Lesson 3

TOPIC: RESERVED/KEYWORDS PRESENT IN JAVA

PREFERRED DELIVERY: Virtual Classroom, Electronic, Printed Module

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this module, students will have completed the following objectives:
a) Define the lexical issues.
b) Enumerate the different symbols used in java programming.
c) Define the java keywords.

COURSE CONTENT
Regardless of whether one thinks that Java is now growing, or dying, one has to admit that Java
had truly revolutionized and had defined the programming language. Java had combined and
brought to the tons of useful programming languages features that were previously available
only separately or in various languages. Java is a programming language and platform released
by Sun Microsystems in 1995. Java is a secure, fast, and reliable programming language. Java
is everywhere in PCs to Mobile phone, satellites, other electronic devices. There are many
applications and websites that will not run without java installation in your machine.
In this chapter, we will discuss the lexical issues the, common symbols used in programming,
and the java keywords
Lexical Issues
Whitespace. Java is a free-form language. This means that you do not need to follow any
special indentation rules. In Java, whitespace includes a space, tab, newline, or form feed.
Identifiers. Identifiers are used to name things, such as classes, variables, and methods. An
identifier may be any descriptive sequence of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, or the
underscore and dollar-sign characters.
Literals. A constant value in Java is created by using a literal representation of it. A literal can
be used anywhere a value of its type is allowed.
Comments. As mentioned, there are three types of comments defined by Java. You have
already seen two: single-line and multiline. The third type is called a documentation comment.
This type of comment is used to produce an HTML file that documents your program.
Separator. there are a few characters that are used as separators. The most commonly used
separator in Java is the semicolon. As you have seen, it is often used to terminate statements.
Java Keywords
Java keywords are also known as reserved words. Keywords are particular words which
acts as a key to a code. These are predefined words by Java so it cannot be used as a variable
or object name
1) abstract: Java abstract keyword is used to declare abstract class. Abstract class can
provide the implementation of interface. It can have abstract and non-abstract methods.
2) boolean: Java boolean keyword is used to declare a variable as a boolean type. It can
hold True and False values only.
3) break: Java break keyword is used to break loop or switch statement. It breaks the
current flow of the program at specified condition.
4) byte: Java byte keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold an 8-bit data values.
5) case: Java case keyword is used to with the switch statements to mark blocks of text.
6) catch: Java catch keyword is used to catch the exceptions generated by try statements.
It must be used after the try block only.
7) char: Java char keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold unsigned 16-bit
Unicode characters.
8) class: Java class keyword is used to declare a class.
9) continue: Java continue keyword is used to continue the loop. It continues the current
flow of the program and skips the remaining code at the specified condition.
10) default: Java default keyword is used to specify the default block of code in a switch
statement.
11) do: Java do keyword is used in control statement to declare a loop. It can iterate a part
of the program several times.
12) double: Java double keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 64-bit
floating-point numbers.
13) else: Java else keyword is used to indicate the alternative branches in an if statement.
14) enum: Java enum keyword is used to define a fixed set of constants. Enum constructors
are always private or default.
15) extends: Java extends keyword is used to indicate that a class is derived from another
class or interface.
16) final: Java final keyword is used to indicate that a variable holds a constant value. It is
applied with a variable. It is used to restrict the user.
17) finally: Java finally keyword indicates a block of code in a try-catch structure. This block
is always executed whether exception is handled or not.
18) float: Java float keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 32-bit floating-
point number.
19) for: Java for keyword is used to start a for loop. It is used to execute a set of
instructions/functions repeatedly when some conditions become true. If the number of
iteration is fixed, it is recommended to use for loop.
20) if: Java if keyword tests the condition. It executes the if block if condition is true.
21) implements: Java implements keyword is used to implement an interface.
22) import: Java import keyword makes classes and interfaces available and accessible to
the current source code.
23) instanceof: Java instanceof keyword is used to test whether the object is an instance of
the specified class or implements an interface.
24) int: Java int keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 32-bit signed integer.
25) interface: Java interface keyword is used to declare an interface. It can have only
abstract methods.
26) long: Java long keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 64-bit integer.
27) native: Java native keyword is used to specify that a method is implemented in native
code using JNI (Java Native Interface).
28) new: Java new keyword is used to create new objects.
29) null: Java null keyword is used to indicate that a reference does not refer to anything. It
removes the garbage value.
30) package: Java package keyword is used to declare a Java package that includes the
classes.
31) private: Java private keyword is an access modifier. It is used to indicate that a method
or variable may be accessed only in the class in which it is declared.
32) protected: Java protected keyword is an access modifier. It can be accessible within
package and outside the package but through inheritance only. It can't be applied on the
class.
33) public: Java public keyword is an access modifier. It is used to indicate that an item is
accessible anywhere. It has the widest scope among all other modifiers.
34) return: Java return keyword is used to return from a method when its execution is
complete.
35) short: Java short keyword is used to declare a variable that can hold a 16-bit integer.
36) static: Java static keyword is used to indicate that a variable or method is a class
method. The static keyword in Java is used for memory management mainly.
37) strictfp: Java strictfp is used to restrict the floating-point calculations to ensure
portability.
38) super: Java super keyword is a reference variable that is used to refer parent class
object. It can be used to invoke immediate parent class method.
39) switch: The Java switch keyword contains a switch statement that executes code based
on test value. The switch statement tests the equality of a variable against multiple
values.
40) synchronized: Java synchronized keyword is used to specify the critical sections or
methods in multithreaded code.
41) this: Java this keyword can be used to refer the current object in a method or
constructor.
42) throw: The Java throw keyword is used to explicitly throw an exception. The throw
keyword is mainly used to throw custom exception. It is followed by an instance.
43) throws: The Java throws keyword is used to declare an exception. Checked exception
can be propagated with throws.
44) transient: Java transient keyword is used in serialization. If you define any data member
as transient, it will not be serialized.
45) try: Java try keyword is used to start a block of code that will be tested for exceptions.
The try block must be followed by either catch or finally block.
46) void: Java void keyword is used to specify that a method does not have a return value.
47) volatile: Java volatile keyword is used to indicate that a variable may change
asynchronously.
 48) while: Java while keyword is used to start a while loop. This loop iterates a part of the
program several times. If the number of iterations is not fixed, it is recommended to use
while loop.

Lesson 4
TOPIC: DATA TYPES, VACRIABLES AND ARRAYS

The Primitive Types

Eight primitive types of data: byte, short, int, long, char, float, double, and boolean. The primitive types
are also commonly referred to as simple types. These can be put in four groups:
 Integers This group includes byte, short, int, and long, which are for whole-valued signed numbers.
 Floating-point numbers This group includes float and double, which represent numbers with
fractional precision.
 Characters This group includes char, which represents symbols in a character set, like letters and
numbers. There is a type that uses sequence of char (form of text) called strings.
 Boolean This group includes boolean, which is a special type for

Integers
byte - The smallest integer type is byte. This is a signed 8-bit type that has a range from –128 to
127.
short - is a signed 16-bit type. It has a range from –32,768 to 32,767. It is probably the least-used
Java type.
int - The most commonly used integer type is int. It is a signed 32-bit type that has a range from –
2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647.
long - is a signed 64-bit type that has a range from -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to
9,223,372,036,854,755,807 and is useful for those occasions where an int type is not large enough
to hold the desired value. The range of a long is quite large.

Float - the type float specifies a single-precision value that uses 32 bits of storage (e.g 32.4).
Double - Double precision, as denoted by the double keyword, uses 64 bits to store a value. Double
precision is actually faster than single precision on some modern processors that have been optimized for
high-speed mathematical calculations (e.g 32.3456734).
char - the data type used to store characters. A key point to understand is that Java uses Unicode to
represent characters.
Booleans - is also the type required by the conditional expressions that govern the control statements such
as if and for.

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, and an optional initializer. In addition, all variables have a scope, which
defines their visibility, and a lifetime.
Declaring a Variable
In Java, all variables must be declared before they can be used. The basic form of a
variable declaration is shown here: type identifier [ = value ][, identifier [= value ] …];
Ex: Int a, b, c;
Java Input
Java provides different ways to get input from the user. To get input from user using the object of
Scanner class. In order to use the object of Scanner, we need to import java.util.Scanner package.
import java.util.Scanner;
Then, we need to create an object of the Scanner class. We can use the object to take
input from the user.
//create an object of Scanner
Scanner input = new Scanner (Sytem.in);
//take input from the user
int number = input.nextInt();

Example Code:
import java.util.Scanner;
class InputInteger{
public static void main(String[]args){
Scanner input = new Scanner (Sytem.in);
Sytem.out.print(“Enter an integer:”);
int number = input.nextInt();
 system.out,println(“You entered:” + number);
input.close();
}
}
Enter an Integer:14 //this is where you are going to input the number you desired
You Entered:14 //inputted number