JAVA PRIMITIVE TYPES

DECLARATIONS Unit 2 Day 1

ASSIGNMENTS
EXPRESSIONS
 THINKABOUT

Where have you seen

variables being used in
our programs to date?
 VARIABLE EXAMPLE

for(int x = 0; x < 5; x = x + 1)
{
sally.move();
}
x is an integer variable.
What IS an integer, anyway? 
Natural numbers (1, 2, 3, …), their
opposites (negatives), and zero.
 VARIABLES

 A variable is a storage location which contains a known or

unknown value, such as a number or a letter.

 A variable’s value can change throughout the course of a

program.

 A variable can be thought of as a “container” that holds a

value.
 VARIABLES, CONT’D

 A variable’s identifier is the name of the variable.

 A variable’s type determines what kind of value

the variable can hold.

 Consider:
 int x = 5;
 The variable’s identifier is x.
 The variable’s type is int.
 The variable’s value is 5.
 JAVA T YPES

Class Type
(Later!!)
Type
Primitive
Type
 PRIMITIVE T YPES IN JAVA

Primitive types are the most basic data

types available in Java.

They are “indecomposable” – this means

that they are unable to be broken down
into any “simpler” types.

Java has eight primitive types. Six are

numerical.
INTEGER PRIMATIVES

byte
(8-bit)
-128 to +127

short
(16-bit)
-32768 to +32769

int (32-bit) Use int

-231 to 231 – 1 (~2 billion)

long (64-bit)
-263 to 263 – 1 (~19 digits)
 FLOATING-POINT PRIMITIVES

A floating-point value is a limited-precision

rational number (decimal number).
Rational number – a number that can be
represented as a quotient of two integers.

float
(32-bit)

double (64-bit) Use double

 OTHER PRIMITIVES

char stores a single character

Pronounced as in “charcoal”

boolean stores a value of true or

false
 DECLARING PRIMITIVES

 A declaration must contain both the type and the identifier.

 int x;
 Declares x as an int.

 double myVal;
 Declares myVal as a double.

 A single declaration can declare two or more variables of the

same type!
 int something, somethingElse;
 Declares something and somethingElse as ints.

 double earth, wind, fire;

 Declares earth, wind and fire as doubles.
 RULES FOR IDENTIFIERS

 Can contain:
 Letters
 Digits 0 – 9
 First character CANNOT be a digit, though
 The underscore _

 “No Limit” on name length – best practice is to use

meaningful variable names

 Case Sensitive
 myval and myVal refer to two different variables!
 Variables should begin with a lower case letter (instead of upper
case), but it is not a requirement.

 Exceptions
 Java reserved words cannot be used as identifiers:
 Ex. for, while, public, static, etc.
 IDENTIFIERS

Which of these are legal variable names?

 My.Class
 7eleven
 inputStream
 YourClass
 google.com
 car_Wash
 hotCar
 go-team
 theTimeOfDay
 ASSIGNING VALUES

 In an assignment, the identifier must be set equal to

the value.
 In Java, the = symbol is the assignment operator.

 int x;
x = 100;

 It is also possible to combine a declaration and an

assignment into one line!

 double myVal = 3.14;

 MORE ON ASSIGNING VALUES

 If all variables are being initialized to the same value, you can
accomplish this in as little as two lines.

 int strength, speed, wisdom;

strength = speed = wisdom = 5;
//because heroes begin their journey
//with low stats 
 Note: You could also have:
int strength=5, speed=5, wisdom=5;

 Values of variables can also be set to values of other variables.

 double x, y, z;
x = 16.5;
y = 25.0;
z = x;
 ASSIGNING CHAR VALUES

char values always take “singular quotes.”

 char myChar = ‘k’;

This can get confusing when the identifiers of

chars are just one character.
 char c, k;
c = ‘k’;
k = c;
 What are the values of c and k?
 Use meaningful variable names for the char type!
 SIMPLE ARITHMETIC EXPRESSIONS

 Consider this code:

int x = 8;
x = x + 1;
 What will be the value of x?

 int a;
double b, c;
a = 3;
b = 5.1;
c = a + b;
 What will be the value of c?

 double mealTotal = 30.00;

double tip = mealTotal * 0.20;
mealTotal = mealTotal + tip;
 What will be the value of mealTotal?