engineering College   

Micro Controller & Pin Diagram

A micro controller is an integrated circuit or a chip with a processor and other support devices like program memory, data memory, I/O ports, serial communication interface etc integrated together. Unlike a microprocessor (ex: Intel 8085), a microcontroller does not require any external interfacing of support devices. Intel 8051 is the most popular microcontroller ever produced in the world market. Now lets talk about 8051 microcontroller in detail.
Before going further, it will be interesting for you to understand the difference between a Microprocessor and Microcontroller. We have a detailed article which describes the basic difference between both.

8051 Pin Diagram & Description

For describing pin diagram and pin configuration of 8051, we are taking into consideration a 40 pin DIP (Dual inline package). Now lets go through pin configuration in detail.
Pin-40 : Named as Vcc is the main power source. Usually its +5V DC.
You may note some pins are designated with two signals (shown in brackets).
Pins 32-39: Known as Port 0 (P0.0 to P0.7) – In addition to serving as I/O port, lower order address and data bus signals are multiplexed with this port (to serve the purpose of external memory interfacing). This is a bi directional I/O port (the only one in 8051) and external pull up resistors are required to function this port as I/O.
Pin-31:- ALE aka Address Latch Enable is used to demultiplex the address-data signal of port 0 (for external memory interfacing.)  2 ALE pulses are available for each machine cycle.
Pin-30:- EA/ External Access input is used to enable or disallow external memory interfacing. If there is no external memory requirement, this pin is pulled high by connecting it to Vcc.
Pin- 29:- PSEN or Program Store Enable is used to read signal from external program memory.
Pins- 21-28:- Known as Port 2 (P 2.0 to P 2.7) – in addition to serving as I/O port, higher order address bus signals are multiplexed with this quasi bi directional port.
Pin 20:- Named as Vss – it represents ground (0 V) connection.
Pins 18 and 19:- Used for interfacing an external crystal to provide system clock.
Pins 10 – 17:- Known as Port 3. This port also serves some other functions like interrupts, timer input, control signals for external memory interfacing RD and WR , serial communication signals RxD and TxD etc. This is a quasi bi directional port with internal pull up.
Pin 9:- As explained before RESET pin is used to set the 8051 microcontroller to its initial values, while the microcontroller is working or at the initial start of application. The RESET pin must be set high for 2 machine cycles.
Pins 1 – 8:- Known as Port 1. Unlike other ports, this port does not serve any other functions. Port 1 is an internally pulled up, quasi bi directional I/O port.
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CSE Department
SreeKavitha Engineering College  
SreeKavitha Engineering College,Karepalli


Functions in C Language

Functions
A function is a group of statements that together perform a task. Every C program has at least one function, which is main(), and all the most trivial programs can define additional functions.
You can divide up your code into separate functions. How you divide up your code among different functions is up to you, but logically the division usually is so each function performs a specific task.
A function declaration tells the compiler about a function's name, return type, and parameters. A function definition provides the actual body of the function.
The C standard library provides numerous built-in functions that your program can call. For example, function strcat() to concatenate two strings, function memcpy() to copy one memory location to another location and many more functions.
A function is known with various names like a method or a sub-routine or a procedure, etc.

Defining a Function:

The general form of a function definition in C programming language is as follows:
return_type function_name( parameter list )
{
   body of the function
}
A function definition in C programming language consists of a function header and a function body. Here are all the parts of a function:
  • Return Type: A function may return a value. The return_type is the data type of the value the function returns. Some functions perform the desired operations without returning a value. In this case, the return_type is the keyword void.
  • Function Name: This is the actual name of the function. The function name and the parameter list together constitute the function signature.
  • Parameters: A parameter is like a placeholder. When a function is invoked, you pass a value to the parameter. This value is referred to as actual parameter or argument. The parameter list refers to the type, order, and number of the parameters of a function. Parameters are optional; that is, a function may contain no parameters.
  • Function Body: The function body contains a collection of statements that define what the function does.

Example:

Following is the source code for a function called max(). This function takes two parameters num1 and num2 and returns the maximum between the two:
/* function returning the max between two numbers */
int max(int num1, int num2) 
{
   /* local variable declaration */
   int result;
 
   if (num1 > num2)
      result = num1;
   else
      result = num2;
 
   return result; 
}

Function Declarations:

A function declaration tells the compiler about a function name and how to call the function. The actual body of the function can be defined separately.
A function declaration has the following parts:
return_type function_name( parameter list );
For the above defined function max(), following is the function declaration:
int max(int num1, int num2);
Parameter names are not important in function declaration only their type is required, so following is also valid declaration:
int max(int, int);
Function declaration is required when you define a function in one source file and you call that function in another file. In such case you should declare the function at the top of the file calling the function.

Calling a Function:

While creating a C function, you give a definition of what the function has to do. To use a function, you will have to call that function to perform the defined task.
When a program calls a function, program control is transferred to the called function. A called function performs defined task and when its return statement is executed or when its function-ending closing brace is reached, it returns program control back to the main program.
To call a function, you simply need to pass the required parameters along with function name, and if function returns a value, then you can store returned value. For example:
#include <stdio.h>
 
/* function declaration */
int max(int num1, int num2);
 
int main ()
{
   /* local variable definition */
   int a = 100;
   int b = 200;
   int ret;
 
   /* calling a function to get max value */
   ret = max(a, b);
 
   printf( "Max value is : %d\n", ret );
 
   return 0;
}
 
/* function returning the max between two numbers */
int max(int num1, int num2) 
{
   /* local variable declaration */
   int result;
 
   if (num1 > num2)
      result = num1;
   else
      result = num2;
 
   return result; 
}
I kept max() function along with main() function and compiled the source code. While running final executable, it would produce the following result:
Max value is : 200

Function Arguments:

If a function is to use arguments, it must declare variables that accept the values of the arguments. These variables are called the formal parameters of the function.
The formal parameters behave like other local variables inside the function and are created upon entry into the function and destroyed upon exit.
While calling a function, there are two ways that arguments can be passed to a function:
Call TypeDescription
Call by valueThis method copies the actual value of an argument into the formal parameter of the function. In this case, changes made to the parameter inside the function have no effect on the argument.
Call by referenceThis method copies the address of an argument into the formal parameter. Inside the function, the address is used to access the actual argument used in the call. This means that changes made to the parameter affect the argument.
By default, C uses call by value to pass arguments. In general, this means that code within a function cannot alter the arguments used to call the function and above mentioned example while calling max() function used the same method.
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CSE Department
SreeKavitha Engineering College