CSE202

Week 3-
Expressions and
Assignment
Statement
• Identifiers
• Variables
• Assignment Statements
• TIP: Initialize Variables
• More Assignment Statements
• Assignment Compatibility
• Constants
• Arithmetic Operators and
Expressions
• Parentheses and Precedence
Rules
• Integer and Floating-Point Division
• Type Casting
• Increment and Decrement
Operators

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Identifiers

• Identifier: The name of a variable or other

item (class, method, object, etc.) defined in
a program
– A Java identifier must not start with a digit, and
all the characters must be letters, digits, or the
underscore symbol
– Java identifiers can theoretically be of any length
– Java is a case-sensitive language: Rate, rate,
and RATE are the names of three different
variables

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Identifiers

• Keywords and Reserved words: Identifiers

that have a predefined meaning in Java
– Do not use them to name anything else
public class void static
• Predefined identifiers: Identifiers that are
defined in libraries required by the Java
language standard
– Although they can be redefined, this could be
confusing and dangerous if doing so would
change their standard meaning
System String println

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Naming Conventions

• Start the names of variables, classes,

methods, and objects with a lowercase
letter, indicate "word" boundaries with an
uppercase letter, and restrict the remaining
characters to digits and lowercase letters
topSpeed bankRate1 timeOfArrival
• Start the names of classes with an
uppercase letter and, otherwise, adhere to
the rules above
FirstProgram MyClass String

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Variable Declarations

• Every variable in a Java program must be declared

before it is used
– A variable declaration tells the compiler what kind of data
(type) will be stored in the variable
– The type of the variable is followed by one or more
variable names separated by commas, and terminated
with a semicolon
– Variables are typically declared just before they are used
or at the start of a block (indicated by an opening brace { )
– Basic types in Java are called primitive types
int numberOfBeans;
double oneWeight, totalWeight;

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Primitive Types

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Assignment Statements With Primitive
Types

• In Java, the assignment statement is used

to change the value of a variable
– The equal sign (=) is used as the assignment
operator
– An assignment statement consists of a variable
on the left side of the operator, and an
expression on the right side of the operator
Variable = Expression;
– An expression consists of a variable, number, or
mix of variables, numbers, operators, and/or
method invocations
temperature = 98.6;
count = numberOfBeans;

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Assignment Statements With Primitive
Types

– When an assignment statement is executed, the

expression is first evaluated, and then the
variable on the left-hand side of the equal sign is
set equal to the value of the expression
distance = rate * time;
– Note that a variable can occur on both sides of
the assignment operator
count = count + 2;
– The assignment operator is automatically
executed from right-to-left, so assignment
statements can be chained
number2 = number1 = 3;

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Tip: Initialize Variables

• A variable that has been declared but that

has not yet been given a value by some
means is said to be uninitialized
• In certain cases an uninitialized variable is
given a default value
– It is best not to rely on this
– Explicitly initialized variables have the added
benefit of improving program clarity

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Tip: Initialize Variables

• The declaration of a variable can be

combined with its initialization via an
assignment statement
int count = 0;
double distance = 55 * .5;
char grade = 'A';
– Note that some variables can be initialized and
others can remain uninitialized in the same
declaration
int initialCount = 50, finalCount;

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Shorthand Assignment Statements

• Shorthand assignment notation combines the

assignment operator (=) and an arithmetic operator
• It is used to change the value of a variable by
adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing by a
specified value
• The general form is
Variable Op = Expression
which is equivalent to
Variable = Variable Op (Expression)
– The Expression can be another variable, a constant, or
a more complicated expression
– Some examples of what Op can be are +, -, *, /, or %

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 Shorthand Assignment Statements

Example: Equivalent To:

count += 2; count = count + 2;
sum -= discount; sum = sum – discount;
bonus *= 2; bonus = bonus * 2;
time /= time =
rushFactor; time / rushFactor;
change %= 100; change = change % 100;
amount *= amount = amount *
count1 + count2; (count1 + count2);

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Assignment Compatibility

• In general, the value of one type cannot be

stored in a variable of another type
int intVariable = 2.99; //Illegal
– The above example results in a type mismatch
because a double value cannot be stored in an
int variable
• However, there are exceptions to this
double doubleVariable = 2;
– For example, an int value can be stored in a
double type

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Assignment Compatibility

• More generally, a value of any type in the following

list can be assigned to a variable of any type that
appears to the right of it
byteshortintlongfloatdouble
char
– Note that as your move down the list from left to right, the
range of allowed values for the types becomes larger
• An explicit type cast is required to assign a value of
one type to a variable whose type appears to the
left of it on the above list (e.g., double to int)
• Note that in Java an int cannot be assigned to a
variable of type boolean, nor can a boolean be
assigned to a variable of type int

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Constants

• Constant (or literal): An item in Java which

has one specific value that cannot change
– Constants of an integer type may not be written
with a decimal point (e.g., 10)
– Constants of a floating-point type can be written
in ordinary decimal fraction form (e.g.,
367000.0 or 0.000589)
– Constant of a floating-point type can also be
written in scientific (or floating-point) notation
(e.g., 3.67e5 or 5.89e-4)
• Note that the number before the e may contain a
decimal point, but the number after the e may not

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Constants

• Constants of type char are expressed by

placing a single character in single quotes
(e.g., 'Z')
• Constants for strings of characters are
enclosed by double quotes (e.g., "Welcome
to Java")
• There are only two boolean type
constants, true and false
– Note that they must be spelled with all lowercase
letters

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Arithmetic Operators and Expressions

• As in most languages, expressions

can be formed in Java using variables,
constants, and arithmetic operators
– These operators are + (addition), -
(subtraction), * (multiplication), /
(division), and % (modulo, remainder)
– An expression can be used anyplace it is
legal to use a value of the type produced
by the expression

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Arithmetic Operators and Expressions

• If an arithmetic operator is combined with int

operands, then the resulting type is int
• If an arithmetic operator is combined with one or
two double operands, then the resulting type is
double
• If different types are combined in an expression,
then the resulting type is the right-most type on the
following list that is found within the expression
byteshortintlongfloatdouble
char
– Exception: If the type produced should be byte or short
(according to the rules above), then the type produced will
actually be an int

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Parentheses and Precedence Rules

• An expression can be fully parenthesized in

order to specify exactly what
subexpressions are combined with each
operator
• If some or all of the parentheses in an
expression are omitted, Java will follow
precedence rules to determine, in effect,
where to place them
– However, it's best (and sometimes necessary) to
include them

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Precedence Rules

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Precedence and Associativity Rules

• When the order of two adjacent operations

must be determined, the operation of higher
precedence (and its apparent arguments) is
grouped before the operation of lower
precedence
base + rate * hours is evaluated as
base + (rate * hours)
• When two operations have equal
precedence, the order of operations is
determined by associativity rules

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Precedence and Associativity Rules

– Unary operators of equal precedence are

grouped right-to-left
+-+rate is evaluated as +(-(+rate))
– Binary operators of equal precedence are
grouped left-to-right
base + rate + hours is evaluated as
(base + rate) + hours
– Exception: A string of assignment operators is
grouped right-to-left
n1 = n2 = n3; is evaluated as n1 = (n2 = n3);

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Pitfall: Round-Off Errors in Floating-
Point Numbers

• Floating point numbers are only

approximate quantities
– Mathematically, the floating-point number 1.0/3.0
is equal to 0.3333333 . . .
– A computer has a finite amount of storage space
• It may store 1.0/3.0 as something like 0.3333333333,
which is slightly smaller than one-third
– Computers actually store numbers in binary
notation, but the consequences are the same:
floating-point numbers may lose accuracy

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Integer and Floating-Point Division

• When one or both operands are a floating-point

type, division results in a floating-point type
15.0/2 evaluates to 7.5
• When both operands are integer types, division
results in an integer type
– Any fractional part is discarded
– The number is not rounded
15/2 evaluates to 7
• Be careful to make at least one of the operands a
floating-point type if the fractional portion is needed

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The % Operator

• The % operator is used with operands of

type int to recover the information lost after
performing integer division
15/2 evaluates to the quotient 7
15%2 evaluates to the remainder 1
• The % operator can be used to count by 2's,
3's, or any other number
– To count by twos, perform the operation number
% 2, and when the result is 0, number is even

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Type Casting

• A type cast takes a value of one type and produces

a value of another type with an "equivalent" value
– If n and m are integers to be divided, and the fractional
portion of the result must be preserved, at least one of the
two must be type cast to a floating-point type before the
division operation is performed
double ans = n / (double)m;
– Note that the desired type is placed inside parentheses
immediately in front of the variable to be cast
– Note also that the type and value of the variable to be cast
does not change

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More Details About Type Casting

• When type casting from a floating-point to an

integer type, the number is truncated, not rounded
– (int)2.9 evaluates to 2, not 3
• When the value of an integer type is assigned to a
variable of a floating-point type, Java performs an
automatic type cast called a type coercion
double d = 5;
• In contrast, it is illegal to place a double value into
an int variable without an explicit type cast
int i = 5.5; // Illegal
int i = (int)5.5 // Correct

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Increment and Decrement Operators

• The increment operator (++) adds one

to the value of a variable
– If n is equal to 2, then n++ or ++n will
change the value of n to 3
• The decrement operator (--) subtracts
one from the value of a variable
– If n is equal to 4, then n-- or --n will
change the value of n to 3

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Increment and Decrement Operators

• When either operator precedes its variable,

and is part of an expression, then the
expression is evaluated using the changed
value of the variable
– If n is equal to 2, then 2*(++n) evaluates to 6
• When either operator follows its variable,
and is part of an expression, then the
expression is evaluated using the original
value of the variable, and only then is the
variable value changed
– If n is equal to 2, then 2*(n++) evaluates to 4

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 Exercises
1. Write a Java assignment statement that will set the value of the variable interest
to the value of the variable balance multiplied by the value of the variable rate .
The variables are of type double.

2. Convert each of the following mathematical formulas to a Java expression:

(3x + y)/(z+2)

3. What is the output produced by the following lines of program code?

int n = 3;
n++;
System.out.println("n == " + n);
n−−;
System.out.println("n == " + n);

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