Basic Language Elements

Shakir Hussain
Identifiers
y A name in a program is called an
Identifier.
y Used to denote classes, methods,
variables and labels.

y Each character can be either or

a
character in an Identifier must be
a (or underscore or currency
symbols like $, but never recommended)
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Keywords

y Reserved words that are predefined in

the language and can not be used to
denote other entities.
y All keywords are in .
y A reserved word can not be used as an
Identifier.

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Literals
y Denotes a constant value, the value that a
literal represents remains unchanged in
the program.

y Example :

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Primitive Types and Variables

y boolean, char, byte, short, int, long, float, double etc.

y These basic (or primitive) types are the only types that
are not objects (due to performance issues).
y This means that you don’t use the new operator to create
a primitive variable.
y Declaring primitive variables:

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Initialisation
y If no value is assigned to local variable prior to
use, then the compiler will give an error
y Java sets primitive variables to zero or false in
the case of a boolean variable[non-local
variable]
y All object references are initially set to null
y An array of anything is an object
◦ Set to null on declaration

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 Declarations

y 1.2f is a float value accurate to 7 decimal places.

y 1.2 is a double value accurate to 15 decimal places.

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 Assignment
y All Java assignments are right associative

y What is the value of a, b & c

y Done right to left:

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Basic Mathematical Operators

are the mathematical operators

have a higher precedence than + or -

y Is the same as:

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Statements & Blocks

y A simple statement is a command terminated by a

semi-colon:

y A block is a compound statement enclosed in curly

brackets:

y Blocks may contain other blocks

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Flow of Control
y Java executes one statement after the other in
the order they are written
y Many Java statements are flow control
statements:

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If – The Conditional Statement
y The if statement evaluates an expression and if that
evaluation is true then the specified action is taken

y If the value of x is less than 10, make x equal to 10

y It could have been written:

y Or, alternatively:

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Relational Operators

== Equal (careful)
!= Not equal
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
> Greater than
< Less than

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If… else
y The if … else statement evaluates an expression and
performs one action if that evaluation is true or a
different action if it is false.

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Nested if … else

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 else if
y Useful for choosing between alternatives:

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A Warning…
WRONG! CORRECT!

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The Statement

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The loop
y Loop n times

y Nested for:

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 loops

What is the minimum number of times the loop is executed?

What is the maximum number of times?

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 loops

What is the minimum number of times the loop is executed?

What is the maximum number of times?

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Break

y A break statement causes an exit from the

innermost containing while, do, for or switch
statement.

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Continue
y Can only be used with while, do or for.
y The continue statement causes the innermost loop to
start the next iteration immediately

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