Data and Expressions

Variables and Assignment

Primitive Data Types
Expressions
Data Conversion
Character Strings
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;
int count, temp, result;

Multiple variables can be created in one declaration

Variable Initialization
• A variable can be given an initial value in the
declaration

int sum = 0;
int base = 32, max = 149;

• When a variable is referenced in a program, its

current value is used
Assignment
• An assignment statement changes the value of a variable
• The assignment operator is the = sign

total = 55;

• The expression on the right is evaluated and the

result is stored in the variable on the left
• The value that was in total is overwritten
• You can only assign a value to a variable that is
consistent with the variable's declared type
Constant Variable
• A constant variable 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

• The compiler will issue an error if you try to

change the value of a constant

• In Java, we use the final modifier to declare a

constant
final int MIN_HEIGHT = 69;
Constants
• Constants are useful for three important reasons

• First, they give meaning to otherwise unclear

literal values
 For example, MAX_LOAD means more than the literal 250

• Second, they facilitate program maintenance

 If a constant is used in multiple places, its value need
only be updated in one place

• Third, they formally establish that a value should

not change, avoiding unintentional errors by other
programmers
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
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
Numeric Primitive Data
• The default data type for Integer value is int.
• It means any integer constant used in any
expression is considered as int.
• The values of byte and short data type are
implicitly converted to int.
• This implicit conversion is called widening
conversion.
Example
public class Lincoln
{
public static void main (String[] args)
{
byte b=20,c=10,d;
d=b+c;
System.out.println (“Result“+d);
}
}
Numeric Primitive Data
• The default data type for real values is double.
• It means any real constant used in any expression
is considered as double.
• The values of float data type are implicitly
converted to double.
• This implicit conversion is called widening
conversion.
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 = ' ';
• Note the distinction between a primitive character variable,
which holds only one character, and a String object, which
can hold multiple characters
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
Characters
• The ASCII character set is older and smaller than
Unicode, but is still quite popular

• 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, ...
Boolean
• 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 also be used to represent

any two states, such as a light bulb being on or off
Expressions
• An expression is a combination of one or more
operators and operands
• Arithmetic expressions compute numeric results and
make use of the arithmetic operators:

Addition +
Subtraction -
Multiplication *
Division /
Remainder %

• If either or both operands used by an arithmetic

operator are floating point, then the result is a
floating point
Division and Remainder
• If both operands to the division operator (/) are
integers, the result is an integer (the fractional part
is discarded)
14 / 3 equals 4

8 / 12 equals 0

• The remainder operator (%) returns the remainder

after dividing the second operand into the first

14 % 3 equals 2

8 % 12 equals 8
Operator Precedence
• Operators can be combined into complex
expressions
result = total + count / max - offset;

• Operators have a well-defined precedence which

determines the order in which they are evaluated

• Multiplication, division, and remainder are

evaluated prior to addition, subtraction, and string
concatenation

• Arithmetic operators with the same precedence

are evaluated from left to right, but parentheses
can be used to force the evaluation order
Operator Precedence
• What is the order of evaluation in the following
expressions?

a + b + c + d + e a + b * c - d / e
1 2 3 4 3 1 4 2

a / (b + c) - d % e
2 1 4 3

a / (b * (c + (d - e)))
4 3 2 1
Expression Trees
• The evaluation of a particular expression can be
shown using an expression tree
• The operators lower in the tree have higher
precedence for that expression

+
a + (b – c) / d
a /

- d

b c
Assignment Revisited
• The assignment operator has a lower precedence
than the arithmetic operators

First the expression on the right hand

side of the = operator is evaluated

answer = sum / 4 + MAX * lowest;

4 1 3 2

Then the result is stored in the

variable on the left hand side
Assignment Revisited
• The right and left hand sides of an assignment
statement can contain the same variable

First, one is added to the

original value of count

count = count + 1;

Then the result is stored back into count

(overwriting the original value)
Increment and Decrement
• The increment and decrement operators use only
one operand
• The increment operator (++) adds one to its
operand
• The decrement operator (--) subtracts one from
its operand
• The statement
count++;
is functionally equivalent to
count = count + 1;
Increment and Decrement
• The increment and decrement operators can be
applied in postfix form:

count++

• prefix form:

++count

• When used as part of a larger expression, the two

forms can have different effects

• Because of their subtleties, the increment and

decrement operators should be used with care
Assignment Operators
• Often we perform an operation on a variable, and
then store the result back into that variable

• Java provides assignment operators to simplify

that process

• For example, the statement

num += count; //compound assign

is equivalent to

num = num + count;

Assignment Operators
• There are many assignment operators in Java,
including the following:

Operator Example Equivalent To

+= x += y x = x + y
-= x -= y x = x - y
*= x *= y x = x * y
/= x /= y x = x / y
%= x %= y x = x % y
Assignment Operators
• The right hand side of an assignment operator can
be a complex expression

• The entire right-hand expression is evaluated first,

then the result is combined with the original
variable

• Therefore
result /= (total-MIN) % num;

is equivalent to
result = result / ((total-MIN) % num);
Assignment Operators
• The behavior of some assignment operators
depends on the types of the operands

• If the operands to the += operator are strings, the

assignment operator performs string
concatenation

• The behavior of an assignment operator (+=) is

always consistent with the behavior of the
corresponding operator (+)
Data Conversion
• Sometimes it is convenient to convert data from
one type to another
• For example, in a particular situation we may want
to treat an integer as a floating point value
• These conversions do not change the type of a
variable or the value that's stored in it – they only
convert a value as part of a computation
Data Conversion
• Conversions must be handled carefully to avoid
losing information
• Widening conversions are safest because they
tend to go from a small data type to a larger one
(such as a short to an int)
• Narrowing conversions can lose information
because they tend to go from a large data type to a
smaller one (such as an int to a short)
• In Java, data conversions can occur in three ways:
 conversion by assignment
 promotion
 casting
Assignment Conversion
• Assignment conversion occurs when a value of
one type is assigned to a variable of another

• If money is a float variable and dollars is an

int variable, the following assignment converts
the value in dollars to a float

money = dollars

• Only widening conversions can happen via

assignment

• Note that the value or type of dollars did not

change
Data Conversion
• Promotion happens automatically when operators
in expressions convert their operands

• For example, if sum is a float and count is an

int, the value of count is converted to a floating
point value to perform the following calculation:

result = sum / count;

Casting
• Casting is the most powerful, and dangerous,
technique for conversion

• Both widening and narrowing conversions can be

accomplished by explicitly casting a value

• To cast, the type is put in parentheses in front of

the value being converted

• For example, if total and count are integers, but

we want a floating point result when dividing them,
we can cast total:

result = (float) total / count;

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"
• Every character string is an object in Java, defined
by the String class
• Every string literal represents a String object
The println Method
• In the Myprogram 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)
The print Method
• The System.out object provides another service
as well

• The print method is similar to the println

method, except that it does not advance to the
next line

• Therefore anything printed after a print

statement will appear on the same line
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
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
Escape Sequences
• What if we wanted to print a the quote character?
• The following line would confuse the compiler
because it would interpret the second quote as the
end of the string

System.out.println ("I said "Hello" to you.");

• An escape sequence is a series of characters that

represents a special character
• An escape sequence begins with a backslash
character (\)

System.out.println ("I said \"Hello\" to you.");

Escape Sequences
• Some Java escape sequences:

Escape Sequence Meaning

\b backspace
\t tab
\n newline
\r carriage return
\" double quote
\' single quote
\\ backslash
Countdown.java
public class Countdown
{
//-----------------------------------------------------------------
// Prints two lines of output representing a rocket countdown.
//-----------------------------------------------------------------
public static void main (String[] args)
{
System.out.print ("Three... ");
System.out.print ("Two... ");
System.out.print ("One... ");
System.out.print ("Zero... ");

System.out.println ("Liftoff!"); // appears on first output line

System.out.println ("Houston, we have a problem.");

}
}

•Dr. Muhammad Shiraz 1-41

Facts.java
public class Facts
{
public static void main (String[] args)
{
// Strings can be concatenated into one long string
System.out.println ("We present the following facts for your "
+ "extracurricular edification:");

System.out.println ();
// A string can contain numeric digits
System.out.println ("Letters in the Hawaiian alphabet: 12");

// A numeric value can be concatenated to a string

System.out.println ("Dialing code for Antarctica: " + 672);
System.out.println ("Year in which Leonardo da Vinci invented "
+ "the parachute: " + 1515);
System.out.println ("Speed of ketchup: " + 40 + " km per year");
}
}

•Dr. Muhammad Shiraz 1-42

Addition.java
public class Addition
{
//-----------------------------------------------------------------
// Concatenates and adds two numbers and prints the results.
//-----------------------------------------------------------------
public static void main (String[] args)
{
System.out.println ("24 and 45 concatenated: " + 24 + 45);

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

}
}

•Dr. Muhammad Shiraz 1-43

Escape Sequences
• What if we wanted to print a the quote character?
• The following line would confuse the compiler
because it would interpret the second quote as the
end of the string

System.out.println ("I said "Hello" to you.");

• An escape sequence is a series of characters that

represents a special character
• An escape sequence begins with a backslash
character (\)

System.out.println ("I said \"Hello\" to you.");

•Dr. Muhammad Shiraz 1-44