What is importing?

Importing allows us to specify a fully qualified class or interface name only once at the beginning of the .java file, before the class or interface declaration. The format of an import statement is as follows:

import <package>.<class or interface name>;

For example, look at the following:

import com.packt.javapath.ch04demo.MyApplication;

From now on, this class can be referred to in the code by its name, MyApplication, only. It is also possible to import all the classes or interfaces of a package using the wildcard character (*):

import com.packt.javapath.ch04demo.*;

Notice that the preceding import statement imports classes and interfaces of the subpackages of the com.packt.javapath.ch04demo package. If needed, each subpackage has to be imported separately.

But, before we continue, let's talk about the .java file structure and packages.