How to use another package's classes?

**AloeFerret** · July 7th, 2020, 09:05 AM

So I am working on a lemmatizer, currently, so I have one package where I will store classes corresponding to parts of speech, e.g. Noun, Verb and what not. And then in another package I will have my class that will contain main.

I would like for my main class to be able to access any of the classes within the parts of speech package. W3 schools is a dirty liar, because they said using the keyword "class" by default allows said class to be used by other classes in the same package. But no, I have "class Noun", so default class, but main, in another package, can't make a Noun object.

And I use Eclipse, and Eclipse has this feature "Organize Imports" where it will apparently import packages for you. But when I click on it, or use the shortcut ctrl + shift + o, literally nothing happens. No dialogue window comes up, nothing. So I clearly need to do it the manual way.

**Norm** · July 7th, 2020, 09:28 AM

There are a couple of ways to write code that use classes from another package:
one is to have import statements that give the compiler the path to where the class file is located:
import java.util.ArrayList;

another is to code the full package name with the class name when referring to the class:
System.out.println("an ID "+ java.util.Arrays.toString(theArrayName));

For the compiler to find the class, its package must be on the classpath. The classpath is set for the javac command by using the -cp option.

Or is this a question on how to configure your IDE?

**AloeFerret** · July 7th, 2020, 11:32 AM

How do I figure out the path where my class file is located? That is, in such a way that it can be imported? Yeah, I know where the physical .class file is, but what am I supposed to do, say import C:/users/eclipse/src/bin etc?

**Norm** · July 7th, 2020, 11:50 AM

If the full classname with package is mypackage.MyClass
and the file MyClass.class is in the mypackage folder
then the classpath for javac must point to the folder that contains the mypackage folder.
For example if the path to the class file was: C:/users/eclipse/src/mypackage/MyClass.class
then the classpath for the javac program would be: -cp C:/users/eclipse/src

Your code would have the statement: import mypackage.MyClass;

**AloeFerret** · July 7th, 2020, 12:49 PM

I tried both import parts_of_speech and parts_of_speech.Noun (which I don't want to do, I want to import every single class within the whole package) and nothing worked. Within my eclipse folder, I have a folder that is the name of my Java Project, within that there is a src file, then within that are my two packages.

**Norm** · July 7th, 2020, 01:23 PM

Can you post the full path to your classes
and the full name of the class with the package name?
Also post the value of the classpath passed to the javac command (on the commandline following the -cp)
also the current directory where the javac command was executed?

The classpath passed to the javac command needs to connect to the package folder.
For example if the path to the class file was: C:/users/eclipse/src/mypackage/MyClass.class
and the current directory where the javac command was executed was: C:/users/eclipse/
then the -cp needs to be -cp src because the mypackage folder is in the src folder.

**AloeFerret** · July 8th, 2020, 10:37 AM

Path to main class: C:\Users\(my name)\eclipse-workspace\Lemmatizer Prototype\src\main\main.java
Path to Noun class: C:\Users\(my name)\eclipse-workspace\Lemmatizer Prototype\src\oarts_of_speech\Noun.java

I have no clue what any of that javac/cp stuff even is (I use eclipse, not the command line, so I never have a reason to use javac), so I am afraid I cannot provide that.

**Norm** · July 8th, 2020, 10:51 AM

Sorry, I do not know how to configure Eclipse so it will set the correct classpath when it compiles a java program.

Note: The paths you posted were to the source files - have an extension of .java
The class files I was asking about have an extension of .class.

Also you didn't show what the full names of your classes are. The full name includes the package.
For example for the Arrays class, the full name is java.util.Arrays. I referenced that in post#2

**AloeFerret** · July 8th, 2020, 11:06 AM

Perhaps I have too many gaps in my information to be worrying about this. I will end the thread here.

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