Variables, Constants, and Data Types

• Primitive Data Types

• Variables, Initialization, and Assignment
• Constants
• Characters
• Strings
• Reading for this class: L&L, 2.1-2.3, App C

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 Primitive Data
• There are eight primitive data types in Java
• Four of them represent integers:
– byte, short, int, long

• Two of them represent floating point numbers:

– float, double

• One of them represents characters:

– char

• And one of them represents boolean values:

– boolean

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 Numeric Primitive Data
• The difference between the various numeric
primitive types is their size, and therefore the
values they can store:
Type Storage Min Value Max Value

byte 8 bits -128 127

short 16 bits -32,768 32,767
int 32 bits -2,147,483,648 2,147,483,647
long 64 bits < -9 x 1018 > 9 x 1018

float 32 bits +/- 3.4 x 1038 with 7 significant digits

double 64 bits +/- 1.7 x 10308 with 15 significant digits

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 Boolean Primitive Data
• A boolean value represents a true or false
condition
• The reserved words true and false are
the only valid values for a boolean type
boolean done = false;
• A boolean variable can represent any two
states such as a light bulb being on or off
boolean isOn = true;

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 Variables
• A variable is a name for a location in memory
• A variable must be declared by specifying the variable's
name and the type of information that it will hold

data type variable name

int total;

• Multiple variables can be created in one declaration:

int count, temp, result;

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 Variable Initialization
• A variable can be given an initial value in the
declaration with an equals sign
int sum = 0;
int base = 32, max = 149;
• When a variable is referenced in a program, its
current value is used
• See PianoKeys.java (page 66-67)
int keys = 88;
System.out.println(“A piano has ” + keys + “ keys.”);

• Prints as:
A piano has 88 keys.
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 Assignment
• An assignment statement changes the value of a
variable
• The equals sign is also the assignment operator
total = 55;

• The expression on the right is evaluated and the result is

stored as the value of the variable on the left
• The value previously stored in total is overwritten
• You can only assign a value to a variable that is
consistent with the variable's declared type
• See Geometry.java (page 68)

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 Constants
• A constant is an identifier that is similar to a variable
except that it holds the same value during its entire
existence
• As the name implies, it is constant, not variable
• In Java, we use the reserved word final in the
declaration of a constant
final int MIN_HEIGHT = 69;

• Any subsequent assignment statement with MIN_HEIGHT

on the left of the = operator will be flagged as an error

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 Constants
• Constants are useful for three important reasons
• First, they give meaning to otherwise unclear literal values
– For example, NUM_STATES means more than the literal 50

• Second, they facilitate program maintenance

– If a constant is used in multiple places and you need to change its
value later, its value needs to be updated in only one place

• Third, they formally show that a value should not change,

avoiding inadvertent errors by other programmers

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 Characters
• A char variable stores a single character
• Character literals are delimited by single quotes:
'a' 'X' '7' '$' ',' '\n'
• Example declarations:
char topGrade = 'A';
char terminator = ';', separator = ' ';

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 Character Sets
• A character set is an ordered list of characters,
with each character corresponding to a unique
number
• A char variable in Java can store any character
from the Unicode character set
• The Unicode character set uses sixteen bits per
character, allowing for 65,536 unique characters
• It is an international character set, containing
symbols and characters from many world
languages

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 Characters
• The ASCII character set is older and smaller than
Unicode, but is still quite popular (in C programs)
• The ASCII characters are a subset of the Unicode
character set, including:

uppercase letters A, B, C, …
lowercase letters a, b, c, …
punctuation period, semi-colon, …
digits 0, 1, 2, …
special symbols &, |, \, …
control characters carriage return, tab, ...

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 Character Strings
• A string of characters can be represented as a string
literal by putting double quotes around the text:
• Examples:
"This is a string literal."
"123 Main Street"
"X"
• Note the distinction between a primitive character ‘X’,
which holds only one character, and a String object,
which can hold a sequence of one or more characters
• Every character string is an object in Java, defined by
the String class
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 The println Method
• In the Lincoln program from Chapter 1, we invoked the
println method to print a character string
• The System.out object represents a destination (the
monitor screen) to which we can send output

System.out.println ("Whatever you are, be a good one.");

object method
information provided to the method
name
(parameters)

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 The print Method
• The System.out object provides another method
• The print method is similar to the println
method, except that it does not start the next line
• Therefore any parameter passed in a call to the
print method will appear on the same line
• See Countdown.java (page 59)
System.out.print (“Three… ”);
System.out.print (“Two… ”);
• Prints as:
Three… Two…

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 String Concatenation
• The string concatenation operator (+) is used to
append one string to the end of another
"Peanut butter " + "and jelly"
• It can also be used to append a number to a string
• A string literal cannot be broken across two lines in
a program so we must use concatenation
• See Facts.java (page 61)
System.out.println(“We present the following facts for your ”
+ “extracurricular edification”); NOTE:
No ; here
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 String Concatenation
• The + operator is also used for arithmetic addition
• The function that it performs depends on the type of the
information on which it operates
• If both operands are strings, or if one is a string and one
is a number, it performs string concatenation
• If both operands are numeric, it adds them
• The + operator is evaluated left to right, but parentheses
can be used to force the order
• See Addition.java (page 62)
System.out.println(“24 and 45 concatenated: ” + 24 + 45);
• Prints as:
24 and 45 concatenated: 2445
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 String Concatenation
• The + operator is evaluated left to right, but
parentheses can be used to force the order
Addition is
• See Addition.java (page 62) Done first

System.out.println(“24 and 45 added: ” + (24 + 45));

• Prints as:
Then concatenation is done
24 and 45 added: 69

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 Escape Sequences
• What if we want to include the quote character itself?
• The following line would confuse the compiler because it
would interpret the two pairs of quotes as two strings and
the text between the strings as a syntax error:
System.out.println ("I said "Hello" to you.");
Syntax
A String A String
Error
• An escape sequence is a series of characters that
represents a special character
• Escape sequences begin with a backslash character (\)
System.out.println ("I said \"Hello\" to you.");

A String
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 Escape Sequences
• Some Java Escape Sequences
Escape Sequence Meaning
\b backspace
\t tab
\n newline
\r carriage return
\" double quote
\' single quote
\\ backslash

• See Roses.java (page 64)

System.out.println(“Roses are red,\n\tViolets are blue,\n” +

• Prints as:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue, 20
 Escape Sequences
• To put a specified Unicode character into a
string using its code value, use the escape
sequence: \uhhhh where hhhh are the
hexadecimal digits for the Unicode value
• Example: Create a string with a temperature
value and the degree symbol:
double temp = 98.6;
System.out.println(
“Body temperature is ” + temp + “ \u00b0F.”);

• Prints as:
Body temperature is 98.6 ºF.
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 Methods of the String class
• String is a class and classes can have methods.
• Use the Sun website link to find definitions of
the methods for each standard library class
• The classes are listed in alphabetical order
• The String class has methods that can be used
to find out the characteristics of a String object
such as its length:
System.out.println(“Hello”.length());
• Prints the number 5 (for 5 characters in length)
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