Week 1

Basics of Java
Identifiers, Literals, Operators, Variables, Expressions, and Data types
 Objectives
In this chapter you will learn:
• Basic Java components (methods, special symbols, and identifiers)
• Primitive data types
• Arithmetic operators and evaluation of arithmetic expressions
• Type casting
• String type
• Assignment statement
• Use of increment and decrement operators
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 Introduction
What is a computer program?
A computer program or a program is a sequence of statements written in a
programming language intended to accomplish a task.

What is programming?
Programming is a process of planning & creating a program.

How can we learn a programming language?

We must have a fundamental knowledge of the language, and we must write & test
our programs on the computer to make sure they work correctly.
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 A Java Application Program ASimpleJavaProgram.java
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 Java Basics
Every programming language has its
special symbols
words
syntax rules
The syntax rules identify which statements are accepted by the
programming language and which are not.
The semantic rules determine the meaning of the statements.
Programming language:
A set of rules , symbols , and special words used to construct programs
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 Comments
The program should be
understandable not only to the
developer but also to the
reader of the program.
A good program includes
comments in it.
Comments are for a reader ,
not for the compiler.
When compiler compiles a
program, it ignores comments.

 There are two kinds of comments:

 Multi‐line Comment: begins with /* and ends with */, and may span more than
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one lines (as in Lines 1‐4).

 End‐of‐line Comment: begins with // and lasts until the end of the current line (as
in Lines 5 and 7).
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 Example of Java Symbols
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 Reserved Words (Keywords)
Reserved words are always lowercase.

Each reserved word is considered as a single symbol.

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 Identifiers
Identifiers are names of things, such as variables, constants , methods,
classes , that appear in programs.
A Java identifier consists of only letters , digits , the underscore character
(_), and the dollar sign ($).
An identifier must begin with a letter , the underscore or the dollar sign.
Java is case sensitive : Number , NUMBER , number are different
identifiers.
A Java identifier cannot be a reserved word
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 Identifiers
Example: Valid or Invalid?
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 Data Types
The objective of a Java program is to manipulate data.
Different programs manipulate different data:
A program designed to calculate the area of a triangle will do some math
operations on numbers.
A program designed to build up the students list will manipulate names (words).
Java classifies data into different types: only certain operations can be
performed on a particular type of data:
We cannot multiply names, or concatenate numbers.
Data type is a set of values together with a set of operations on these
values.
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 Data Types
The primitive data types are fundamental data types in Java:
integrals: data types dealing with integers(numbers without decimal parts).
floating‐point: data types dealing with decimal numbers.
boolean: data types dealing with logical values.
char
byte
Integral short
int

Primitive Data Types long

float
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Floating‐point
double
Boolean

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 Variable
Variable: a memory location whose content may change during program
execution.
The syntax to declare one variable or multiple variables is:

Examples:
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 Creating a Java Program
The syntax of a class: The syntax of the main method:

class Members: declarative statements:

data members declare variables, etc.
methods executable statements:
perform calculations,
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manipulate date, input &

output, etc.

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 Java Application Program
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 Putting Data into Variables
Two common ways to place data into a variable are:
Use an assignment statement.
Use input(read) statements.
Assignment statement:

The value of expression should match the data type of the variable.
The expression is evaluated & its value is assigned to the variable.
The equal sign (=) is called the assignment operator.
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 Arithmetic Operators
Java has five arithmetic Java provides:
operators: the increment operator ++, which
increments the value of a variable by 1.

the decrement operator – –, which

decrements the value of a variable by 1.
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 Increment & Decrement Operators
Example:
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 Assignment Statements (cont.)
Java provides five compound operators
+= , –= , *= , /= , %=

corresponding to the five arithmetic operators.

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 Operator + for Strings
The operator + can be used to concatenate (join) two strings
a string and a numeric value or a character

Example:
"Sunny" + " Day" evaluates to "Sunny Day"
Amount = "$"+ "576.35" evaluates to Amount = "$576.35"

Exercises:

"The sum = "+12+26 => "The sum = "+ "12"+"26" =>"The sum = 1226"
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"The sum = "+ (12+26) => "The sum = 38"

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 Type Conversion (Casting)
In a mixed expression 5.4/ 2, the integer 2 is treated as a floating‐point
number 2.0.
When a value of one data type is automatically treated as another type,
an implicit type coercion has occurred.
Java provides explicit type conversion through cast operator:

Example:
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double x = 5.5;
int y = (int) x;

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 Named Constants
Named constant: a memory location whose content is not allowed to
change during program execution.
The syntax to declare a named constant is

Static and final are reserved words

Final specifies that the value stored in IDENTIFIER is fixed and cannot be
changed.
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Example:
final int NO_OF_PAGES = 900;

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 Packages, Classes & Methods
To use existing classes, methods, identifiers, we must tell the program
which package contains them.
The general syntax to import the contents of a package:

Example:

import java.util.*; // imports necessary classes

import java.util.Scanner; // only imports Scanner class
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 Parsing Numeric Strings
 Convert a string consisting of an integer to a value of
the type int:
int num = Integer.parseInt("6723") ;
// num will be 6723

 Convert a string consisting of a floating‐point

number to a value of the type float:
float num = Float.parseFloat("234.56") ;
// num will be 234.56
 Convert a string consisting of a floating‐point
number to a value of the type double:
double num = Double.parseDouble(“‐234.56") ;
// num will be ‐234.56
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