CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
Vipul J
Vipul J

Reputation: 6691

Difference b/w an API and Package in JAVA?

What is exact difference between an API(Application Programming Interface) and a Package?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 6335

Answers (2)

CoolBeans
CoolBeans

Reputation: 20820

An API is a specification of your application/library. For example this is the Java 6 API.

A package is a logical grouping of the classes, modules, and functionalities of your application into name spaces. Generally packages are distributed via jar files (a jar will be a collection of packages). For instance this is a java 6 package.

Upvotes: 2

Preston
Preston

Reputation: 3271

I suspect you're getting confused because of something like this. This is the API and contains 0 code. It describes how the packages should be laid out, but they really are different.

A package is how your organize and group your classes together. For example java.awt.datatransfer.Clipboard has a package of java.awt.datatransfer.

An API is just a specification. It describes how something should work.

Hope that helps.

Upvotes: 2

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