Fundamental Programming
Structures
Tensay G. Kiflu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
Addis Ababa Science and Technology University(AASTU)
Variables
The variable is the basic unit of storage in a
Java program.
A variable is defined by the combination of
An identifier
A type
An optional initializer.
In addition, all variables have a scope, which
defines their visibility, and a lifetime.
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Declaring a Variable
All variables must be declared before they
can be used.
The basic form of a variable declaration
Examples of variable declarations
int a, b, c; // declares three ints, a, b, and c.
double pi = 3.14159; // declares an
approximation of pi.
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Scope and Lifetime of Variables
Java allows variables to be declared within
any block.
A block is begun with an opening curly
brace and ended by a closing curly brace.
A block defines a scope.
A scope determines what objects are visible
to other parts of your program.
It also determines the lifetime of those
objects.
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Scope Illustration
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Lifetime of Variables
Variables are
created when their scope is entered
destroyed when their scope is left
This means that a variable will not hold its
value once it has gone out of scope.
Variables declared within a method will not
hold their values between calls to that
method.
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Lifetime of Variables …
A variable declared within a block will lose its
value when the block is left.
Thus, the lifetime of a variable is confined to
its scope.
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Lifetime Illustration
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Constants
If we want a value to remain fixed, then we
use a constant.
A constant is declared in a manner similar to
a variable but with the additional reserved
word final
A constant must be assigned a value at the
time of its declaration
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Examples of Constants Declaration
Named constant or symbolic constant
e.g.
PI
FARADAY_CONSTANT
Literal constant (an actual value)
e.g. 4
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Primitive Data Types
There are six numerical data types in Java:
byte, short, int, long, float, and double.
The data types byte, short, int, and long are
for integers
The data types float and double are for real
numbers
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Numerical Data Types and Precisions
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Comments
Java has three kinds of comments
/* and */ surround multiline comments
All text between the two delimiters is ignored.
Comments cannot be nested
Double-slashes (//) can be used for a single line of
comment.
All the text up to the end of the line is ignored.
/** and ends with */
Special comments used for the javadoc system
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Arithmetic Operators
Notice that x % y = 0 when y divides x perfectly; for example, 16 % 2 = 0. Also notice that x %
y = x when y is larger than x; for example, 23 % 25 = 23
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Precedence Rules
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Precedence Rules Illustration
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Shorthand assignment operators
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Relational Operators
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Boolean Expressions and Variables
Three boolean operators are
AND, OR, and NOT
In Java, the symbols
&&, ||, and ! represent the AND, OR, and NOT
operators, respectively.
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Boolean Operators
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Numerical Input
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Example 1
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Example 2
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Example 3
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Complete Program
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Thank You!
Questions?
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