INTRODUCTION TO

SYNTAX OF JAVA FOR

OBJECT ORIENTED
PROGRAMMING
Lecture 04

MR. AFRASIAB KAIKOBAD

BARANI INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, PMAS ARID AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITY
4th floor Umair Plaza, 6th road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Contents
Primitive Data Types..............................................................................................................................2
byte:..................................................................................................................................................2
short:.................................................................................................................................................2
int:.....................................................................................................................................................2
long:...................................................................................................................................................2
float:..................................................................................................................................................3
double:..............................................................................................................................................3
boolean:.............................................................................................................................................3
char:...................................................................................................................................................3
Default Values...................................................................................................................................3
Scope of Variables in Java......................................................................................................................4
Member Variables (Class Level Scope)..............................................................................................4
Local Variables (Method Level Scope)...............................................................................................4
Loop Variables (Block Scope).............................................................................................................5
Some Important Points about Variable scope in Java:.......................................................................6

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Primitive Data Type & Scope (Afrasiab Kaikobad)
Primitive Data types in JAVA language
and access scope of the members
Primitive Data Typesi
The Java programming language is statically-typed, which means that all variables must first be
declared before they can be used.

Example:

int gear = 1;

Doing so tells your program that a field named "gear" exists, holds numerical data, and has an initial
value of "1". A variable's data type determines the values it may contain, plus the operations that
may be performed on it.

In addition to int, the Java programming language supports seven other primitive data types. A
primitive type is predefined by the language and is named by a reserved keyword. Primitive values
do not share state with other primitive values.

The eight primitive data types supported by the Java programming language are:

byte:
The byte data type is an 8-bit signed two's complement integer. It has a minimum value of -128 and
a maximum value of 127 (inclusive). The byte data type can be useful for saving memory in large
arrays, where the memory savings actually matters. They can also be used in place of int where their
limits help to clarify your code; the fact that a variable's range is limited can serve as a form of
documentation.

short:
The short data type is a 16-bit signed two's complement integer. It has a minimum value of -32,768
and a maximum value of 32,767 (inclusive). As with byte, the same guidelines apply: you can use a
short to save memory in large arrays, in situations where the memory savings actually matters.

int:
By default, the int data type is a 32-bit signed two's complement integer, which has a minimum
value of  -231and a maximum value of 231-1. In Java SE 8 and later, you can use the int data type to
represent an unsigned 32-bit integer, which has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 232-1.
Use the Integer class to use int data type as an unsigned integer. Static methods like
compareUnsigned, divideUnsigned etc have been added to the Integer class to support the
arithmetic operations for unsigned integers.

long:
The long data type is a 64-bit two's complement integer. The signed long has a minimum value of
-263 and a maximum value of 263-1. In Java SE 8 and later, you can use the long data type to represent
an unsigned 64-bit long, which has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 264-1. Use this
data type when you need a range of values wider than those provided by int. The Long class also
contains methods like compareUnsigned, divideUnsigned etc to support arithmetic operations for
unsigned long.

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Primitive Data Type & Scope (Afrasiab Kaikobad)
float:
The float data type is a single-precision 32-bit floating point. As with the recommendations for byte
and short, use a float (instead of double) if you need to save memory in large arrays of floating point
numbers. This data type should never be used for precise values, such as currency. For that, you will
need to use the java.math.BigDecimal class instead. Numbers and Strings covers BigDecimal and
other useful classes provided by the Java platform.

double:
The double data type is a double-precision 64-bit floating point. For decimal values, this data type is
generally the default choice. As mentioned above, this data type should never be used for precise
values, such as currency.

boolean:
The boolean data type has only two possible values: true and false. Use this data type for simple
flags that track true/false conditions. This data type represents one bit of information, but its "size"
isn't something that's precisely defined.

char:
The char data type is a single 16-bit Unicode character. It has a minimum value of '\u0000' (or 0) and
a maximum value of '\uffff' (or 65,535 inclusive).

In addition to the eight primitive data types listed above, the Java programming language also
provides special support for character strings via the java.lang.String class. Enclosing your character
string within double quotes will automatically create a new String object; for example, String s =
"this is a string";. String objects are immutable, which means that once created, their values cannot
be changed. The String class is not technically a primitive data type, but considering the special
support given to it by the language, you'll probably tend to think of it as such.

Default Values
It's not always necessary to assign a value when a field is declared. Fields that are declared but not
initialized will be set to a reasonable default by the compiler. Generally speaking, this default will be
zero or null, depending on the data type. Relying on such default values, however, is generally
considered bad programming style.

The following chart summarizes the default values for the above data types.

Data Type Default Value (for fields)

byte 0
short 0
int 0
long 0L
float 0.0f
double 0.0d
char '\u0000'
String (or any object)   null
boolean false

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Primitive Data Type & Scope (Afrasiab Kaikobad)
Scope of Variables in Javaii
Scope of a variable is the part of the program where the variable is accessible. In Java, all identifiers
are lexically (or statically) scoped, i.e. scope of a variable can determined at compile time and
independent of function call stack.

Member Variables (Class Level Scope)

These variables must be declared inside class (outside any function). They can be directly accessed
anywhere in class. Let’s take a look at an example:

public class Test

// All variables defined directly inside a class

// are member variables

int a;

private String b;

void method1() {....}

int method2() {....}

char c;

 We can declare class variables anywhere in class, but outside methods.

 Access specified of member variables doesn’t affect scope of them within a class.
 Member variables can be accessed outside a class with following rules

Modifier Package Subclass World

public Yes Yes Yes
protected Yes Yes No
Default(no modifier) Yes No No
private No No No

Local Variables (Method Level Scope)

Variables declared inside a method have method level scope and can’t be accessed outside the
method.

public class Test

void method1()

// Local variable (Method level scope)

int x;

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Primitive Data Type & Scope (Afrasiab Kaikobad)
 }

Note : Local variables don’t exist after method’s execution is over.

Here’s another example of method scope, except this time the variable got passed in as a
parameter to the method:

class Test

private int x;

public void setX(int x)

this.x = x;

The above code uses this keyword to differentiate between the local and class variables.

Loop Variables (Block Scope)

A variable declared inside pair of brackets “{” and “}” in a method has scope within the brackets
only.

public class Test

public static void main(String args[])

// The variable x has scope within

// brackets

int x = 10;

System.out.println(x);

// Uncommenting below line would produce

// error since variable x is out of scope.

// System.out.println(x);

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Primitive Data Type & Scope (Afrasiab Kaikobad)
 }

As another example, consider following program with a for loop.

class Test

public static void main(String args[])

for (int x = 0; x < 4; x++)

System.out.println(x);

// Will produce error

System.out.println(x);

Example:

class Test

public static void main(String args[])

int x;

for (x = 0; x < 4; x++)

System.out.println(x);

System.out.println(x);

Some Important Points about Variable scope in Java:

 In general, a set of curly brackets { } defines a scope.

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Primitive Data Type & Scope (Afrasiab Kaikobad)
  In Java we can usually access a variable as long as it was defined within the same set of
brackets as the code we are writing or within any curly brackets inside of the curly brackets
where the variable was defined.
 Any variable defined in a class outside of any method can be used by all member methods.
 When a method has the same local variable as a member, “this” keyword can be used to
reference the current class variable.
 For a variable to be read after the termination of a loop, it must be declared before the body
of the loop.

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Primitive Data Type & Scope (Afrasiab Kaikobad)
i
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/datatypes.html

ii
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/variable-scope-in-java/