Java Basics

PJ Dillon CS401

Slides adapted from Dr. Ramirez

Identifiers
Keywords
Lexical elements (or identifiers) that have a special, predefined meaning in the language Cannot be redefined or used in any other way in a program Ex: public, private, if, class, throws See p. 32 in LL for complete list

Identifiers
Other Identifiers
Defined by programmer Java API defines quite a few for us
e.g. System, Scanner, String, out

are used to represent names of variables, methods and classes Cannot be keywords We could redefine those defined in Java API if we wanted to, but this is generally not a good idea Java IDs must begin with a letter, followed by any number of letters, digits, _ (underscore) or $ characters
Similar to identifier rules in most programming langs

Identifiers
Important Note:
Java identifiers are case-sensitive this means that upper and lower case letters are considered to be different be careful to be consistent! Ex: ThisVariable and thisvariable are NOT the same

Naming Convention:
Many Java programmers use the following conventions:
Classes: start with upper case, then start each word with an upper case letter Ex: StringBuffer, BufferedInputStream, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException Methods and variables: start with lower case, then start each word with an upper case letter Ex: compareTo, lastIndexOf, mousePressed

Literals
Values that are hard-coded into a program
They are literally in the code!

Different types have different rules for specifying literal values

They are fairly intuitive and similar across most programming languages Integer
An optional +/- followed by a sequence of digits Ex: 1024, -78, 1024786074

Character
A single character in single quotes Ex: a, y, q

String
A sequence of characters contained within double quotes Ex: This is a string literal

See p. 75-77 for more literals

Statements
Units of declaration or execution A program execution can be broken down into execution of the programs individual statements Every Java statement must be terminated by a semicolon (;) Variable declaration statement <type> <variable>, <variable>, ; Ex: int var1, var2; Assignment statement <variable> = <expression>; Ex. var1 = 100; var2 = 100 + var1; Method call <method ID>(<expression>,<expression>,...); System.out.println(Answer is + var1); Well discuss others later

Variables
Memory locations that are associated with identifiers Values can change throughout the execution of a program In Java, must be specified as a certain type or class
The type of a variable specifies its properties: the data it can store and the operations that can be performed on it
Ex: int type: discuss

Java is fairly strict about enforcing data type values

You will get a compilation error if you assign an incorrect type to a variable: Ex: int i = hello;

incompatible types

found: java.lang.String required: int int i = "hello"; ^

Variables
Note: For numeric types, you even get an error if the value assigned will lose precision if placed into the variable
Generally speaking this means we can place smaller values into larger variables but we cannot place larger values into smaller variables
Ex: byte < short < int < long < float < double

Ex: int i = 3.5;

possible loss of precision found : double required: int int i = 3.5; ^ Ex: double x = 100; This is ok

Variables
Floating point literals in Java are by default double If you assign one to a float variable, you will get a loss of precision error as shown in the previous slide If you want to assign a more precise value to a less precise variable, you must explicitly cast the value to that variable type int i = 5; int j = 4.5; float x = 3.5; float y = (float) 3.5; double z = 100; i = z; y = z; z = i; j = (long) y; j = (byte) y;

Error check each of the statements in the box to the right

Variables
In Java, variables fall into two categories: Primitive Types Simple types whose values are stored directly in the memory location associated with a variable Ex: int var1 = 100; var1 100

There are 8 primitive types in Java: byte, short, int, long, float, double, char, boolean See Section 2.3 and ex2a.java for more details on the primitive numeric types

Variables
Reference Types (or class types) Types whose values are references to objects that are stored elsewhere in memory Ex: String s = new String(Hello There); s

Hello There

There are many implications to using reference types, and we must use them with care Different objects have different capabilities, based on their classes We will discuss reference types in more detail in Chapter 3 when we start looking at Objects

 In Java, all variables must be declared before they can be used Ex: x = 5.0; This will cause an error unless x has previously been declared as a double variable
cannot resolve symbol symbol : variable x location : class classname x = 5.0; ^

Variables

Java variables can be initialized in the same statement in which they are declared Ex: double x = 5.0; Multiple variables of the same type can be declared and initialized in a single statement, as long as they are separated by commas Ex: int i = 10, j = 20, k = 45;

Operators and Expressions

Expressions are parts of statements that
Describe a set of operations to be performed Are evaluated at run time Ultimately result in a single value, the result of the computation
Result replaced the expression in the statement Ex: Consider the assignment statement : x=1+2+3+4; 1+2+3+4 is evaluated to be 10 when the program is run X ultimately gets assigned the value 10

Operators describe the operations that should be done

Simple numeric operations Other more advanced operations (to be discussed later)

Operators and Expressions

Numeric operators in Java include
+, , *, /, % These are typical across most languages A couple points, however: If both operands are integer, / will give integer division, always producing an integer result discuss implications The % operator was designed for integer operands and gives the remainder of integer division However, % can be used with floating point as well int i, j, k, m; i = 16; j = 7; k = i / j; // answer? m = i % j; // answer?

Operators and Expressions

Precedence and Associativity
See chart on p. 81 and on p. 678 Recall that the precedence indicates the order in which operators are applied Recall that the associativity indicates the order in which operands are accessed given operators of the same precedence General guidelines to remember for arithmetic operators:
*, /, % +, same precedence, left to right associativity same (lower) precedence, also L to R

Ok, lets do another example

ex2a.java

Operators and Expressions

Java has a number of convenience operators
Allow us to do operations with less typing Ex:
X = X + 1; Y = Y 5; X++; Y = 5;

See Sections 2.11 and 2.12 for more details One point that should be emphasized is the difference between the prefix and postfix versions of the unary operators
What is the difference between the statements:
X++; ++X;

References
What do we mean by references?
The data stored in a variable is just the address of the location where the object is stored
Thus it is separate from the object itself Ex: If I have a Contacts file on my PC, it will have the address of my friend, Joe Schmoe (stored as Schmoe, J.) I can use that address to send something to Joe or to go visit him if I would like However, if I change that address in my Contacts file, it does NOT in any way affect Joe, but now I no longer know where Joe is located

However, I can indirectly change the data in the object through the reference
Knowing his address, I can go to Joes house and steal his plasma TV

Using Objects
What do we mean by "objects"?
Let's first discuss classes

Classes are blueprints for our data

The class structure provides a good way to encapsulate the data and operations of a new type together
Instance data and instance methods The data gives us the structure of the objects and the operations show us how to use them Ex: A String

Using Objects
User of the class knows the general nature of the data, and the public methods, but NOT the implementation details
But does not need to know them in order to use the class
Ex: BigInteger

We call this data abstraction Java classes determine the structure and behavior of Java objects

To put it another way, Java objects are instances of Java classes

More References
Back to references, let's now see some of the implications of reference variables
Declaring a variable does NOT create an object
We must create objects separately from declaring variables
StringBuffer S1, S2; Right now we have no actual StringBuffer objects just two variables that could access them To get objects we must use the new operator or call a method that will create an object for us S1 = new StringBuffer("Hello"); S1 now references an instance of a StringBuffer object but S2 does not

More References
So what value does S2 have?
For now we will say that we should not count on it to have any value we must initialize it before we use it If we try to access it without initializing it, we will get an error

Multiple variables can access and alter the same object

S2 = S1;

Now any change to S1 or S2 will update the same object

S1 S2 Hello

 Properties of objects (public methods and public instance variables) are accessed via "dot" notation
S1.append(" there Java maestros!");

More References

S2 will also access the appended object

Comparison of reference variables compares the references, NOT the objects

StringBuffer S3 = new StringBuffer("Hello there Java maestros!");

== S2) System.out.println("Equal"); // yes if (S1 == S3) System.out.println("Equal"); // no

if (S1

What if we want to compare the objects?

More References
We use the equals() method
This is generally defined for many Java classes to compare data within objects We will see how to define it for our own classes soon However, the equals() method is not (re)defined for the StringBuffer class, so we need to convert our StringBuffer objects into Strings in order to compare them:

if (S1.toString().equals(S3.toString())) System.out.println("Same value"); // yes

It seems complicated but it will make more sense when we get into defining new classes

More references
Note the difference in the tests:
The == operator shows us that it is the same object The equals method show us that the values are in some way the same (depending on how it is defined)

References can be set to null to initialize or reinitialize a variable

Null references cannot be accessed via the "dot" notation If it is attempted a run-time error results
S1 = null; S1.append("This will not work!");

More references
Why?
The method calls are associated with the OBJECT that is being accessed, NOT with the variable If there is no object, there are no methods available to call Result is NullPointerException common error so remember it!

Let's take a look at ex3.java

Program Input
Weve already discussed basic output with the terminal window
System.out.println(Area is + area); Standard Output Stream

For now, well get input from two sources

Standard Input Stream
Scanner class

Command Line Arguments

Streams
A Stream is a continuous, seemingly infinite supply of or sink for data An ordered sequence of bytes flows in a specified direction
in from some source can be sent out to some destination

Acts as a pipe connected to your program

A channel providing communication to and from the outside world

For now, well concern ourselves with the two (three) given to us
Standard Input: System.in Standard Output: System.out

Scanner
Scanner is a class that reads data from the standard input stream and parses it into tokens based on a delimiter
A delimiter is a character or set of characters that distinguish one token from another By default the Scanner class uses white space as the delimiter

The tokens can be read in either as Strings

next() nextLine()

Or they can be read as primitive types

Ex: nextInt(), nextFloat(), nextDouble()

Scanner
If read as primitive types, an error will occur if the actual token does not match what you are trying to read
Ex:
Please enter an int: hello Exception in thread "main" java.util.InputMismatchException at java.util.Scanner.throwFor(Unknown Source) at java.util.Scanner.next(Unknown Source) at java.util.Scanner.nextInt(Unknown Source) at java.util.Scanner.nextInt(Unknown Source) at ex3.main(ex3.java:39)

These types of errors in Java are called exceptions Java has many different exceptions We'll look at exceptions in more detail later
Lets try an example:
ex4a.java ex4b.java

Command Line Args

Remember the main() method
public static void main(String[] args)

args is an array of Strings corresponding to the list of arguments typed by the user when the interpreter was executed
javalab$ java myProg.class 10 13 Steve

Passed in by the operating system User must know the order and format of each argument NOTE: Unlike C/C++, only the actual arguments are passed to the program Well discuss arrays in more detail soon For now, lets do an example: ex4c.java