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CS 234: Object-Oriented
Programming in Java
Java Basics
Variables, Types, Operations, Statements

Aron Kondoro
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Java Basics
Variables, Types, Operations, Statements
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Java Hello World
class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, World!");
}
}
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Variables
• Locations in memory in which values
can be stored
• Name, Value, Type
• Must be declared before can be used
• Java has three kinds of variables
• instance variables
• Class variables
• local variables
• Java does not have global variables
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Declaring Variables
• To use any variable in a Java program, you must int myAge;
String myName;
first declare it boolean isTired;
• Variable name and type
• Variable declarations consist of a type and a int x, y, z;
variable name String firstName, LastName;
• Variable definitions can go anywhere in a method
definition int myAge, mySize, numShoes
= 28;
• You can string together variable names with the String myName = “Laura”;
same type boolean isTired = true;
• You can also give each variable an initial value int a = 4, b = 5, c = 6;

when you declare it

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Variable Names/Identifiers
• Variable names in Java can start with a letter, an underscore (_), or a
dollar sign ($)
• They cannot start with a number.
• Java uses Unicode character set
• Can use accented characters
• Java is case sensitive
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Assigning Values to Variables
• Once a variable has been declared you can assign value
• Use the assignment operator

size = 14;
tooMuchCaffiene = true;
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Java Data Types
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Essential information about a data type
• What values can a data type store?
• What operations can we perform on a data type?
• For example
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Primitive Data Types
• Built into the system
• A primitive data type has
only a value, such as a
number.
• Are machine-independent
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int
• Stores whole numbers, positive or negative without decimals
Operations

Values

Special Values
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Rules for int operations
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Floating point types
• Represent numbers with a fractional part (non-integer values)
• Java has two data types for storing non-integer values
• float
• double
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Floating Point Data
• Use double for most applications (more accurate).
• Use float where 6-decimal digits are enough, or you need to optimise
space/performance.
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double
• Java uses the IEEE floating point standard
• Any number written with “.” or exponential is automatic of type
double (not float)
• If you do +, -, *, /, with int and double, the result is a double. The int
value is promoted to a double first
• *, /, and % are always done before + and -
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double special values
• There are 3 special values
• +Infinity, -Infinity, and NaN (not a number)
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Rules for numeric values
• Java has rules for how it interprets numerical values
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Boolean Data Type
• Java provides a Boolean data type
• Has two values: true or false
• Is used in if, while and for statements
Values Operations
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char
• The char data type is for character data
• Java uses 2-byte Unicode for character data
• To hold all the world’s alphabet
• Unicode: http://www.unicode.org
• You can also use char to hold special values

Values
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Useful char methods
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byte and short
• byte and short are for integer data and input/output
• byte is used for low-level input, holding character codes (as 1 byte),
and groups of "flag" bits
• byte and short are not used for arithmetic.
• Java promotes all arithmetic to the "int" data type.

byte values short values

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Exercise
• What is the data type of the following values?
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Operators
Manipulating data types
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Operators
• Symbols that perform simple computations
• Include
• Arithmetic
• Assignments
• Increment and decrement
• Logical operations
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Arithmetic Operators

● Integer division result in an integer

● For integers, the result type of most operations is an
int or a long
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Order of Arithmetic Operations
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Exercise
• What are the resulting values for the following?
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Boolean Operators
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Operator Precedence
• Operations are performed in this order (from top to bottom)
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Exercise
• What are the resulting values for the following?
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Type conversion and casting

Combining different data types
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Type Conversion
• When Java performs arithmetic (+ - * / %) on two values, both values
must be the same data type.
• If your code contains 2 + 3, then Java sees that your adding int + int
and produces an int result (5)
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Automatic Type Conversion
• But, if a and b are different types, Java will try to promote one of the
values to make them the same type. This is called type conversion
• Type conversion may also occur when you call a method that expects
another type.
• Example: Math.sqrt(2)
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Automatic Type Conversion
• Takes place when two data types are automatically converted. This
happens when:
• The two data types are compatible
• When assigning a smaller data type value to a bigger data type.
• In Java, the numeric data types are compatible
• Java always promotes byte and short values to int
• But no automatic conversion is supported from numeric type to char
or boolean.
• This is done to prevent errors
• Also, char and boolean are not compatible with each other.
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Automatic Type Conversion
• If you do arithmetic on different data types, Java promotes one
argument to the type with the widest range.
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Type Casting
• Type casting is when you assign a value of one primitive data type to
another type.
• In Java, there are two types of casting:
• Widening Casting (automatically) - converting a smaller type to a larger type
size byte -> short -> char -> int -> long -> float -> double
• Narrowing Casting (manually) - converting a larger type to a smaller size type
double -> float -> long -> int -> char -> short -> byte
• Widening casting is done automatically when passing a smaller size
type to a larger size type:
• Narrowing casting must be done manually by placing the type in
parentheses in front of the value
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Literals
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Java Literals
• Constant values that appear directly in the program.
• Can be assigned directly to a variable.
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Number Literals
• Integer literals
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Statements
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Statement
• Simplest thing you can do in Java int i = 1;
import
• Forms a single Java operation java.awt.Font;
System.out.println(“
• Sometimes return values This motorcycle is a
• Are called expressions “ + color + “ “ +
make);
• Must end with a semicolon m.engineState =
• Statements can also be grouped to form a block true;
int j = 1 + 2;
• Use {}
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Selection statements
Conditionals
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Selection Statements
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Comparison operators
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Boolean operators
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Repetition statements
Loops
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Repetition Statements (Loops)
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Branching Statements
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Embedded Loops
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Methods and parameters

Breaking down a program
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Methods
• Big programs are built out of small methods
• Methods can be individually developed, tested and reused
• The user of the method does not need to know how it work
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Methods
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Method Parameters
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Multiple Parameters
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Return Values
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Basic Input/Output
Interacting with the outside world
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Reading input: The Scanner Class
Declares a variable sc of Scanner type

The scanner object will receive

input from this source

After initialization, a Scanner object

provides functionality to read
values of various types
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Writing Output: The Standard Output
• System.out is the predefined output device
• Refers to the monitor/screen of your computer
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Writing Output: printf()
• Java introduced printf() in Java 1.5
• Very similar to the C version
• The format string contains normal characters and a number of
specifiers
• Specifiers start with a percent sign (%)
• Value of the appropriate type must be provided for each specifier
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API
• The Scanner class you have seen is part of the Java API
• API: an interface for other programs to interact with a program without
having direct access to the internal data of the program
• Documentation: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/api/
• For Java programmers, it is very important to refer to the API documentation
regularly
• The API consists of many classes
• You do not need to know all the classes
• You will learn some more classes in this course
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Java API