Java 

Introduction
What is Java?
Java is a popular programming language, created in 1995.

It is owned by Oracle, and more than 3 billion devices run Java.

It is used for:

 Mobile applications (specially Android apps)

 Desktop applications
 Web applications
 Web servers and application servers
 Games
 Database connection
 And much, much more!

Why Use Java?

 Java works on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi,
etc.)
 It is one of the most popular programming language in the world
 It is easy to learn and simple to use
 It is open-source and free
 It is secure, fast and powerful
 It has a huge community support (tens of millions of developers)
 Java is an object oriented language which gives a clear structure to
programs and allows code to be reused, lowering development costs
 As Java is close to C++ and C#, it makes it easy for programmers to
switch to Java or vice versa
Java Install
Some PCs might have Java already installed.

To check if you have Java installed on a Windows PC, search in the start bar for
Java or type the following in Command Prompt (cmd.exe):

C:\Users\Your Name>java -version

If Java is installed, you will see something like this (depending on version):

java version "11.0.1" 2018-10-16 LTS

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS, mixed
mode)

If you do not have Java installed on your computer, you can download it for free
at oracle.com.

Note: In this tutorial, we will write Java code in a text editor. However, it is
possible to write Java in an Integrated Development Environment, such as
IntelliJ IDEA, Netbeans or Eclipse, which are particularly useful when managing
larger collections of Java files.

Setup for Windows

To install Java on Windows:

1. Go to "System Properties" (Can be found on Control Panel > System and

Security > System > Advanced System Settings)
2. Click on the "Environment variables" button under the "Advanced" tab
3. Then, select the "Path" variable in System variables and click on the
"Edit" button
4. Click on the "New" button and add the path where Java is installed,
followed by \bin. By default, Java is installed in C:\Program
Files\Java\jdk-11.0.1 (If nothing else was specified when you installed it).
In that case, You will have to add a new path with: C:\Program
Files\Java\jdk-11.0.1\bin
Then, click "OK", and save the settings
 5. At last, open Command Prompt (cmd.exe) and type java -version to see
if Java is running on your machine

Show how to install Java step-by-step with images »Step 2 »

Step 2

Step 3 »Step 4 »

Step 4
Step 5 »

Step 5
Write the following in the command line (cmd.exe):

C:\Users\Your Name>java -version

If Java was successfully installed, you will see something like this (depending on
version):

java version "11.0.1" 2018-10-16 LTS

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS, mixed mode)
Java Syntax
❮ PreviousNext ❯

Java Syntax
In the previous chapter, we created a Java file called Main.java, and we used the
following code to print "Hello World" to the screen:

Main.java

public class Main {

public static void main(String[] args) {

System.out.println("Hello World");

Try it Yourself »

Example explained
Every line of code that runs in Java must be inside a class. In our example, we
named the class Main. A class should always start with an uppercase first
letter.

Note: Java is case-sensitive: "MyClass" and "myclass" has different meaning.

The name of the java file must match the class name. When saving the file,
save it using the class name and add ".java" to the end of the filename. To run
the example above on your computer, make sure that Java is properly installed:
The output should be:

Hello World
The main Method
The main() method is required and you will see it in every Java program:

public static void main(String[] args)

Any code inside the main() method will be executed. You don't have to

understand the keywords before and after main. You will get to know them bit
by bit.

For now, just remember that every Java program has a class name which must
match the filename, and that every program must contain the main() method.

System.out.println()
Inside the main() method, we can use the println() method to print a line of text
to the screen:

public static void main(String[] args) {

System.out.println("Hello World");

Try it Yourself »
Note: The curly braces {} marks the beginning and the end of a block of code.

Note: Each code statement must end with a semicolon.

Exercise:
Insert the missing part of the code below to output "Hello World".

public class MyClass {

public static void main(String[] args) {

. . ("Hello World");

Submit Answer »

Java Comments
Java Comments
Comments can be used to explain Java code, and to make it more readable. It
can also be used to prevent execution when testing alternative code.

Single-line Comments
Single-line comments start with two forward slashes (//).

Any text between // and the end of the line is ignored by Java (will not be
executed).

This example uses a single-line comment before a line of code:

Example
// This is a comment

System.out.println("Hello World");

Try it Yourself »

This example uses a single-line comment at the end of a line of code:

Example
System.out.println("Hello World"); // This is a comment

Try it Yourself »

Java Multi-line Comments

Multi-line comments start with /* and ends with */.

Any text between /* and */ will be ignored by Java.

This example uses a multi-line comment (a comment block) to explain the

code:

Example
/* The code below will print the words Hello World

to the screen, and it is amazing */

System.out.println("Hello World");

Try it Yourself »

Single or multi-line comments?

It is up to you which you want to use. Normally, we use // for short comments,
and /* */ for longer.
Tesourself With Exercises
Exercise:
Insert the missing part to create two types of comments.

This is a single-line comment

This is a multi-line comment

Submit Answer »

Java Variables
Java Variables
Variables are containers for storing data values.

In Java, there are different types of variables, for example:

 String - stores text, such as "Hello". String values are surrounded by

double quotes
 int - stores integers (whole numbers), without decimals, such as 123 or
-123
 float - stores floating point numbers, with decimals, such as 19.99 or
-19.99
 char - stores single characters, such as 'a' or 'B'. Char values are
surrounded by single quotes
 boolean - stores values with two states: true or false
Declaring (Creating) Variables
To create a variable, you must specify the type and assign it a value:

Syntax
type variable = value;

Where type is one of Java's types (such as int or String), and variable is the

name of the variable (such as x or name). The equal sign is used to assign
values to the variable.

To create a variable that should store text, look at the following example:

Example
Create a variable called name of type String and assign it the value "John":

String name = "John";

System.out.println(name);

Try it Yourself »

To create a variable that should store a number, look at the following example:

Example
Create a variable called myNum of type int and assign it the value 15:

int myNum = 15;

System.out.println(myNum);

Try it Yourself »
You can also declare a variable without assigning the value, and assign the
value later:

Example
int myNum;

myNum = 15;

System.out.println(myNum);

Try it Yourself »

Note that if you assign a new value to an existing variable, it will overwrite the
previous value:

Example
Change the value of myNum from 15 to 20:

int myNum = 15;

myNum = 20; // myNum is now 20

System.out.println(myNum);

Try it Yourself »

Final Variables
However, you can add the final keyword if you don't want others (or yourself)
to overwrite existing values (this will declare the variable as "final" or
"constant", which means unchangeable and read-only):

Example
final int myNum = 15;

myNum = 20; // will generate an error: cannot assign a value to a final

variable
Try it Yourself »

Other Types
A demonstration of how to declare variables of other types:

Example
int myNum = 5;

float myFloatNum = 5.99f;

char myLetter = 'D';

boolean myBool = true;

String myText = "Hello";

You will learn more about data types in the next chapter.

Display Variables
The println() method is often used to display variables.

To combine both text and a variable, use the + character:

Example
String name = "John";

System.out.println("Hello " + name);

Try it Yourself »

You can also use the + character to add a variable to another variable:

Example
String firstName = "John ";

String lastName = "Doe";

String fullName = firstName + lastName;

System.out.println(fullName);

Try it Yourself »

For numeric values, the + character works as a mathematical operator (notice

that we use int (integer) variables here):

Example
int x = 5;

int y = 6;

System.out.println(x + y); // Print the value of x + y

Try it Yourself »

From the example above, you can expect:

 x stores the value 5

 y stores the value 6
 Then we use the println() method to display the value of x + y, which
is 11

Declare Many Variables

To declare more than one variable of the same type, use a comma-separated
list:

Example
int x = 5, y = 6, z = 50;
System.out.println(x + y + z);

Try it Yourself »

Java Identifiers
All Java variables must be identified with unique names.

These unique names are called identifiers.

Identifiers can be short names (like x and y) or more descriptive names (age,
sum, totalVolume).

Note: It is recommended to use descriptive names in order to create

understandable and maintainable code:

Example
// Good

int minutesPerHour = 60;

// OK, but not so easy to understand what m actually is

int m = 60;

Try it Yourself »

The general rules for constructing names for variables (unique identifiers) are:

 Names can contain letters, digits, underscores, and dollar signs

 Names must begin with a letter
 Names should start with a lowercase letter and it cannot contain
whitespace
 Names can also begin with $ and _ (but we will not use it in this tutorial)
 Names are case sensitive ("myVar" and "myvar" are different variables)
 Reserved words (like Java keywords, such as int or boolean) cannot be
used as names
Test Yourself With Exercises
Exercise:
Create a variable named carName and assign the value Volvo to it.

= ;

Submit Answer »

Java Data Types
Java Data Types
As explained in the previous chapter, a variable in Java must be a specified data
type:

Example
int myNum = 5; // Integer (whole number)

float myFloatNum = 5.99f; // Floating point number

char myLetter = 'D'; // Character

boolean myBool = true; // Boolean

String myText = "Hello"; // String

Data types are divided into two groups:

 Primitive data types -

includes byte, short, int, long, float, double, boolean and char
 Non-primitive data types - such as String, Arrays and Classes (you will
learn more about these in a later chapter)
 Primitive Data Types
A primitive data type specifies the size and type of variable values, and it has
no additional methods.

There are eight primitive data types in Java:

Data Type Size Description

byte 1 byte Stores whole numbers from -128 to 127

short 2 bytes Stores whole numbers from -32,768 to 32,767

int 4 bytes Stores whole numbers from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

long 8 bytes Stores whole numbers from -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to

9,223,372,036,854,775,807

float 4 bytes Stores fractional numbers. Sufficient for storing 6 to 7 decimal digits

double 8 bytes Stores fractional numbers. Sufficient for storing 15 decimal digits

boolean 1 bit Stores true or false values

char 2 bytes Stores a single character/letter or ASCII values

Numbers
Primitive number types are divided into two groups:

Integer types stores whole numbers, positive or negative (such as 123 or

-456), without decimals. Valid types are byte, short, int and long. Which type
you should use, depends on the numeric value.

Floating point types represents numbers with a fractional part, containing one

or more decimals. There are two types: float and double.

Even though there are many numeric types in Java, the most used for numbers
are int (for whole numbers) and double (for floating point numbers). However,
we will describe them all as you continue to read.

Integer Types
Byte
The byte data type can store whole numbers from -128 to 127. This can be used
instead of int or other integer types to save memory when you are certain that
the value will be within -128 and 127:

Example
byte myNum = 100;

System.out.println(myNum);

Short
The short data type can store whole numbers from -32768 to 32767:

Example
short myNum = 5000;

System.out.println(myNum);
Int
The int data type can store whole numbers from -2147483648 to
2147483647. In general, and in our tutorial, the int data type is the preferred
data type when we create variables with a numeric value.

Example
int myNum = 100000;

System.out.println(myNum);

Long
The long data type can store whole numbers from -9223372036854775808 to
9223372036854775807. This is used when int is not large enough to store the
value. Note that you should end the value with an "L":

Example
long myNum = 15000000000L;

System.out.println(myNum);

Floating Point Types

You should use a floating point type whenever you need a number with a
decimal, such as 9.99 or 3.14515.

Float
The float data type can store fractional numbers from 3.4e−038 to 3.4e+038.
Note that you should end the value with an "f":
Example
float myNum = 5.75f;

System.out.println(myNum);

Double
The double data type can store fractional numbers from 1.7e−308 to 1.7e+308.
Note that you should end the value with a "d":

Example
double myNum = 19.99d;

System.out.println(myNum);

Use float or double?

The precision of a floating point value indicates how many digits the value can
have after the decimal point. The precision of float is only six or seven decimal
digits, while double variables have a precision of about 15 digits. Therefore it is
safer to use double for most calculations.

Scientific Numbers
A floating point number can also be a scientific number with an "e" to indicate
the power of 10:

Example
float f1 = 35e3f;

double d1 = 12E4d;

System.out.println(f1);

System.out.println(d1);

Try it Yourself »
Booleans
A boolean data type is declared with the boolean keyword and can only take the
values true or false:

Example
boolean isJavaFun = true;

boolean isFishTasty = false;

System.out.println(isJavaFun); // Outputs true

System.out.println(isFishTasty); // Outputs false

Try it Yourself »

Boolean values are mostly used for conditional testing, which you will learn
more about in a later chapter.

Characters
The char data type is used to store a single character. The character must be
surrounded by single quotes, like 'A' or 'c':

Example
char myGrade = 'B';

System.out.println(myGrade);

Try it Yourself »

Alternatively, you can use ASCII values to display certain characters:

Example
char a = 65, b = 66, c = 67;
System.out.println(a);

System.out.println(b);

System.out.println(c);

Try it Yourself »

Tip: A list of all ASCII values can be found in our ASCII Table Reference.

Strings
The String data type is used to store a sequence of characters (text). String
values must be surrounded by double quotes:

Example
String greeting = "Hello World";

System.out.println(greeting);

Try it Yourself »
The String type is so much used and integrated in Java, that some call it "the
special ninth type".

A String in Java is actually a non-primitive data type, because it refers to an

object. The String object has methods that are used to perform certain
operations on strings. Don't worry if you don't understand the term
"object" just yet. We will learn more about strings and objects in a later
chapter.

Non-Primitive Data Types

Non-primitive data types are called reference types because they refer to
objects.

The main difference between primitive and non-primitive data types are:

  Primitive types are predefined (already defined) in Java. Non-primitive
types are created by the programmer and is not defined by Java (except
for String).
 Non-primitive types can be used to call methods to perform certain
operations, while primitive types cannot.
 A primitive type has always a value, while non-primitive types can
be null.
 A primitive type starts with a lowercase letter, while non-primitive types
starts with an uppercase letter.
 The size of a primitive type depends on the data type, while non-primitive
types have all the same size.

Examples of non-primitive types are Strings, Arrays, Classes, Interface, etc. You

will learn more about these in a later chapter.

elf With Exercises

Exercise:
Add the correct data type for the following variables:

myNum = 9;
myFloatNum = 8.99f;
myLetter = 'A';
myBool = false;
myText = "Hello World";

Submit Answer »