Question

I have a Java library that I am working on with a directory structure which looks like the following:

/com
  /example
    /LibX
      Server.java
      Client.java

Now, from a project which is using the above classes, it seems to me that importing com.example.LibX.* and using Client client = new Client(...); is a bit ambiguous, as “Client” could mean anything. Therefore, I tried the following, only to receive “package not found” errors:

import com.example.*;

LibX.Client client = new LibX.Client(...);

It is possible to do what I described? Or is there another way to remove the ambiguity without using com.example.LibX.Client?

Answer 1

Your concern about ambiguity is unnecessary – if you have an ambiguous reference your class won’t compile –
e.g.

import java.util.Date;
import java.sql.Date;

public class Test {

        private Date date;
}

won’t compile. So if you can compile the class then by definition you don’t have an ambiguous reference.

Incidentally LibX.Client is a bit confusing. Usually classnames are capitalized, package names lowercased, so if you did that (if LibX was a top-level package and you were giving the full name) it looks more like an inner class reference, as in Andy’s response above.