Coding Practice

Hi,
I was wondering which is better coding practices. Creating large programs with many "areas of Java coding" covered and do that about once a day, or creating little programs that cover only one area, don't take long, and do them few times a day.
NOTE: this is just to further my understanding of coding.
Is there somewhere I can go (possible Javaranch has a place,.. I don't know) to find a new Program to create. Like a website that says "Create a program that ....." with a new challenge every day, and the answer to last challenge? My hardest problem coding is I don't know what to create? I'm not too creative at the moment.
I know this all must sound silly, but I do need any kind of help to further my confidence that I can code anything I want. Maybe then I'll have more confidence that I can find a good job with Java.
Any help is appreciated,
Travis B.

Travis,
The exercises in RHE (Roberts, Heller, Ernest) and the examples in each chapter of Patrick Houghton (Complete Reference) are good.
Ofcourse, going through Maha Anna's archives is a great learning experience.
Regards,
Keerthi

Travis,
you may want to have a look at the following links:
Javaranch Cattle Drive
MindProd's List of Java projects for students
[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: Valentin Crettaz ]

for me ,
writing small programs helps you in two ways ... first thing you concentrate only on the point you want to learn and second you do not care abt maintenace... I mean you do not have to search in the code for particular programming segment.
Best thing have a template .java file and and save it with differebt code with different name and compile and check the O/P.
as for writing program for practise ... I think in Khalid has exercise in the end of each chapter.
All The Best