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Language Elements

This document provides an overview of key elements of the Java programming language including statements, expressions, variables, data types, operators, and comments. It describes how to declare and assign variables of primitive types like int and string. It also covers arithmetic, comparison, and logical operators as well as string concatenation. The document gives examples and guidelines for naming variables and defining constants.

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Luda Glava
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
34 views

Language Elements

This document provides an overview of key elements of the Java programming language including statements, expressions, variables, data types, operators, and comments. It describes how to declare and assign variables of primitive types like int and string. It also covers arithmetic, comparison, and logical operators as well as string concatenation. The document gives examples and guidelines for naming variables and defining constants.

Uploaded by

Luda Glava
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Language elements

Overview
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Statements and expressions
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Variables and primitive data types
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Constants
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Comments
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Literals
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Arithmetic
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Comparisons
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Logical operators
Statements and expressions
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A statement is a command that causes something to happen.
Example:
int weight = 225;
System.out.println(“My weight is ” + weight);

●
An expression is a statement that produces a value. The value produced by the statement is
called a return value.
Example:
int sum = add(x, y);
Variables
●
Used to store information (data) while the program is running.
●
Types of variables:
– Class variables - used to defne the attributes for an entire class of objects and apply to all
instances of it.
– Instance variables - used to defned the object's attributes.
– Local variables - used inside method defnitions or even smaller blocks of statements within a
method.
Declaring variables
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Variable declaration:
– int loanLength;
– String message;
– boolean gameOver;

●
Assigning initial values:
– int zipCode = 1000;
– String city = “Skopje”;
Naming variables
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The name must start with a letter, an underscore character ("_"), or a dollar sign ("$"). In practice, prefer
to use letters only.
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Names are case sensitive.
●
CamelCase notation:
– The frst letter of the variable name is lowercase.
– Each successive world in the variable name begins with a capital letter.
– All other letters are lowercase.
– Examples:
●
Button loadFile;
●
int localAreaCode;
●
boolean quitGame;
Variable types
A variable in Java can be declared as one of these three types:
– One of the primitive data types
– The name of a class or interface
– An array
Primitive data types
Eight primitive data types are part of the Java language:
– Four to store integers:
●
byte (8 bits) - 128 to 127
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short (16 bits) - 32,768 to 32,767
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int (32 bits) - 2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
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long (64 bits) - 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807
– Two foating-point numbers:
●
foat - 1.4E-45 to 3.4E+38
●
double - 4.9E-324 to 1.7E+308
– The char type is used for individual characters such as letters, numbers, punctuation, and other symbols.
– The boolean type can hold either a true or a false value.
Class types
A variable can be of Java's built-in classes, a third-party class or a class explicitly defned in
the project. 
Examples:
– String lastName = “Hopper”;
– Color hair;
– VolcanoRobot vr;
Assigning values to variables
Assigning a value is done using the assignment operator which is the equal sign ("=")
Examples:
– idCode = 8675309;
– accountOverdrawn = false;
Constants
●
A constant is a variable which is not allowed to change its value as the program runs.
●
In Java, constants are defned using the fnal keyword.
●
Examples:
– final float PI = 3.141592;
– final boolean DEBUG = false;
– final int PENALTY = 25;
Comments
Used to improve the readability of the program.
– Single line comments - denoted by two slash characters "//“.
Example:
int creditHours = 3; // set up credit hours for course 

– Multiple line comments - everything that's in between "/*" and "*/“.


Example:
/* This program occasionally deletes all files on
your hard drive and renders it completely unusable
when you press the Save button. */
Comments
– Javadoc comments - everything that's in between "/**" and "*/". Considered to be ofcial
documentation for the code an can be extracted by tools to create the source code
documentation.
Example:
/**
* Returns <tt>true</tt> if this list contains no elements.
*
* @return <tt>true</tt> if this list contains no elements.
*/
boolean isEmpty();
Literals
●
Number literals: 10, -0x101, 0777, 0xFF
●
Boolean literals: true, false
●
Character literals: 'a', '#', '3'
– Special characters:
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\n - New line, \t – Tab, \b – Backspace, \r - Carriage return, \f – Formfeed, \\ -
Backslash, \’ - Single quotation mark, \” - Double quotation mark, \d – Octal, \xd –
Hexadecimal, \ud - Unicode character
●
String literals: "Socrates asked, \"Hemlock is poison?\""
Arithmetic operations

Operator Meaning Example


+ Addition 3+4
- Subtraction 5-7
* Multiplication 5*5
/ Division 14 / 7
% Modulus 20 % 7
Example: Weather
Shorthand assignment operators

Expression Meaning
x += y x=x+y
x -= y x=x-y
x *= y x=x*y
x /= y x=x/y
Increment and decrement operators
●
Incrementing and decrementing are used very often so Java provides special operators to make this less verbose.
Examples:
– int x = 7;
– x++; // The new value is 8. 
●
When using in an expression, it's important whether the increment or decrement operator is used in a prefx (e.g. +
+x) or a postfx (e.g. x++) notation.
Examples:
– int x, y, z; // x, y, and z are all declared.
– x = 42; // x is given the value of 42.
– y = x++; // y is given x’s value (42) before it is incremented and x is then incremented
to 43.
– z = ++x; // x is incremented to 44, and z is given x’s value.
Comparison operators

Operator Meaning Example


== Equal x == 3
!= Not equal x != 3
< Less than x<3
> Greater than x>3
<= Less than or equal to x <= 3
>= Greater than or equal to x >= 3
Logical operators

Operator Meaning Example


&& AND (score > 75000) && (playerLives < 10)
|| OR (score > 75000) || (playerLives == 0)
^ XOR (score > 75000) ^ (playerLives == 0)
! NOT !(age < 30)
String arithmetic
The "+" operator can be used outside of mathematics to concatenate (combine) two or more
strings.
Example:
String firstName = “Raymond”;
System.out.println(“Everybody loves “ + firstName);
prints
"Everybody loves Raymond"
Exercises
Exercise: InvestmentCalculator
Create a program that calculates how much a $14,000 investment would be worth if it
increased in value by 40% during the frst year, lost $1,500 in value the second year, and
increased 12% in the third year.
Exercise: QuotientAndRemainder
Write a program that displays two numbers and uses the "/" and "%" operators to display
the result and remainder after they are divided. Use the "\t" character escape code to
separate the result and remainder in your output.

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