Your First Program Is an Automated Check

Tradition says a first program prints "Hello, World!" You are not here for tradition. You are here to automate testing.

So your first program is a real — if small — automated check: it compares an expected result against an actual result and announces PASS or FAIL. It is the last step of TC-1042, written again in Java.

Build the check

In Eclipse, right-click the src folder → New → Class → name it FirstCheck → Finish. Then type the following exactly — every brace, every semicolon, every capital letter:

public class FirstCheck {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String expected = "Welcome, Priya!";
        String actual = "Welcome, Priya!";
        System.out.println("Expected: " + expected);
        System.out.println("Actual : " + actual);
        if (expected.equals(actual)) {
            System.out.println("Result : PASS");
        } else {
            System.out.println("Result : FAIL");
        }
    }
}

Before you run it — you knew this was coming — predict the output. Write the prediction down. Predicted first, actual second; any mismatch is investigated like the defect it is.

Run it: right-click inside the file → Run As → Java Application (or the green Run button). The actual output:

Expected: Welcome, Priya!
Actual : Welcome, Priya!
Result : PASS

If your prediction matched: your first test case just executed itself. If Eclipse refused and showed red underlines instead: even better. Jump to the next lesson, fix the program from the error message, and come back. Either way, you have completed the basic loop of the job: write a check, run it, read the result.

What every line means

A program you can run but cannot explain is a risk — you know what happens when someone executes steps they do not understand. Walk through the lines.

public class FirstCheck { — In Java, all code lives inside a class. For now, think of a class as a labeled container for related code — the way a test suite is a labeled container for related test cases. Two rules with immediate effects: the class name must exactly match the file name (FirstCheck lives in FirstCheck.java), and by convention class names start with a capital letter, with each new word capitalized: FirstCheck, LoginPage, TestDataReader.

public static void main(String[] args) { — The entry point. The JVM starts executing here. Every runnable Java program has exactly this method, spelled exactly this way. What do static, void, and String[] args each mean in full? That answer needs ideas that arrive later in this series — for today, type it exactly and know that it means "start here."

String expected = "Welcome, Priya!"; — A variable: a named piece of stored data. String is its type (text), expected is its name, and the value follows the =. Later lessons go deep on variables; today you only need this: the line stores that text under the name expected.

System.out.println("Expected: " + expected); — Prints one line to the console. The + joins fixed text with whatever the variable holds. Printing is your first observation tool — the automation equivalent of a log so you can see what actually happened.

if (expected.equals(actual)) — The decision. Read it aloud: if expected equals actual — the verification step of every test case you have ever written. One early warning: .equals(...) is how you compare text in Java. There is a look-alike (==) that seems to work and then fails when it matters most. That trap gets its own lesson later.

Braces { } and semicolons ; — Braces group instructions into blocks. Semicolons end statements — a full stop at the end of each instruction. The compiler is completely strict about both.

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You wrote a check, ran it, and can explain every line — or honestly mark main as "used now, explained later." The next lesson is the most important skill in Chapter 1: break the program on purpose, and read the compiler's messages like defect reports.