Java - Tutorial

Java is a high-level programming language originally developed by Sun Microsystems and released in 1995. Java runs on a variety of platforms, such as Windows, Mac OS, and the various versions of UNIX. This tutorial gives a complete understanding of Java.

This reference will take you through simple and practical approach while learning Java Programming language.

Audience

This reference has been prepared for the beginners to help them understand the basic to advanced concepts related to Java Programming language.

Prerequisites

Before you start doing practice with various types of examples given in this reference, I'm making an assumption that you are already aware about what is a computer program and what is a computer programming language?

Execute Java Online

For most of the examples given in this tutorial you will find Try it option, so just make use of this option to execute your Java programs at the spot and enjoy your learning.

Try following example using Try it option available at the top right corner of the below sample code box −

public class MyFirstJavaProgram {

    public static void main(String []args) {
       System.out.println("Hello World");
    }
}

Java - Overview

Java programming language was originally developed by Sun Microsystems which was initiated by James Gosling and released in 1995 as core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform (Java 1.0 [J2SE]).

The latest release of the Java Standard Edition is Java SE 8. With the advancement of Java and its widespread popularity, multiple configurations were built to suite various types of platforms. Ex: J2EE for Enterprise Applications, J2ME for Mobile Applications.

The new J2 versions were renamed as Java SE, Java EE and Java ME respectively. Java is guaranteed to be Write Once, Run Anywhere.

Java is:

Object Oriented: In Java, everything is an Object. Java can be easily extended since it is based on the Object model.
Platform independent: Unlike many other programming languages including C and C++, when Java is compiled, it is not compiled into platform specific machine, rather into platform independent byte code. This byte code is distributed over the web and interpreted by virtual Machine (JVM) on whichever platform it is being run.
Simple: Java is designed to be easy to learn. If you understand the basic concept of OOP Java would be easy to master.
Secure: With Java's secure feature it enables to develop virus-free, tamper-free systems. Authentication techniques are based on public-key encryption.
Architectural-neutral: Java compiler generates an architecture-neutral object file format which makes the compiled code to be executable on many processors, with the presence of Java runtime system.
Portable: Being architectural-neutral and having no implementation dependent aspects of the specification makes Java portable. Compiler in Java is written in ANSI C with a clean portability boundary which is a POSIX subset.
Robust: Java makes an effort to eliminate error prone situations by emphasizing mainly on compile time error checking and runtime checking.
Multithreaded: With Java's multithreaded feature it is possible to write programs that can do many tasks simultaneously. This design feature allows developers to construct smoothly running interactive applications.
Interpreted: Java byte code is translated on the fly to native machine instructions and is not stored anywhere. The development process is more rapid and analytical since the linking is an incremental and light weight process.
High Performance: With the use of Just-In-Time compilers, Java enables high performance.
Distributed: Java is designed for the distributed environment of the internet.
Dynamic: Java is considered to be more dynamic than C or C++ since it is designed to adapt to an evolving environment. Java programs can carry extensive amount of run-time information that can be used to verify and resolve accesses to objects on run-time.

History of Java:

James Gosling initiated the Java language project in June 1991 for use in one of his many set-top box projects. The language, initially called Oak after an oak tree that stood outside Gosling's office, also went by the name Green and ended up later being renamed as Java, from a list of random words.

Sun released the first public implementation as Java 1.0 in 1995. It promised Write Once, Run Anywhere(WORA), providing no-cost run-times on popular platforms.

On 13 November 2006, Sun released much of Java as free and open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

On 8 May 2007, Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code free and open-source, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.

Tools you will need:

For performing the examples discussed in this tutorial, you will need a Pentium 200-MHz computer with a minimum of 64 MB of RAM (128 MB of RAM recommended).

You also will need the following softwares:

Linux 7.1 or Windows xp/7/8 operating system.
Java JDK 8
Microsoft Notepad or any other text editor

This tutorial will provide the necessary skills to create GUI, networking, and Web applications using Java.

Try It Option:

We have provided you an option to compile and execute available code online. Just click on Try it button avaiable at top-right corner of the code window to compile and execute available code. There are certain examples which can not be executed online, so we have skipped those examples.

public class MyFirstJavaProgram {

    public static void main(String []args) {
       System.out.println("Hello World");
    }
}

There may be a case that you do not see the result of the compiled/executed code, in such case you can re-try to compile and execute the code using execute button available in compliation pop-up window.

What is Next?

Next chapter will guide you to where you can obtain Java and its documentation. Finally, it instructs you on how to install Java and prepare an environment to develop Java applications.

Java - Environment Setup

Try it Option Online

You really do not need to set up your own environment to start learning Java programming language. Reason is very simple, we already have setup Java Programming environment online, so that you can compile and execute all the available examples online at the same time when you are doing your theory work. This gives you confidence in what you are reading and to check the result with different options. Feel free to modify any example and execute it online.

Try following example using Try it option available at the top right corner of the below sample code box:
public class MyFirstJavaProgram {

    public static void main(String []args) {
       System.out.println("Hello World");
    }
} 
For most of the examples given in this tutorial, you will find Try it option, so just make use of it and enjoy your learning.

Local Environment Setup

If you are still willing to set up your environment for Java programming language, then this section guides you on how to download and set up Java on your machine. Please follow the following steps to set up the environment.

Java SE is freely available from the link Download Java. So you download a version based on your operating system.

Follow the instructions to download java and run the .exe to install Java on your machine. Once you installed Java on your machine, you would need to set environment variables to point to correct installation directories:

Setting up the path for windows:

Assuming you have installed Java in c:\Program Files\java\jdkdirectory:

Right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties'.
Click on the 'Environment variables' button under the 'Advanced' tab.
Now, alter the 'Path' variable so that it also contains the path to the Java executable. Example, if the path is currently set to 'C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32', then change your path to read 'C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32;c:\Program Files\java\jdk\bin'.

Setting up the path for Linux, UNIX, Solaris, FreeBSD:

Environment variable PATH should be set to point to where the Java binaries have been installed. Refer to your shell documentation if you have trouble doing this.

Example, if you use bash as your shell, then you would add the following line to the end of your '.bashrc: export PATH=/path/to/java:$PATH'

Popular Java Editors:

To write your Java programs, you will need a text editor. There are even more sophisticated IDEs available in the market. But for now, you can consider one of the following:

Notepad: On Windows machine you can use any simple text editor like Notepad (Recommended for this tutorial), TextPad.
Netbeans: is a Java IDE that is open-source and free which can be downloaded fromhttp://www.netbeans.org/index.html.
Eclipse: is also a Java IDE developed by the eclipse open-source community and can be downloaded fromhttp://www.eclipse.org/.

What is Next?

Next chapter will teach you how to write and run your first Java program and some of the important basic syntaxes in Java needed for developing applications.

Java - Basic Syntax

When we consider a Java program it can be defined as a collection of objects that communicate via invoking each other's methods. Let us now briefly look into what do class, object, methods and instance variables mean.

Object - Objects have states and behaviours. Example: A dog has states - colour, name, breed as well as behaviours -wagging, barking, eating. An object is an instance of a class.
Class - A class can be defined as a template/ blue print that describes the behaviours/states that object of its type support.
Methods - A method is basically a behaviour. A class can contain many methods. It is in methods where the logics are written, data is manipulated and all the actions are executed.
Instance Variables - Each object has its unique set of instance variables. An object's state is created by the values assigned to these instance variables.

First Java Program:

Let us look at a simple code that would print the words Hello World.

public class MyFirstJavaProgram {

   /* This is my first java program.  
    * This will print 'Hello World' as the output
    */
 
    public static void main(String []args) {
       System.out.println("Hello World"); // prints Hello World
    }
}

Let's look at how to save the file, compile and run the program. Please follow the steps given below:

Open notepad and add the code as above.
Save the file as: MyFirstJavaProgram.java.
Open a command prompt window and go to the directory where you saved the class. Assume it's C:\.
Type ' javac MyFirstJavaProgram.java' and press enter to compile your code. If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt will take you to the next line (Assumption : The path variable is set).
Now, type ' java MyFirstJavaProgram ' to run your program.
You will be able to see ' Hello World ' printed on the window.

C:\> javac MyFirstJavaProgram.java
C:\> java MyFirstJavaProgram 
Hello World

Basic Syntax:

About Java programs, it is very important to keep in mind the following points.

Case Sensitivity - Java is case sensitive, which means identifier Hello and hello would have different meaning in Java.
Class Names - For all class names the first letter should be in Upper Case.

If several words are used to form a name of the class, each inner word's first letter should be in Upper Case.

Example class MyFirstJavaClass
Method Names - All method names should start with a Lower Case letter.

If several words are used to form the name of the method, then each inner word's first letter should be in Upper Case.

Example public void myMethodName()
Program File Name - Name of the program file should exactly match the class name.

When saving the file, you should save it using the class name (Remember Java is case sensitive) and append '.java' to the end of the name (if the file name and the class name do not match your program will not compile).

Example: Assume 'MyFirstJavaProgram' is the class name. Then the file should be saved as'MyFirstJavaProgram.java'
public static void main(String args[]) - Java program processing starts from the main() method which is a mandatory part of every Java program.

Java Identifiers:

All Java components require names. Names used for classes, variables and methods are called identifiers.

In Java, there are several points to remember about identifiers. They are as follows:

All identifiers should begin with a letter (A to Z or a to z), currency character ($) or an underscore (_).
After the first character identifiers can have any combination of characters.
A key word cannot be used as an identifier.
Most importantly identifiers are case sensitive.
Examples of legal identifiers: age, $salary, _value, __1_value
Examples of illegal identifiers: 123abc, -salary

Java Modifiers:

Like other languages, it is possible to modify classes, methods, etc., by using modifiers. There are two categories of modifiers:

Access Modifiers: default, public , protected, private
Non-access Modifiers: final, abstract, strictfp

We will be looking into more details about modifiers in the next section.

Java Variables:

We would see following type of variables in Java:

Local Variables
Class Variables (Static Variables)
Instance Variables (Non-static variables)

Java Arrays:

Arrays are objects that store multiple variables of the same type. However, an array itself is an object on the heap. We will look into how to declare, construct and initialize in the upcoming chapters.

Java Enums:

Enums were introduced in java 5.0. Enums restrict a variable to have one of only a few predefined values. The values in this enumerated list are called enums.

With the use of enums it is possible to reduce the number of bugs in your code.

For example, if we consider an application for a fresh juice shop, it would be possible to restrict the glass size to small, medium and large. This would make sure that it would not allow anyone to order any size other than the small, medium or large.

Example:

class FreshJuice {

   enum FreshJuiceSize{ SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE }
   FreshJuiceSize size;
}

public class FreshJuiceTest {

   public static void main(String args[]){
      FreshJuice juice = new FreshJuice();
      juice.size = FreshJuice.FreshJuiceSize.MEDIUM ;
      System.out.println("Size: " + juice.size);
   }
}

Above example will produce the following result:

Size: MEDIUM

Note: enums can be declared as their own or inside a class. Methods, variables, constructors can be defined inside enums as well.

Java Keywords:

The following list shows the reserved words in Java. These reserved words may not be used as constant or variable or any other identifier names.

abstract	assert	boolean	break
byte	case	catch	char
class	const	continue	default
do	double	else	enum
extends	final	finally	float
for	goto	if	implements
import	instanceof	int	interface
long	native	new	package
private	protected	public	return
short	static	strictfp	super
switch	synchronized	this	throw
throws	transient	try	void
volatile	while

Comments in Java

Java supports single-line and multi-line comments very similar to c and c++. All characters available inside any comment are ignored by Java compiler.

public class MyFirstJavaProgram{

   /* This is my first java program.
    * This will print 'Hello World' as the output
    * This is an example of multi-line comments.
    */

    public static void main(String []args){
       // This is an example of single line comment
       /* This is also an example of single line comment. */
       System.out.println("Hello World"); 
    }
}

Using Blank Lines:

A line containing only white space, possibly with a comment, is known as a blank line, and Java totally ignores it.

Inheritance:

In Java, classes can be derived from classes. Basically if you need to create a new class and here is already a class that has some of the code you require, then it is possible to derive your new class from the already existing code.

This concept allows you to reuse the fields and methods of the existing class without having to rewrite the code in a new class. In this scenario the existing class is called the superclass and the derived class is called the subclass.

Interfaces:

In Java language, an interface can be defined as a contract between objects on how to communicate with each other. Interfaces play a vital role when it comes to the concept of inheritance.

An interface defines the methods, a deriving class(subclass) should use. But the implementation of the methods is totally up to the subclass.

What is Next?

The next section explains about Objects and classes in Java programming. At the end of the session you will be able to get a clear picture as to what are objects and what are classes in Java.

Java - Object & Classes

Java is an Object-Oriented Language. As a language that has the Object Oriented feature, Java supports the following fundamental concepts:

Polymorphism
Inheritance
Encapsulation
Abstraction
Classes
Objects
Instance
Method
Message Parsing

In this chapter, we will look into the concepts Classes and Objects.

Object - Objects have states and behaviors. Example: A dog has states - color, name, breed as well as behaviors -wagging, barking, eating. An object is an instance of a class.
Class - A class can be defined as a template/blue print that describes the behaviors/states that object of its type support.

Objects in Java:

Let us now look deep into what are objects. If we consider the real-world we can find many objects around us, Cars, Dogs, Humans, etc. All these objects have a state and behavior.

If we consider a dog, then its state is - name, breed, color, and the behavior is - barking, wagging, running

If you compare the software object with a real world object, they have very similar characteristics.

Software objects also have a state and behavior. A software object's state is stored in fields and behavior is shown via methods.

So in software development, methods operate on the internal state of an object and the object-to-object communication is done via methods.

Classes in Java:

A class is a blue print from which individual objects are created.

A sample of a class is given below:

public class Dog{
   String breed;
   int ageC
   String color;

   void barking(){
   }
   
   void hungry(){
   }
   
   void sleeping(){
   }
}

A class can contain any of the following variable types.

Local variables: Variables defined inside methods, constructors or blocks are called local variables. The variable will be declared and initialized within the method and the variable will be destroyed when the method has completed.
Instance variables: Instance variables are variables within a class but outside any method. These variables are initialized when the class is instantiated. Instance variables can be accessed from inside any method, constructor or blocks of that particular class.
Class variables: Class variables are variables declared with in a class, outside any method, with the static keyword.

A class can have any number of methods to access the value of various kinds of methods. In the above example, barking(), hungry() and sleeping() are methods.

Below mentioned are some of the important topics that need to be discussed when looking into classes of the Java Language.

Constructors:

When discussing about classes, one of the most important sub topic would be constructors. Every class has a constructor. If we do not explicitly write a constructor for a class the Java compiler builds a default constructor for that class.

Each time a new object is created, at least one constructor will be invoked. The main rule of constructors is that they should have the same name as the class. A class can have more than one constructor.

Example of a constructor is given below:

public class Puppy{
   public Puppy(){
   }

   public Puppy(String name){
      // This constructor has one parameter, name.
   }
}

Java also supports Singleton Classes where you would be able to create only one instance of a class.

Note: We have two different types of constructors we are going to discuss constructors in detail in coming chapters.

Creating an Object:

As mentioned previously, a class provides the blueprints for objects. So basically an object is created from a class. In Java, the new key word is used to create new objects.

There are three steps when creating an object from a class:

Declaration: A variable declaration with a variable name with an object type.
Instantiation: The 'new' key word is used to create the object.
Initialization: The 'new' keyword is followed by a call to a constructor. This call initializes the new object.

Example of creating an object is given below:

public class Puppy{

   public Puppy(String name){
      // This constructor has one parameter, name.
      System.out.println("Passed Name is :" + name ); 
   }
   
   public static void main(String []args){
      // Following statement would create an object myPuppy
      Puppy myPuppy = new Puppy( "tommy" );
   }
}

If we compile and run the above program, then it would produce the following result:

Passed Name is :tommy

Accessing Instance Variables and Methods:

Instance variables and methods are accessed via created objects. To access an instance variable the fully qualified path should be as follows:

/* First create an object */
ObjectReference = new Constructor();

/* Now call a variable as follows */
ObjectReference.variableName;

/* Now you can call a class method as follows */
ObjectReference.MethodName();

Example:

This example explains how to access instance variables and methods of a class:

public class Puppy{
   
   int puppyAge;

   public Puppy(String name){
      // This constructor has one parameter, name.
      System.out.println("Name chosen is :" + name ); 
   }
   
   public void setAge( int age ){
       puppyAge = age;
   }

   public int getAge( ){
       System.out.println("Puppy's age is :" + puppyAge ); 
       return puppyAge;
   }
   
   public static void main(String []args){
      /* Object creation */
      Puppy myPuppy = new Puppy( "tommy" );

      /* Call class method to set puppy's age */
      myPuppy.setAge( 2 );

      /* Call another class method to get puppy's age */
      myPuppy.getAge( );

      /* You can access instance variable as follows as well */
      System.out.println("Variable Value :" + myPuppy.puppyAge ); 
   }
}

If we compile and run the above program, then it would produce the following result:

Name chosen is :tommy
Puppy's age is :2
Variable Value :2

Source file declaration rules:

As the last part of this section let's now look into the source file declaration rules. These rules are essential when declaring classes,import statements and package statements in a source file.

There can be only one public class per source file.
A source file can have multiple non public classes.
The public class name should be the name of the source file as well which should be appended by .java at the end. For example: the class name is public class Employee{}then the source file should be as Employee.java.
If the class is defined inside a package, then the package statement should be the first statement in the source file.
If import statements are present then they must be written between the package statement and the class declaration. If there are no package statements then the import statement should be the first line in the source file.
Import and package statements will imply to all the classes present in the source file. It is not possible to declare different import and/or package statements to different classes in the source file.

Classes have several access levels and there are different types of classes; abstract classes, final classes, etc. we will be explaining about all these in the access modifiers chapter.

Apart from the above mentioned types of classes, Java also has some special classes called Inner classes and Anonymous classes.

Java Package:

In simple, it is a way of categorizing the classes and interfaces. When developing applications in Java, hundreds of classes and interfaces will be written, therefore categorizing these classes is a must as well as makes life much easier.

Import statements:

In Java if a fully qualified name, which includes the package and the class name, is given then the compiler can easily locate the source code or classes. Import statement is a way of giving the proper location for the compiler to find that particular class.

For example, the following line would ask compiler to load all the classes available in directory java_installation/java/io :

import java.io.*;

A Simple Case Study

For our case study, we will be creating two classes. They are Employee and EmployeeTest.

First open notepad and add the following code. Remember this is the Employee class and the class is a public class. Now, save this source file with the name Employee.java.

The Employee class has four instance variables name, age, designation and salary. The class has one explicitly defined constructor, which takes a parameter.

import java.io.*;

public class Employee{

   String name;
   int age;
   String designation;
   double salary;
 
   // This is the constructor of the class Employee
   public Employee(String name){
      this.name = name;
   }
   // Assign the age of the Employee  to the variable age.
   public void empAge(int empAge){
      age =  empAge;
   }
   /* Assign the designation to the variable designation.*/
   public void empDesignation(String empDesig){
      designation = empDesig;
   }
   /* Assign the salary to the variable salary.*/
   public void empSalary(double empSalary){
      salary = empSalary;
   }
   /* Print the Employee details */
   public void printEmployee(){
      System.out.println("Name:"+ name );
      System.out.println("Age:" + age );
      System.out.println("Designation:" + designation );
      System.out.println("Salary:" + salary);
   }
}

As mentioned previously in this tutorial, processing starts from the main method. Therefore in-order for us to run this Employee class there should be main method and objects should be created. We will be creating a separate class for these tasks.

Given below is the EmployeeTest class, which creates two instances of the class Employee and invokes the methods for each object to assign values for each variable.

Save the following code in EmployeeTest.java file

import java.io.*;

public class EmployeeTest{

   public static void main(String args[]){
      /* Create two objects using constructor */
      Employee empOne = new Employee("James Smith");
      Employee empTwo = new Employee("Mary Anne");

      // Invoking methods for each object created
      empOne.empAge(26);
      empOne.empDesignation("Senior Software Engineer");
      empOne.empSalary(1000);
      empOne.printEmployee();

      empTwo.empAge(21);
      empTwo.empDesignation("Software Engineer");
      empTwo.empSalary(500);
      empTwo.printEmployee();
   }
}

Now, compile both the classes and then run EmployeeTest to see the result as follows:

C:\> javac Employee.java
C:\> javac EmployeeTest.java
C:\> java EmployeeTest
Name:James Smith
Age:26
Designation:Senior Software Engineer
Salary:1000.0
Name:Mary Anne
Age:21
Designation:Software Engineer
Salary:500.0

What is Next?

Next session will discuss basic data types in Java and how they can be used when developing Java applications

Java - Basic Datatypes

Variables are nothing but reserved memory locations to store values. This means that when you create a variable you reserve some space in memory.

Based on the data type of a variable, the operating system allocates memory and decides what can be stored in the reserved memory. Therefore, by assigning different data types to variables, you can store integers, decimals, or characters in these variables.

There are two data types available in Java:

Primitive Data Types
Reference/Object Data Types

Primitive Data Types:

There are eight primitive data types supported by Java. Primitive data types are predefined by the language and named by a keyword. Let us now look into detail about the eight primitive data types.

byte:

Byte data type is an 8-bit signed two's complement integer.
Minimum value is -128 (-2^7)
Maximum value is 127 (inclusive)(2^7 -1)
Default value is 0
Byte data type is used to save space in large arrays, mainly in place of integers, since a byte is four times smaller than an int.
Example: byte a = 100 , byte b = -50

short:

Short data type is a 16-bit signed two's complement integer.
Minimum value is -32,768 (-2^15)
Maximum value is 32,767 (inclusive) (2^15 -1)
Short data type can also be used to save memory as byte data type. A short is 2 times smaller than an int
Default value is 0.
Example: short s = 10000, short r = -20000

int:

Int data type is a 32-bit signed two's complement integer.
Minimum value is - 2,147,483,648.(-2^31)
Maximum value is 2,147,483,647(inclusive).(2^31 -1)
Int is generally used as the default data type for integral values unless there is a concern about memory.
The default value is 0.
Example: int a = 100000, int b = -200000

long:

Long data type is a 64-bit signed two's complement integer.
Minimum value is -9,223,372,036,854,775,808.(-2^63)
Maximum value is 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 (inclusive). (2^63 -1)
This type is used when a wider range than int is needed.
Default value is 0L.
Example: long a = 100000L, long b = -200000L

float:

Float data type is a single-precision 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point.
Float is mainly used to save memory in large arrays of floating point numbers.
Default value is 0.0f.
Float data type is never used for precise values such as currency.
Example: float f1 = 234.5f

double:

double data type is a double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point.
This data type is generally used as the default data type for decimal values, generally the default choice.
Double data type should never be used for precise values such as currency.
Default value is 0.0d.
Example: double d1 = 123.4

boolean:

boolean data type represents one bit of information.
There are only two possible values: true and false.
This data type is used for simple flags that track true/false conditions.
Default value is false.
Example: boolean one = true

char:

char data type is a single 16-bit Unicode character.
Minimum value is '\u0000' (or 0).
Maximum value is '\uffff' (or 65,535 inclusive).
Char data type is used to store any character.
Example: char letterA ='A'

Reference Data Types:

Reference variables are created using defined constructors of the classes. They are used to access objects. These variables are declared to be of a specific type that cannot be changed. For example, Employee, Puppy etc.
Class objects, and various type of array variables come under reference data type.
Default value of any reference variable is null.
A reference variable can be used to refer to any object of the declared type or any compatible type.
Example: Animal animal = new Animal("giraffe");

Java Literals:

A literal is a source code representation of a fixed value. They are represented directly in the code without any computation.

Literals can be assigned to any primitive type variable. For example:

byte a = 68;
char a = 'A'

byte, int, long, and short can be expressed in decimal(base 10), hexadecimal(base 16) or octal(base 8) number systems as well.

Prefix 0 is used to indicate octal and prefix 0x indicates hexadecimal when using these number systems for literals. For example:

int decimal = 100;
int octal = 0144;
int hexa =  0x64;

String literals in Java are specified like they are in most other languages by enclosing a sequence of characters between a pair of double quotes. Examples of string literals are:

"Hello World"
"two\nlines"
"\"This is in quotes\""

String and char types of literals can contain any Unicode characters. For example:

char a = '\u0001';
String a = "\u0001";

Java language supports few special escape sequences for String and char literals as well. They are:

Notation	Character represented
\n	Newline (0x0a)
\r	Carriage return (0x0d)
\f	Formfeed (0x0c)
\b	Backspace (0x08)
\s	Space (0x20)
\t	tab
\"	Double quote
\'	Single quote
\\	backslash
\ddd	Octal character (ddd)
\uxxxx	Hexadecimal UNICODE character (xxxx)

What is Next?

This chapter explained you various data types, next topic explains different variable types and their usage. This will give you a good understanding about how they can be used in the Java classes, interfaces, etc.

Java - Variable Types

A variable provides us with named storage that our programs can manipulate. Each variable in Java has a specific type, which determines the size and layout of the variable's memory; the range of values that can be stored within that memory; and the set of operations that can be applied to the variable.

You must declare all variables before they can be used. The basic form of a variable declaration is shown here:

data type variable [ = value][, variable [= value] ...] ;

Here data type is one of Java's datatypes and variable is the name of the variable. To declare more than one variable of the specified type, you can use a comma-separated list.

Following are valid examples of variable declaration and initialization in Java:

int a, b, c;         // Declares three ints, a, b, and c.
int a = 10, b = 10;  // Example of initialization
byte B = 22;         // initializes a byte type variable B.
double pi = 3.14159; // declares and assigns a value of PI.
char a = 'a';        // the char variable a iis initialized with value 'a'

This chapter will explain various variable types available in Java Language. There are three kinds of variables in Java:

Local variables
Instance variables
Class/static variables

Local variables:

Local variables are declared in methods, constructors, or blocks.
Local variables are created when the method, constructor or block is entered and the variable will be destroyed once it exits the method, constructor or block.
Access modifiers cannot be used for local variables.
Local variables are visible only within the declared method, constructor or block.
Local variables are implemented at stack level internally.
There is no default value for local variables so local variables should be declared and an initial value should be assigned before the first use.

Example:

Here, age is a local variable. This is defined inside pupAge()method and its scope is limited to this method only.

public class Test{ 
   public void pupAge(){
      int age = 0;
      age = age + 7;
      System.out.println("Puppy age is : " + age);
   }
   
   public static void main(String args[]){
      Test test = new Test();
      test.pupAge();
   }
}

This would produce the following result:

Puppy age is: 7

Example:

Following example uses age without initializing it, so it would give an error at the time of compilation.

public class Test{ 
   public void pupAge(){
      int age;
      age = age + 7;
      System.out.println("Puppy age is : " + age);
   }
   
   public static void main(String args[]){
      Test test = new Test();
      test.pupAge();
   }
}

This would produce the following error while compiling it:

Test.java:4:variable number might not have been initialized
age = age + 7;
         ^
1 error

Instance variables:

Instance variables are declared in a class, but outside a method, constructor or any block.
When a space is allocated for an object in the heap, a slot for each instance variable value is created.
Instance variables are created when an object is created with the use of the keyword 'new' and destroyed when the object is destroyed.
Instance variables hold values that must be referenced by more than one method, constructor or block, or essential parts of an object's state that must be present throughout the class.
Instance variables can be declared in class level before or after use.
Access modifiers can be given for instance variables.
The instance variables are visible for all methods, constructors and block in the class. Normally, it is recommended to make these variables private (access level). However visibility for subclasses can be given for these variables with the use of access modifiers.
Instance variables have default values. For numbers the default value is 0, for Booleans it is false and for object references it is null. Values can be assigned during the declaration or within the constructor.
Instance variables can be accessed directly by calling the variable name inside the class. However within static methods and different class ( when instance variables are given accessibility) should be called using the fully qualified name . ObjectReference.VariableName.

Example:

import java.io.*;

public class Employee{
   // this instance variable is visible for any child class.
   public String name;
   
   // salary  variable is visible in Employee class only.
   private double salary;
   
   // The name variable is assigned in the constructor. 
   public Employee (String empName){
      name = empName;
   }

   // The salary variable is assigned a value.
   public void setSalary(double empSal){
      salary = empSal;
   }
   
   // This method prints the employee details.
   public void printEmp(){
      System.out.println("name  : " + name );
      System.out.println("salary :" + salary);
   }

   public static void main(String args[]){
      Employee empOne = new Employee("Ransika");
      empOne.setSalary(1000);
      empOne.printEmp();
   }
}

This would produce the following result:

name  : Ransika
salary :1000.0

Class/static variables:

Class variables also known as static variables are declared with the static keyword in a class, but outside a method, constructor or a block.
There would only be one copy of each class variable per class, regardless of how many objects are created from it.
Static variables are rarely used other than being declared as constants. Constants are variables that are declared as public/private, final and static. Constant variables never change from their initial value.
Static variables are stored in static memory. It is rare to use static variables other than declared final and used as either public or private constants.
Static variables are created when the program starts and destroyed when the program stops.
Visibility is similar to instance variables. However, most static variables are declared public since they must be available for users of the class.
Default values are same as instance variables. For numbers, the default value is 0; for Booleans, it is false; and for object references, it is null. Values can be assigned during the declaration or within the constructor. Additionally values can be assigned in special static initializer blocks.
Static variables can be accessed by calling with the class name ClassName.VariableName.
When declaring class variables as public static final, then variables names (constants) are all in upper case. If the static variables are not public and final the naming syntax is the same as instance and local variables.

Example:

import java.io.*;

public class Employee{
   // salary  variable is a private static variable
   private static double salary;

   // DEPARTMENT is a constant
   public static final String DEPARTMENT = "Development ";

   public static void main(String args[]){
      salary = 1000;
      System.out.println(DEPARTMENT + "average salary:" + salary);
   }
}

This would produce the following result:

Development average salary:1000

Note: If the variables are access from an outside class the constant should be accessed as Employee.DEPARTMENT

What is Next?

You already have used access modifiers ( public & private ) in this chapter. The next chapter will explain you Access Modifiers and Non Access Modifiers in detail.

Java - Modifier Types

Modifiers are keywords that you add to those definitions to change their meanings. The Java language has a wide variety of modifiers, including the following:

To use a modifier, you include its keyword in the definition of a class, method, or variable. The modifier precedes the rest of the statement, as in the following examples (Italic ones) −

public class className {
   // ...
}
private boolean myFlag;
static final double weeks = 9.5;
protected static final int BOXWIDTH = 42;
public static void main(String[] arguments) {
   // body of method
}

Access Control Modifiers:

Java provides a number of access modifiers to set access levels for classes, variables, methods and constructors. The four access levels are:

Visible to the package, the default. No modifiers are needed.
Visible to the class only (private).
Visible to the world (public).
Visible to the package and all subclasses (protected).

Non Access Modifiers:

Java provides a number of non-access modifiers to achieve many other functionality.

The static modifier for creating class methods and variables
The final modifier for finalizing the implementations of classes, methods, and variables.
The abstract modifier for creating abstract classes and methods.
The synchronized and volatile modifiers, which are used for threads.

What is Next?

In the next section, I will be discussing about Basic Operators used in the Java Language. The chapter will give you an overview of how these operators can be used during application development.

Java - Basic Operators

Java provides a rich set of operators to manipulate variables. We can divide all the Java operators into the following groups:

Arithmetic Operators
Relational Operators
Bitwise Operators
Logical Operators
Assignment Operators
Misc Operators

The Arithmetic Operators:

Arithmetic operators are used in mathematical expressions in the same way that they are used in algebra. The following table lists the arithmetic operators:

Assume integer variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then:

Show Examples

SR.NO	Operator and Example
1	+ ( Addition ) Adds values on either side of the operator Example: A + B will give 30
2	- ( Subtraction ) Subtracts right hand operand from left hand operand Example: A - B will give -10
3	* ( Multiplication ) Multiplies values on either side of the operator Example: A * B will give 200
4	/ (Division) Divides left hand operand by right hand operand Example: B / A will give 2
5	% (Modulus) Divides left hand operand by right hand operand and returns remainder Example: B % A will give 0
6	++ (Increment) Increases the value of operand by 1 Example: B++ gives 21
7	-- ( Decrement ) Decreases the value of operand by 1 Example: B-- gives 19

The Relational Operators:

There are following relational operators supported by Java language

Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then:

Show Examples

SR.NO	Operator and Description
1	== (equal to) Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if yes then condition becomes true. Example: (A == B) is not true.
2	!= (not equal to) Checks if the values of two operands are equal or not, if values are not equal then condition becomes true. Example: (A != B) is true.
3	> (greater than) Checks if the value of left operand is greater than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. Example: (A > B) is not true.
4	< (less than) Checks if the value of left operand is less than the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. Example: (A < B) is true.
5	>= (greater than or equal to) Checks if the value of left operand is greater than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. Example (A >= B) is not true.
6	<= (less than or equal to) Checks if the value of left operand is less than or equal to the value of right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. example(A <= B) is true.

The Bitwise Operators:

Java defines several bitwise operators, which can be applied to the integer types, long, int, short, char, and byte.

Bitwise operator works on bits and performs bit-by-bit operation. Assume if a = 60; and b = 13; now in binary format they will be as follows:

a = 0011 1100

b = 0000 1101

-----------------

a&b = 0000 1100

a|b = 0011 1101

a^b = 0011 0001

~a = 1100 0011

The following table lists the bitwise operators:

Assume integer variable A holds 60 and variable B holds 13 then:

Show Examples

SR.NO	Operator and Description
1	& (bitwise and) Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both operands. Example: (A & B) will give 12 which is 0000 1100
2	\| (bitwise or) Binary OR Operator copies a bit if it exists in either operand. Example: (A \| B) will give 61 which is 0011 1101
3	^ (bitwise XOR) Binary XOR Operator copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not both. Example: (A ^ B) will give 49 which is 0011 0001
4	~ (bitwise compliment) Binary Ones Complement Operator is unary and has the effect of 'flipping' bits. Example: (~A ) will give -61 which is 1100 0011 in 2's complement form due to a signed binary number.
5	<< (left shift) Binary Left Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved left by the number of bits specified by the right operand Example: A << 2 will give 240 which is 1111 0000
6	>> (right shift) Binary Right Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand. Example: A >> 2 will give 15 which is 1111
7	>>> (zero fill right shift) Shift right zero fill operator. The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand and shifted values are filled up with zeros. Example: A >>>2 will give 15 which is 0000 1111

The Logical Operators:

The following table lists the logical operators:

Assume Boolean variables A holds true and variable B holds false, then:

Show Examples

Operator	Description
1	&& (logical and) Called Logical AND operator. If both the operands are non-zero, then the condition becomes true. Example (A && B) is false.
2	\|\| (logical or) Called Logical OR Operator. If any of the two operands are non-zero, then the condition becomes true. Example (A \|\| B) is true.
3	! (logical not) Called Logical NOT Operator. Use to reverses the logical state of its operand. If a condition is true then Logical NOT operator will make false. Example !(A && B) is true.

The Assignment Operators:

There are following assignment operators supported by Java language:

Show Examples

SR.NO	Operator and Description
1	= Simple assignment operator, Assigns values from right side operands to left side operand. Example: C = A + B will assign value of A + B into C
2	+= Add AND assignment operator, It adds right operand to the left operand and assign the result to left operand. Example: C += A is equivalent to C = C + A
3	-= Subtract AND assignment operator, It subtracts right operand from the left operand and assign the result to left operand. Example:C -= A is equivalent to C = C - A
4	= Multiply AND assignment operator, It multiplies right operand with the left operand and assign the result to left operand. Example:* C = A is equivalent to C = C A
5	/= Divide AND assignment operator, It divides left operand with the right operand and assign the result to left operand ExampleC /= A is equivalent to C = C / A
6	%= Modulus AND assignment operator, It takes modulus using two operands and assign the result to left operand. Example: C %= A is equivalent to C = C % A
7	<<= Left shift AND assignment operator. ExampleC <<= 2 is same as C = C << 2
8	>>= Right shift AND assignment operator Example C >>= 2 is same as C = C >> 2
9	&= Bitwise AND assignment operator. Example: C &= 2 is same as C = C & 2
10	^= bitwise exclusive OR and assignment operator. Example: C ^= 2 is same as C = C ^ 2
11	\|= bitwise inclusive OR and assignment operator. Example: C \|= 2 is same as C = C \| 2

Miscellaneous Operators

There are few other operators supported by Java Language.

Conditional Operator ( ? : )

Conditional operator is also known as the ternary operator. This operator consists of three operands and is used to evaluate Boolean expressions. The goal of the operator is to decide which value should be assigned to the variable. The operator is written as:

variable x = (expression) ? value if true : value if false

Following is the example:

public class Test {

   public static void main(String args[]){
      int a, b;
      a = 10;
      b = (a == 1) ? 20: 30;
      System.out.println( "Value of b is : " +  b );

      b = (a == 10) ? 20: 30;
      System.out.println( "Value of b is : " + b );
   }
}

This would produce the following result −

Value of b is : 30
Value of b is : 20

instance of Operator:

This operator is used only for object reference variables. The operator checks whether the object is of a particular type (class type or interface type). instanceof operator is written as:

( Object reference variable ) instanceof  (class/interface type)

If the object referred by the variable on the left side of the operator passes the IS-A check for the class/interface type on the right side, then the result will be true. Following is the example:

public class Test {

   public static void main(String args[]){
      String name = "James";
      // following will return true since name is type of String
      boolean result = name instanceof String;  
      System.out.println( result );
   }
}

This would produce the following result:

true

This operator will still return true if the object being compared is the assignment compatible with the type on the right. Following is one more example:

class Vehicle {}

public class Car extends Vehicle {
   public static void main(String args[]){
      Vehicle a = new Car();
      boolean result =  a instanceof Car;
      System.out.println( result );
   }
}

This would produce the following result:

true

Precedence of Java Operators:

Operator precedence determines the grouping of terms in an expression. This affects how an expression is evaluated. Certain operators have higher precedence than others; for example, the multiplication operator has higher precedence than the addition operator:

For example, x = 7 + 3 * 2; here x is assigned 13, not 20 because operator * has higher precedence than +, so it first gets multiplied with 3*2 and then adds into 7.

Here, operators with the highest precedence appear at the top of the table, those with the lowest appear at the bottom. Within an expression, higher precedence operators will be evaluated first.

Category	Operator	Associativity
Postfix	() [] . (dot operator)	Left toright
Unary	++ - - ! ~	Right to left
Multiplicative	* / %	Left to right
Additive	+ -	Left to right
Shift	>> >>> <<	Left to right
Relational	> >= < <=	Left to right
Equality	== !=	Left to right
Bitwise AND	&	Left to right
Bitwise XOR	^	Left to right
Bitwise OR	\|	Left to right
Logical AND	&&	Left to right
Logical OR	\|\|	Left to right
Conditional	?:	Right to left
Assignment	= += -= *= /= %= >>= <<= &= ^= \|=	Right to left

What is Next?

Next chapter would explain about loop control in Java programming. The chapter will describe various types of loops and how these loops can be used in Java program development and for what purposes they are being used.

Pages

Java

Java - Tutorial

Audience

Prerequisites

Execute Java Online

Java - Overview

History of Java:

Tools you will need:

Try It Option:

What is Next?

Java - Environment Setup

Try it Option Online

Local Environment Setup

Setting up the path for windows:

Setting up the path for Linux, UNIX, Solaris, FreeBSD:

Popular Java Editors:

What is Next?

Java - Basic Syntax

First Java Program:

Basic Syntax:

Java Identifiers:

Java Modifiers:

Java Variables:

Java Arrays:

Java Enums:

Example:

Java Keywords:

Comments in Java

Using Blank Lines:

Inheritance:

Interfaces:

What is Next?

Java - Object & Classes

Objects in Java:

Classes in Java:

Constructors:

Creating an Object:

Accessing Instance Variables and Methods:

Example:

Source file declaration rules:

Java Package:

Import statements:

A Simple Case Study

What is Next?

Java - Basic Datatypes

Primitive Data Types:

byte:

short:

int:

long:

float:

double:

boolean:

char:

Reference Data Types:

Java Literals:

What is Next?

Java - Variable Types

Local variables:

Example:

Example:

Instance variables:

Example:

Class/static variables:

Example:

What is Next?

Java - Modifier Types

Access Control Modifiers:

Non Access Modifiers:

What is Next?

Java - Basic Operators

The Arithmetic Operators:

The Relational Operators:

The Bitwise Operators:

The Logical Operators:

The Assignment Operators:

Miscellaneous Operators

Conditional Operator ( ? : )

instance of Operator: