Setting up Java 8 on Ubuntu

Hello and thank you in advance. I've put myself in a position in the last few days, I've taken on a new OS and then decided why not learn to do something with it. A trip to the book store and I have a copy of Head First Java. 2nd edition. Now thus far I have managed to get java 8 on my computer google had the answers for that. I have seen old answers to this question,  " once you've downloaded you need to add an entry to your path environment variable that points to the / bin directory inside the main java directory. "  is this still viable? if so how do I do that?  

Thank you again, =)

Welcome to the Ranch!

Please execute these commands in the terminal:
java -version
javac -version

If they prints versions correcly, you don't have to do anything with path variables.

Welcome to the Ranch

Didn't you find installation instructions when you downloaded Java®? We have our own FAQ about installation, which tells you the usual method of installing a tar.gz download on Linux, or the special installer which seems to work only on Ubuntu.
You may find you have already got Java® however. Try the following instructions at a terminal:-
java -version
javac -version
and see what happens. If they both point to the same update number of Java8, you are probably all right to start programming without further ado.

Thank you both, yes java -version and javac -version both lead to 1.8.0_111 so I hope that means I'm good.

Jeremy Bittinger wrote:. . . java -version and javac -version both lead to 1.8.0_111 so I hope that means I'm good.

Yes, it does and it means I am “bad” because I am still on 1.8.0_102, so I had better go and see about downloading a new version of Java®.