Introductio

n
We've been working only with the int data type so far in the course.
In this video, we'll continue to look at int, as well as several other primitive types.
We'll also introduce the wrapper class, a special category of data type, which offers
additional functionality that primitive types don't.

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Primitive Types
Java's Primitive
Types
In Java, primitive types are the most basic data types.
The eight primitive data types in Java are shown in the table below, listed by the
type of data stored for each:
Real number
Whole number
(floating point or decimal)

byte
short float
int double
long

Single character Boolean value

char boolean

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Primitive Types
Java's Primitive
Types
Consider these types as the building blocks of data manipulation.
Remember that primitive data types are simply placeholders in memory for a value.

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Primitive Types
What actually is an
integer?
An integer is a whole number, meaning it doesn't contain a fractional element, or a
decimal.

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Primitive Types
What values can we store in an
integer?
There's a specified range of values allowed for the int, which is true for most data
types.
What this means is, that the allowable range of values is NOT infinite.
There's a defined minimum, and maximum value, for each numeric data type,
meaning you can't assign a number bigger or smaller (outside of that range).

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Primitive Types
Using the + sign in
System.out.print
The plus sign, +, when used in System.out.print will print different data types
together as a single line of text.
In the example:

We want to print a label, before a numeric integer value.

Whatever follows the plus sign in System.out.print here, is converted to a String
by Java, and concatenated to the String before it.
This is perfectly valid syntax in Java.

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Primitive Types
Classe
s
So what is a class?
A class is a building block for object-oriented programming, and allows us to build
custom data types. We'll be talking more about classes in future videos.

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Primitive Types
Wrapper
Classes
Java uses the concept of a wrapper class, for all of its eight primitive data types.
A wrapper class provides simple operations, as well as some basic information about
the primitive data type, which cannot be stored on the primitive itself.
We saw that MIN_VALUE, and MAX_VALUE, are elements of this basic information, for
the int data type.

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Primitive Types
Wrapper
Classes
The primitive types, and their respective wrapper classes, are shown in the table below.
Primitive Wrapper Class
byte Byte
short Short
char Character
int Integer
long Long
float Float
double Double
boolean Boolean

You can see there, that in general, it's pretty easy to remember the wrapper class name,
for your primitive data type. It's the same name, but with an uppercase letter at the start.

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Primitive Types
Wrapper
Classes
Primitive Wrapper Class
byte Byte
short Short
char Character
int Integer
long Long
float Float
double Double
boolean Boolean

The wrapper classes for char and int, Character and Integer respectively, are the only two
that differ in name (other than that first capitalized letter) from their primitive types.

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Primitive Types
The Integer Wrapper
Class
In the code we just reviewed, we were able to use MIN_VALUE, and MAX_VALUE, on
the wrapper class Integer.

To discover the minimum and maximum range of numbers, that can be stored in an
int, as we saw when we printed out these values previously:

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Primitive Types
Overflow and Underflow in
Java
If you try and put a value larger than the maximum value into an int, you'll create
something called an Overflow situation.
And similarly, if you try to put a value smaller than the minimum value into an int,
you cause an Underflow to occur.
These situations are also known as integer wraparounds.

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Primitive Types
Overflow and Underflow in
Java
The maximum value, when it overflows, wraps around to the minimum value, and
just continues processing without an error.
The minimum value, when it underflows, wraps around to the maximum value, and
continues processing.
This is not usually behavior you really want, and as a developer, you need to be
aware that this can happen, and choose the appropriate data type.

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Primitive Types
When will you get an overflow? When will you get an
error?
An integer wraparound event, either an overflow or underflow, can occur in Java
when you are using expressions that are not a simple literal value.
The Java compiler doesn't attempt to evaluate the expression to determine its
value, so it DOES NOT give you an error.

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Primitive Types
When will you get an overflow? When will you get an
error?
Here are two more examples that will compile, and result in an overflow. The
second example may be surprising. Even though we are using numeric literals in
the expression, the compiler still won't try to evaluate this expression, and the code
will compile, resulting in an overflow condition.

If you assign a numeric literal value to a data type that is outside of the range, the
compiler DOES give you an error. We looked at a similar example previously.

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Primitive Types
What does an underscore mean in a numeric
literal?
In Java, you cannot put commas in a numeric literal.
For example, the following is not valid syntax.

So Java provided an alternative way to improve readability, the underscore.

You can put the underscore anywhere you might want a comma, but you can't use
an underscore at the start or end of the numeric literal.

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Primitive Types