Using a class from a Jar File

[Benjamin Thvedt]

I was working through the excercises in this website's cattle drive section but then I got to one where it said I have to dowload a jar file and use a class in there. So I found out how to extract files from a jar file using the -xf command, but I feel like I am missing something. Am I supposed to just extaract the files, find the class files I need, and put it in the same folder as the program I'm writing? Or is there a better way? I tried using a package statment, because all the class files are in a series of folders com/javaranch/common but it doesn't seem to be working.

[Stefaan Dutry]

Hello, Benjamin.

When you are asked to use a class from a jar file, they want you to do the following:

download the jar file

add the jar to your classpath

use an import statement for the class

check the -classpath option of both the javac and the java command

javac command

java command

For how to use import statement, see the following :

import statements

[Benjamin Thvedt]

Ah. Thanks a lot!