System.out.println In Java

System is a class in the java.lang package. out is a static member of the System class, and is an instance of java.io.PrintStream . println is a method of java.io.PrintStream . This method is overloaded to print message to output destination, which is typically a console or file.

System is a class, that has a public static field out. So it's more like.

public final class System {

    /**
     * The "standard" output stream. This stream is already
     * open and ready to accept output data. Typically this stream
     * corresponds to display output or another output destination
     * specified by the host environment or user.
     * <p>
     * For simple stand-alone Java applications, a typical way to write
     * a line of output data is:
     * <blockquote><pre>
     *     System.out.println(data)
     * </pre></blockquote>
     * <p>
     * See the <code>println</code> methods in class <code>PrintStream</code>.
     *
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println()
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(boolean)
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(char)
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(char[])
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(double)
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(float)
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(int)
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(long)
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(java.lang.Object)
     * @see     java.io.PrintStream#println(java.lang.String)
     */
    public final static PrintStream out = null;

}

And the PrintStream look likes,

public class PrintStream extends FilterOutputStream
    implements Appendable, Closeable {

    /**
     * Prints a String and then terminate the line.  This method behaves as
     * though it invokes <code>{@link #print(String)}</code> and then
     * <code>{@link #println()}</code>.
     *
     * @param x  The <code>String</code> to be printed.
     */
    public void println(String x) {
        synchronized (this) {
            print(x);
            newLine();
        }
    }

}

The print(x) method looks like,

   /**
     * Prints a string.  If the argument is <code>null</code> then the string
     * <code>"null"</code> is printed.  Otherwise, the string's characters are
     * converted into bytes according to the platform's default character
     * encoding, and these bytes are written in exactly the manner of the
     * <code>{@link #write(int)}</code> method.
     *
     * @param      s   The <code>String</code> to be printed
     */
    public void print(String s) {
        if (s == null) {
            s = "null";
        }
        write(s);
    }

The write(s)  & newLine() methods looks like,

    private BufferedWriter textOut;
    private OutputStreamWriter charOut;

    private void write(String s) {
        try {
            synchronized (this) {
                ensureOpen();
                textOut.write(s);
                textOut.flushBuffer();
                charOut.flushBuffer();
                if (autoFlush && (s.indexOf('\n') >= 0))
                    out.flush();
            }
        }
        catch (InterruptedIOException x) {
            Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
        }
        catch (IOException x) {
            trouble = true;
        }
    }

    private void newLine() {
        try {
            synchronized (this) {
                ensureOpen();
                textOut.newLine();
                textOut.flushBuffer();
                charOut.flushBuffer();
                if (autoFlush)
                    out.flush();
            }
        }
        catch (InterruptedIOException x) {
            Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
        }
        catch (IOException x) {
            trouble = true;
        }
    }

The first pgm can be rewrite as,