Java Control Statements – Part I

APT 3040 – FALL 2020

Prof. Audrey Mbogho
USIU-Africa
 Control Structures
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Normally, statements in a program are executed one
after the other in the order in which they’re written.
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This process is called sequential execution.
●
Various Java statements, enable you to specify that
the next statement to execute is not necessarily the
next one in sequence.
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This is called transfer of control.

These notes are taken from Java How to Program by

Paul & Harvey Deitel (10th or 11th Edition)

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 Control Structures
●
All programs could be written in terms of only
three control structures
– the sequence structure,
– the selection structure
– the repetition structure.

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 Sequence Structure
●
The sequence structure is built into Java.
●
Unless directed otherwise, the computer executes
Java statements one after the other in the order in
which they’re written—that is, in sequence.
●
Java lets you have as many actions as you want
in a sequence structure.
●
As we’ll soon see, anywhere a single action may
be placed, we may place several actions in
sequence.

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Sequence Structure Activity
Diagram

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 Activity Diagram
●
A UML activity diagram models the workflow (also
called the activity) of a portion of a software
system.
●
Activity diagrams are composed of symbols, such
as action state symbols (rectangles with their left
and right sides replaced with outward arcs),
diamonds and small circles.
●
These symbols are connected by transition
arrows, which represent the flow of the activity—
that is, the order in which the actions should occur.

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 Activity Diagram
●
The solid circle at the top of the activity diagram
represents the initial state.
●
The solid circle surrounded by a hollow circle at the
bottom of the diagram represents the final state.
●
The rectangles with a folded upper right corner are
UML notes (like comments in Java)—explanatory
remarks that describe the purpose of symbols in
the diagram.
●
A dotted line connects each note with the element it
describes.

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 Selection Statements
●
Java has three types of selection statements.
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The if statement either performs (selects) an
action, if a condition is true, or skips it, if the
condition is false.
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The if ... else statement performs an action if a
condition is true and performs a different action if
the condition is false.
●
The switch statement performs one of many
different actions, depending on the value of an
expression.

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 Repetition Statements
●
Java provides three repetition statements (also called iteration
statements or looping statements) that enable programs to
perform statements repeatedly as long as a condition (called
the loop-continuation condition) remains true.
●
The repetition statements are the while, do ... while, for and
enhanced for statements.
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The while and for statements perform the action (or group of
actions) in their bodies zero or more times—if the loop-
continuation condition is initially false, the action (or group of
actions) will not execute.
●
The do ... while statement performs the action (or group of
actions) in its body one or more times.

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Conditions and Relational Operators
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A condition is an expression that can be true or false
●
Conditions in control statements can be formed by using
the relational operators shown in the table below.

== Equals to
!= Does not equal to
< Is less than
> Is greater than
<= Is less than or equal to
>= Is greater than or equal to

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 Single Selection with the if
Statement
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Programs use selection statements to choose
among alternative courses of action.
●
For example, suppose that the passing grade
on an exam is 60.
●
We can write

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Activity Diagram for the if Statement

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Activity diagram for the if Statement
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The diamond, or decision symbol, indicates that a
decision is to be made.
●
The workflow continues along a path determined
by the symbol’s associated guard conditions,
which can be true or false.
●
Each transition arrow emerging from a decision
symbol has a guard condition (specified in square
brackets next to the arrow).
●
If a guard condition is true, the workflow enters the
action state to which the transition arrow points.

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 Exercise: BMI Calculator
●
Write a program to calculate a person’s BMI
given their height and weight. The formula is
shown below. The program should report the
status of the user (underweight, normal,
overweight, or obese).

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 Double Selection with if-else
●
The if single-selection statement performs an
indicated action only when the condition is true.
●
Otherwise, the action is skipped.
●
The if ... else double-selection statement allows
you to specify an action to perform when the
condition is true and another action when the
condition is false.

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 Double Selection with if-else
●
For example, it makes sense to take one action
if the student has passed and a different action
if not.

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UML Activity Diagram for if-else

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 Nested if-else
●
A program can test multiple cases by nesting
if ... else statements inside others.
●
For example, we can write a nested if ... else
statement that prints A for exam grades greater
than or equal to 90, B for grades 80 to 89, C for
grades 70 to 79, D for grades 60 to 69 and F for
all other grades.

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Nested if-else

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 Exersise: BMI Calculator
●
Repeat the BMI Calculator exercise but this
time, use a nested if-else statement in place of
the if statement used earlier. This is a better
solution.

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 Blocks
●
To include several statements in the body of an
if (or the body of an else for an if ... else
statement), enclose the statements in braces.
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Statements contained in a pair of braces (such
as the body of a method) form a block.
●
A block can be placed anywhere that a single
statement can be placed.

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Blocks

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 Logic Errors
●
Syntax errors (e.g., when one brace in a block is
left out of the program) are caught by the compiler.
●
A logic error (e.g., when both braces in a block are
left out of the program) has its effect at execution
time.
●
A fatal logic error causes a program to fail and
terminate prematurely. This is also called a run-
time error.
●
A nonfatal logic error allows a program to continue
executing but causes it to produce incorrect results.

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 The Conditional Operator
●
Java provides the conditional operator ( ?: )
that can be used in place of an if ... else
statement.
●
This can make your code shorter and clearer.
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The conditional operator is Java’s only ternary
operator (i.e., an operator that takes three
operands).
●
Together, the operands and the ?: symbol form
a conditional expression.

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 The Conditional Operator

●
The first operand is a Boolean expression (i.e.,
evaluates to true or false).
●
The second operand is the value of the conditional
expression if the Boolean expression is true
●
The third operand is the value of the conditional
expression if the Boolean expression evaluates to
false.

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