6.1 Declarations

A declaration introduces an entity into a Java program and includes an identifier (§3.8) that can be used in a name to refer to this entity. A declared entity is one of the following:

• A package, declared in a package declaration (§7.4)
• An imported type, declared in a single-type-import declaration (§7.5.1) or a type-import-on-demand declaration (§7.5.2)
• A class, declared in a class type declaration (§8.1)
• An interface, declared in an interface type declaration (§9.1)
• A member of a reference type (§8.2, §9.2, §10.7), one of the following:
  • A field, one of the following:
    • A field declared in a class type (§8.3)
    • A constant field declared in an interface type (§9.3)
    • The field length, which is implicitly a member of every array type (§10.7)
  • A method, one of the following:
    • A method (abstract or otherwise) declared in a class type (§8.4)
    • A method (always abstract) declared in an interface type (§9.4)

• A parameter, one of the following:
  • A parameter of a method or constructor of a class (§8.4.1, §8.6.1)
  • A parameter of an abstract method of an interface (§9.4)
  • A parameter of an exception handler declared in a catch clause of a try statement (§14.18)
• A local variable, one of the following:
  • A local variable declared in a block (§14.3)
  • A local variable declared in a for statement (§14.12)

Constructors (§8.6) are also introduced by declarations, but use the name of the class in which they are declared rather than introducing a new name.