java importing same packages .

[Ravi Kiran Va]

Hi , This is an Standard FAQ of Java .

Can I import same package/class twice? Will the JVM load the package twice at runtime?

A: One can import the same package or same class multiple times. Neither compiler nor JVM complains abt it. And the
JVM will internally load the class only once no matter how many times you import the same class.


But can we prove this ? Is there any Proof Of Concept for this .

[fred rosenberger]

What would you accept as proof? Documentation can easily say one thing, and the program do something else. Would you be satisfied with anything other than the source code for the JVM?

[Ravi Kiran Va]

fred rosenberger wrote:What would you accept as proof?

Please don't get angry . I am asking whether there i can see it in any way on to class files .

[fred rosenberger]

i'm not angry at all. I'm just trying to understand what you would accept at 'proof'.

I don't know if the JVM source is available. There is probably some license agreement prohibiting decompiling the class files, so you can't do that...

heck the JVM does not even have to be written in Java - it could be a binary executable.

[Ravi Kiran Va]

Thank you .

[Henry Wong]

Well.... One option is to trace the JVM to see how many times it opens a particular class file.

Henry

[Himanshu Kansal]

Might be using the -verbose flag helps while compiling or executing.

Regards

[David Newton]

It could be different across JVMs, too, although I'd be pretty surprised if anything was loaded twice.

I'm not really sure how meaningful the question is anyway--it's not like the byte code will change if something is imported twice.