Java import confusion

Question

What is the difference between:

java.awt.*;

and:

java.awt.event.*;

I find both in many programs.

Answer 1

java.awt.* is not a regular expression, which is what I think you are expecting/thinking.

java.awt.* will give you only the classes in that exact package, and not the nested packages. Imagine the name space collisions involved with below!

import com.*

It should be noted that it is considered bad practice to use *. Explicate class name imports are preferred.

For further reading: Wikipedia: Namespace (Computer Science)