2.3.

OBJECTS AND SUBROUTINES 35

An enum is a type that has a fixed list of possible values, which is specified when the enum
is created. In some ways, an enum is similar to the boolean data type, which has true and
false as its only possible values. However, boolean is a primitive type, while an enum is not.
The definition of an enum types has the (simplified) form:
enum henum-type-name i { hlist-of-enum-values i }
This definition cannot be inside a subroutine. You can place it outside the main() routine
of the program. The henum-type-namei can be any simple identifier. This identifier becomes
the name of the enum type, in the same way that “boolean” is the name of the boolean type
and “String” is the name of the String type. Each value in the hlist-of-enum-valuesi must be a
simple identifier, and the identifiers in the list are separated by commas. For example, here is
the definition of an enum type named Season whose values are the names of the four seasons
of the year:
enum Season { SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER }
By convention, enum values are given names that are made up of upper case letters, but
that is a style guideline and not a syntax rule. Enum values are not variables. Each value is
a constant that always has the same value. In fact, the possible values of an enum type are
usually referred to as enum constants.
Note that the enum constants of type Season are considered to be “contained in” Season,
which means—following the convention that compound identifiers are used for things that are
contained in other things—the names that you actually use in your program to refer to them
are Season.SPRING, Season.SUMMER, Season.FALL, and Season.WINTER.
Once an enum type has been created, it can be used to declare variables in exactly the same
ways that other types are used. For example, you can declare a variable named vacation of
type Season with the statement:
Season vacation;
After declaring the variable, you can assign a value to it using an assignment statement. The
value on the right-hand side of the assignment can be one of the enum constants of type Season.
Remember to use the full name of the constant, including “Season”! For example:
vacation = Season.SUMMER;
You can print out an enum value with an output statement such as System.out.print(vacation).
The output value will be the name of the enum constant (without the “Season.”). In this case,
the output would be “SUMMER”.
Because an enum is technically a class, the enum values are technically objects. As ob-
jects, they can contain subroutines. One of the subroutines in every enum value is named
ordinal(). When used with an enum value, it returns the ordinal number of the value in
the list of values of the enum. The ordinal number simply tells the position of the value in
the list. That is, Season.SPRING.ordinal() is the int value 0, Season.SUMMER.ordinal() is
1, Season.FALL.ordinal() is 2, and Season.WINTER.ordinal() is 3. (You will see over and
over again that computer scientists like to start counting at zero!) You can, of course, use
the ordinal() method with a variable of type Season, such as vacation.ordinal() in our
example.
Right now, it might not seem to you that enums are all that useful. As you work though
the rest of the book, you should be convinced that they are. For now, you should at least
appreciate them as the first example of an important concept: creating new types. Here is a
little example that shows enums being used in a complete program:
36 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

public class EnumDemo {

// Define two enum types -- remember that the definitions
// go OUTSIDE The main() routine!
enum Day { SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY }
enum Month { JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC }
public static void main(String[] args) {
Day tgif; // Declare a variable of type Day.
Month libra; // Declare a variable of type Month.
tgif = Day.FRIDAY; // Assign a value of type Day to tgif.
libra = Month.OCT; // Assign a value of type Month to libra.
System.out.print("My sign is libra, since I was born in ");
System.out.println(libra); // Output value will be: OCT
System.out.print("That’s the ");
System.out.print( libra.ordinal() );
System.out.println("-th month of the year.");
System.out.println(" (Counting from 0, of course!)");
System.out.print("Isn’t it nice to get to ");
System.out.println(tgif); // Output value will be: FRIDAY
System.out.println( tgif + " is the " + tgif.ordinal()
+ "-th day of the week.");
// You can concatenate enum values onto Strings!
}
}

2.4 Text Input and Output

For some unfathomable reason, Java has never made it easy to read data typed in
by the user of a program. You’ve already seen that output can be displayed to the user
using the subroutine System.out.print. This subroutine is part of a pre-defined object called
System.out. The purpose of this object is precisely to display output to the user. There is
a corresponding object called System.in that exists to read data input by the user, but it
provides only very primitive input facilities, and it requires some advanced Java programming
skills to use it effectively.
Java 5.0 finally makes input a little easier with a new Scanner class. However, it requires
some knowledge of object-oriented programming to use this class, so it’s not appropriate for
use here at the beginning of this course. (Furthermore, in my opinion, Scanner still does not
get things quite right.)
There is some excuse for this lack of concern with input, since Java is meant mainly to
write programs for Graphical User Interfaces, and those programs have their own style of
input/output, which is implemented in Java. However, basic support is needed for input/output
in old-fashioned non-GUI programs. Fortunately, it is possible to extend Java by creating new
classes that provide subroutines that are not available in the standard part of the language.
As soon as a new class is available, the subroutines that it contains can be used in exactly the
same way as built-in routines.
2.4. TEXT INPUT AND OUTPUT 37

Along these lines, I’ve written a class called TextIO that defines subroutines for reading
values typed by the user of a non-GUI program. The subroutines in this class make it possible
to get input from the standard input object, System.in, without knowing about the advanced
aspects of Java that are needed to use Scanner or to use System.in directly. TextIO also
contains a set of output subroutines. The output subroutines are similar to those provided in
System.out, but they provide a few additional features. You can use whichever set of output
subroutines you prefer, and you can even mix them in the same program.
To use the TextIO class, you must make sure that the class is available to your program.
What this means depends on the Java programming environment that you are using. In general,
you just have to add the source code file, TextIO.java, to the same directory that contains your
main program. See Section 2.6 for more information about how to use TextIO.

2.4.1 A First Text Input Example

The input routines in the TextIO class are static member functions. (Static member functions
were introduced in the previous section.) Let’s suppose that you want your program to read
an integer typed in by the user. The TextIO class contains a static member function named
getlnInt that you can use for this purpose. Since this function is contained in the TextIO class,
you have to refer to it in your program as TextIO.getlnInt. The function has no parameters,
so a complete call to the function takes the form “TextIO.getlnInt()”. This function call
represents the int value typed by the user, and you have to do something with the returned
value, such as assign it to a variable. For example, if userInput is a variable of type int
(created with a declaration statement “int userInput;”), then you could use the assignment
statement
userInput = TextIO.getlnInt();

When the computer executes this statement, it will wait for the user to type in an integer
value. The value typed will be returned by the function, and it will be stored in the variable,
userInput. Here is a complete program that uses TextIO.getlnInt to read a number typed
by the user and then prints out the square of the number that the user types:
/**
* A program that reads an integer that is typed in by the
* user and computes and prints the square of that integer.
*/

public class PrintSquare {

public static void main(String[] args) {

int userInput; // The number input by the user.

int square; // The userInput, multiplied by itself.

System.out.print("Please type a number: ");

userInput = TextIO.getlnInt();
square = userInput * userInput;
System.out.print("The square of that number is ");
System.out.println(square);

} // end of main()

} //end of class PrintSquare

38 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

When you run this program, it will display the message “Please type a number:” and will
pause until you type a response, including a carriage return after the number.

2.4.2 Text Output

The TextIO class contains static member subroutines TextIO.put and TextIO.putln that can
be used in the same way as System.out.print and System.out.println. For example, al-
though there is no particular advantage in doing so in this case, you could replace the two
lines

System.out.print("The square of that number is ");

System.out.println(square);

with

TextIO.put("The square of that number is ");

TextIO.putln(square);

For the next few chapters, I will use TextIO for input in all my examples, and I will often use
it for output. Keep in mind that TextIO can only be used in a program if it is available to that
program. It is not built into Java in the way that the System class is.
Let’s look a little more closely at the built-in output subroutines System.out.print and
System.out.println. Each of these subroutines can be used with one parameter, where the
parameter can be a value of any of the primitive types byte, short, int, long, float, double, char,
or boolean. The parameter can also be a String, a value belonging to an enum type, or indeed
any object. That is, you can say “System.out.print(x);” or “System.out.println(x);”,
where x is any expression whose value is of any type whatsoever. The expression can be a con-
stant, a variable, or even something more complicated such as 2*distance*time. Now, in fact,
the System class actually includes several different subroutines to handle different parameter
types. There is one System.out.print for printing values of type double, one for values of
type int, another for values that are objects, and so on. These subroutines can have the same
name since the computer can tell which one you mean in a given subroutine call statement,
depending on the type of parameter that you supply. Having several subroutines of the same
name that differ in the types of their parameters is called overloading . Many programming
languages do not permit overloading, but it is common in Java programs.
The difference between System.out.print and System.out.println is that the println
version outputs a carriage return after it outputs the specified parameter value. There is a
version of System.out.println that has no parameters. This version simply outputs a carriage
return, and nothing else. A subroutine call statement for this version of the program looks like
“System.out.println();”, with empty parentheses. Note that “System.out.println(x);” is
exactly equivalent to “System.out.print(x); System.out.println();”; the carriage return
comes after the value of x. (There is no version of System.out.print without parameters.
Do you see why?)
As mentioned above, the TextIO subroutines TextIO.put and TextIO.putln can be used
as replacements for System.out.print and System.out.println. The TextIO functions work
in exactly the same way as the System functions, except that, as we will see below, TextIO can
also be used to write to other destinations.
2.4. TEXT INPUT AND OUTPUT 39

2.4.3 TextIO Input Functions

The TextIO class is a little more versatile at doing output than is System.out. However, it’s
input for which we really need it.
With TextIO, input is done using functions. For example, TextIO.getlnInt(), which was
discussed above, makes the user type in a value of type int and returns that input value so that
you can use it in your program. TextIO includes several functions for reading different types of
input values. Here are examples of the ones that you are most likely to use:
j = TextIO.getlnInt(); // Reads a value of type int.
y = TextIO.getlnDouble(); // Reads a value of type double.
a = TextIO.getlnBoolean(); // Reads a value of type boolean.
c = TextIO.getlnChar(); // Reads a value of type char.
w = TextIO.getlnWord(); // Reads one "word" as a value of type String.
s = TextIO.getln(); // Reads an entire input line as a String.
For these statements to be legal, the variables on the left side of each assignment statement
must already be declared and must be of the same type as that returned by the function on
the right side. Note carefully that these functions do not have parameters. The values that
they return come from outside the program, typed in by the user as the program is running.
To “capture” that data so that you can use it in your program, you have to assign the return
value of the function to a variable. You will then be able to refer to the user’s input value by
using the name of the variable.
When you call one of these functions, you are guaranteed that it will return a legal value of
the correct type. If the user types in an illegal value as input—for example, if you ask for an
int and the user types in a non-numeric character or a number that is outside the legal range
of values that can be stored in in a variable of type int—then the computer will ask the user to
re-enter the value, and your program never sees the first, illegal value that the user entered. For
TextIO.getlnBoolean(), the user is allowed to type in any of the following: true, false, t, f, yes,
no, y, n, 1, or 0. Furthermore, they can use either upper or lower case letters. In any case, the
user’s input is interpreted as a true/false value. It’s convenient to use TextIO.getlnBoolean()
to read the user’s response to a Yes/No question.
You’ll notice that there are two input functions that return Strings. The first, getlnWord(),
returns a string consisting of non-blank characters only. When it is called, it skips over any
spaces and carriage returns typed in by the user. Then it reads non-blank characters until it gets
to the next space or carriage return. It returns a String consisting of all the non-blank characters
that it has read. The second input function, getln(), simply returns a string consisting of all
the characters typed in by the user, including spaces, up to the next carriage return. It gets an
entire line of input text. The carriage return itself is not returned as part of the input string,
but it is read and discarded by the computer. Note that the String returned by this function
might be the empty string , "", which contains no characters at all. You will get this return
value if the user simply presses return, without typing anything else first.
All the other input functions listed—getlnInt(), getlnDouble(), getlnBoolean(), and
getlnChar()—behave like getWord() in that they will skip past any blanks and carriage returns
in the input before reading a value.
Furthermore, if the user types extra characters on the line after the input value, all the
extra characters will be discarded, along with the carriage return at the end of the
line. If the program executes another input function, the user will have to type in another line
of input. It might not sound like a good idea to discard any of the user’s input, but it turns out
to be the safest thing to do in most programs. Sometimes, however, you do want to read more
40 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

than one value from the same line of input. TextIO provides the following alternative input
functions to allow you to do this:
j = TextIO.getInt(); // Reads a value of type int.
y = TextIO.getDouble(); // Reads a value of type double.
a = TextIO.getBoolean(); // Reads a value of type boolean.
c = TextIO.getChar(); // Reads a value of type char.
w = TextIO.getWord(); // Reads one "word" as a value of type String.

The names of these functions start with “get” instead of “getln”. “Getln” is short for “get
line” and should remind you that the functions whose names begin with “getln” will get an
entire line of data. A function without the “ln” will read an input value in the same way, but
will then save the rest of the input line in a chunk of internal memory called the input buffer .
The next time the computer wants to read an input value, it will look in the input buffer before
prompting the user for input. This allows the computer to read several values from one line
of the user’s input. Strictly speaking, the computer actually reads only from the input buffer.
The first time the program tries to read input from the user, the computer will wait while the
user types in an entire line of input. TextIO stores that line in the input buffer until the data
on the line has been read or discarded (by one of the “getln” functions). The user only gets to
type when the buffer is empty.
Clearly, the semantics of input is much more complicated than the semantics of output!
Fortunately, for the majority of applications, it’s pretty straightforward in practice. You only
need to follow the details if you want to do something fancy. In particular, I strongly advise
you to use the “getln” versions of the input routines, rather than the “get” versions, unless you
really want to read several items from the same line of input, precisely because the semantics
of the “getln” versions is much simpler.
Note, by the way, that although the TextIO input functions will skip past blank spaces and
carriage returns while looking for input, they will not skip past other characters. For example,
if you try to read two ints and the user types “2,3”, the computer will read the first number
correctly, but when it tries to read the second number, it will see the comma. It will regard this
as an error and will force the user to retype the number. If you want to input several numbers
from one line, you should make sure that the user knows to separate them with spaces, not
commas. Alternatively, if you want to require a comma between the numbers, use getChar()
to read the comma before reading the second number.
There is another character input function, TextIO.getAnyChar(), which does not skip past
blanks or carriage returns. It simply reads and returns the next character typed by the user,
even if it’s a blank or carriage return. If the user typed a carriage return, then the char returned
by getAnyChar() is the special linefeed character ’\n’. There is also a function, TextIO.peek(),
that lets you look ahead at the next character in the input without actually reading it. After
you “peek” at the next character, it will still be there when you read the next item from input.
This allows you to look ahead and see what’s coming up in the input, so that you can take
different actions depending on what’s there.
The TextIO class provides a number of other functions. To learn more about them, you can
look at the comments in the source code file, TextIO.java.
(You might be wondering why there are only two output routines, print and println,
which can output data values of any type, while there is a separate input routine for each data
type. As noted above, in reality there are many print and println routines, one for each data
type. The computer can tell them apart based on the type of the parameter that you provide.
However, the input routines don’t have parameters, so the different input routines can only be
2.4. TEXT INPUT AND OUTPUT 41

distinguished by having different names.)

∗ ∗ ∗
Using TextIO for input and output, we can now improve the program from Section 2.2 for
computing the value of an investment. We can have the user type in the initial value of the
investment and the interest rate. The result is a much more useful program—for one thing, it
makes sense to run it more than once!
/**
* This class implements a simple program that will compute
* the amount of interest that is earned on an investment over
* a period of one year. The initial amount of the investment
* and the interest rate are input by the user. The value of
* the investment at the end of the year is output. The
* rate must be input as a decimal, not a percentage (for
* example, 0.05 rather than 5).
*/
public class Interest2 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
double principal; // The value of the investment.
double rate; // The annual interest rate.
double interest; // The interest earned during the year.
TextIO.put("Enter the initial investment: ");
principal = TextIO.getlnDouble();
TextIO.put("Enter the annual interest rate (decimal, not percentage!): ");
rate = TextIO.getlnDouble();
interest = principal * rate; // Compute this year’s interest.
principal = principal + interest; // Add it to principal.
TextIO.put("The value of the investment after one year is $");
TextIO.putln(principal);
} // end of main()
} // end of class Interest2

2.4.4 Formatted Output

If you ran the preceding Interest2 example, you might have noticed that the answer is not
always written in the format that is usually used for dollar amounts. In general, dollar amounts
are written with two digits after the decimal point. But the program’s output can be a number
like 1050.0 or 43.575. It would be better if these numbers were printed as 1050.00 and 43.58.
Java 5.0 introduced a formatted output capability that makes it much easier than it used
to be to control the format of output numbers. A lot of formatting options are available. I will
cover just a few of the simplest and most commonly used possibilities here.
You can use the function System.out.printf to produce formatted output. (The name
“printf,” which stands for “print formatted,” is copied from the C and C++ programming
languages, which have always have a similar formatting capability). System.out.printf takes
two or more parameters. The first parameter is a String that specifies the format of the output.
This parameter is called the format string . The remaining parameters specify the values that
42 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

are to be output. Here is a statement that will print a number in the proper format for a dollar
amount, where amount is a variable of type double:
System.out.printf( "%1.2f", amount );

TextIO can also do formatted output. The function TextIO.putf has the same
functionality as System.out.printf. Using TextIO, the above example would be:
TextIO.printf("%1.2",amount); and you could say TextIO.putln("%1.2f",principal);
instead of TextIO.putln(principal); in the Interest2 program to get the output in the
right format.
The output format of a value is specified by a format specifier . The format string (in
the simple cases that I cover here) contains one format specifier for each of the values that is
to be output. Some typical format specifiers are %d, %12d, %10s, %1.2f, %15.8e and %1.8g.
Every format specifier begins with a percent sign (%) and ends with a letter, possibly with some
extra formatting information in between. The letter specifies the type of output that is to be
produced. For example, in %d and %12d, the “d” specifies that an integer is to be written. The
“12” in %12d specifies the minimum number of spaces that should be used for the output. If
the integer that is being output takes up fewer than 12 spaces, extra blank spaces are added
in front of the integer to bring the total up to 12. We say that the output is “right-justified
in a field of length 12.” The value is not forced into 12 spaces; if the value has more than 12
digits, all the digits will be printed, with no extra spaces. The specifier %d means the same as
%1d; that is an integer will be printed using just as many spaces as necessary. (The “d,” by the
way, stands for “decimal” (base-10) numbers. You can use an “x” to output an integer value
in hexadecimal form.)
The letter “s” at the end of a format specifier can be used with any type of value. It
means that the value should be output in its default format, just as it would be in unformatted
output. A number, such as the “10” in %10s can be added to specify the (minimum) number
of characters. The “s” stands for “string,” meaning that the value is converted into a String
value in the usual way.
The format specifiers for values of type double are even more complicated. An “f”, as
in %1.2f, is used to output a number in “floating-point” form, that is with digits after the
decimal point. In %1.2f, the “2” specifies the number of digits to use after the decimal point.
The “1” specifies the (minimum) number of characters to output, which effectively means that
just as many characters as are necessary should be used. Similarly, %12.3f would specify a
floating-point format with 3 digits after the decimal point, right-justified in a field of length 12.
Very large and very small numbers should be written in exponential format, such as
6.00221415e23, representing “6.00221415 times 10 raised to the power 23.” A format speci-
fier such as %15.8e specifies an output in exponential form, with the “8” telling how many
digits to use after the decimal point. If you use “g” instead of “e”, the output will be in
floating-point form for small values and in exponential form for large values. In %1.8g, the
8 gives the total number of digits in the answer, including both the digits before the decimal
point and the digits after the decimal point.
In addition to format specifiers, the format string in a printf statement can include other
characters. These extra characters are just copied to the output. This can be a convenient way
to insert values into the middle of an output string. For example, if x and y are variables of
type int, you could say
System.out.printf("The product of %d and %d is %d", x, y, x*y);

When this statement is executed, the value of x is substituted for the first %d in the string, the
2.4. TEXT INPUT AND OUTPUT 43

value of y for the second %d, and the value of the expression x*y for the third, so the output
would be something like “The product of 17 and 42 is 714” (quotation marks not included in
output!).

2.4.5 Introduction to File I/O

System.out sends its output to the output destination known as “standard output.” But stan-
dard output is just one possible output destination. For example, data can be written to a file
that is stored on the user’s hard drive. The advantage to this, of course, is that the data is
saved in the file even after the program ends, and the user can print the file, email it to someone
else, edit it with another program, and so on.
TextIO has the ability to write data to files and to read data from files. When you write
output using the put, putln, or putf method in TextIO, the output is sent to the current
output destination. By default, the current output destination is standard output. However,
TextIO has some subroutines that can be used to change the current output destination. To
write to a file named “result.txt”, for example, you would use the statement:
TextIO.writeFile("result.txt");

After this statement is executed, any output from TextIO output statements will be sent to the
file named “result.txt” instead of to standard output. The file should be created in the same
directory that contains the program. Note that if a file with the same name already exists, its
previous contents will be erased! In many cases, you want to let the user select the file that
will be used for output. The statement
TextIO.writeUserSelectedFile();

will open a typical graphical-user-interface file selection dialog where the user can specify the
output file. If you want to go back to sending output to standard output, you can say
TextIO.writeStandardOutput();

You can also specify the input source for TextIO’s various “get” functions. The default input
source is standard input. You can use the statement TextIO.readFile("data.txt") to read
from a file named “data.txt” instead, or you can let the user select the input file by saying
TextIO.readUserSelectedFile(), and you can go back to reading from standard input with
TextIO.readStandardInput().
When your program is reading from standard input, the user gets a chance to correct any
errors in the input. This is not possible when the program is reading from a file. If illegal data
is found when a program tries to read from a file, an error occurs that will crash the program.
(Later, we will see that is is possible to “catch” such errors and recover from them.) Errors can
also occur, though more rarely, when writing to files.
A complete understanding of file input/output in Java requires a knowledge of object ori-
ented programming. We will return to the topic later, in Chapter 11. The file I/O capabilities
in TextIO are rather primitive by comparison. Nevertheless, they are sufficient for many appli-
cations, and they will allow you to get some experience with files sooner rather than later.
As a simple example, here is a program that asks the user some questions and outputs the
user’s responses to a file named “profile.txt”:
public class CreateProfile {
public static void main(String[] args) {
44 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

String name; // The user’s name.

String email; // The user’s email address.
double salary; // the user’s yearly salary.
String favColor; // The user’s favorite color.
TextIO.putln("Good Afternoon! This program will create");
TextIO.putln("your profile file, if you will just answer");
TextIO.putln("a few simple questions.");
TextIO.putln();
/* Gather responses from the user. */
TextIO.put("What is your name? ");
name = TextIO.getln();
TextIO.put("What is your email address? ");
email = TextIO.getln();
TextIO.put("What is your yearly income? ");
salary = TextIO.getlnDouble();
TextIO.put("What is your favorite color? ");
favColor = TextIO.getln();
/* Write the user’s information to the file named profile.txt. */
TextIO.writeFile("profile.txt"); // subsequent output goes to the file
TextIO.putln("Name: " + name);
TextIO.putln("Email: " + email);
TextIO.putln("Favorite Color: " + favColor);
TextIO.putf( "Yearly Income: %1.2f\n", salary);
// The "/n" in the previous line is a carriage return.
/* Print a final message to standard output. */
TextIO.writeStandardOutput();
TextIO.putln("Thank you. Your profile has been written to profile.txt.");
}
}

2.5 Details of Expressions

This section takes a closer look at expressions. Recall that an expression is a piece of
program code that represents or computes a value. An expression can be a literal, a variable,
a function call, or several of these things combined with operators such as + and >. The value
of an expression can be assigned to a variable, used as a parameter in a subroutine call, or
combined with other values into a more complicated expression. (The value can even, in some
cases, be ignored, if that’s what you want to do; this is more common than you might think.)
Expressions are an essential part of programming. So far, these notes have dealt only informally
with expressions. This section tells you the more-or-less complete story (leaving out some of
the less commonly used operators).
The basic building blocks of expressions are literals (such as 674, 3.14, true, and ’X’),
variables, and function calls. Recall that a function is a subroutine that returns a value. You’ve
already seen some examples of functions, such as the input routines from the TextIO class and
the mathematical functions from the Math class.
2.5. DETAILS OF EXPRESSIONS 45

The Math class also contains a couple of mathematical constants that are useful in math-
ematical expressions: Math.PI represents π (the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its
diameter), and Math.E represents e (the base of the natural logarithms). These “constants”
are actually member variables in Math of type double. They are only approximations for the
mathematical constants, which would require an infinite number of digits to specify exactly.
Literals, variables, and function calls are simple expressions. More complex expressions
can be built up by using operators to combine simpler expressions. Operators include + for
adding two numbers, > for comparing two values, and so on. When several operators appear
in an expression, there is a question of precedence, which determines how the operators are
grouped for evaluation. For example, in the expression “A + B * C”, B*C is computed first
and then the result is added to A. We say that multiplication (*) has higher precedence
than addition (+). If the default precedence is not what you want, you can use parentheses to
explicitly specify the grouping you want. For example, you could use “(A + B) * C” if you
want to add A to B first and then multiply the result by C.
The rest of this section gives details of operators in Java. The number of operators in Java
is quite large, and I will not cover them all here. Most of the important ones are here; a few
will be covered in later chapters as they become relevant.

2.5.1 Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They are
indicated by +, -, *, and /. These operations can be used on values of any numeric type:
byte, short, int, long, float, or double. When the computer actually calculates one of these
operations, the two values that it combines must be of the same type. If your program tells
the computer to combine two values of different types, the computer will convert one of the
values from one type to another. For example, to compute 37.4 + 10, the computer will convert
the integer 10 to a real number 10.0 and will then compute 37.4 + 10.0. This is called a type
conversion. Ordinarily, you don’t have to worry about type conversion in expressions, because
the computer does it automatically.
When two numerical values are combined (after doing type conversion on one of them, if
necessary), the answer will be of the same type. If you multiply two ints, you get an int; if you
multiply two doubles, you get a double. This is what you would expect, but you have to be
very careful when you use the division operator /. When you divide two integers, the answer
will always be an integer; if the quotient has a fractional part, it is discarded. For example, the
value of 7/2 is 3, not 3.5. If N is an integer variable, then N/100 is an integer, and 1/N is equal
to zero for any N greater than one! This fact is a common source of programming errors. You
can force the computer to compute a real number as the answer by making one of the operands
real: For example, when the computer evaluates 1.0/N, it first converts N to a real number in
order to match the type of 1.0, so you get a real number as the answer.
Java also has an operator for computing the remainder when one integer is divided by
another. This operator is indicated by %. If A and B are integers, then A % B represents the
remainder when A is divided by B. (However, for negative operands, % is not quite the same as
the usual mathematical “modulus” operator, since if one of A or B is negative, then the value
of A % B will be negative.) For example, 7 % 2 is 1, while 34577 % 100 is 77, and 50 % 8 is
2. A common use of % is to test whether a given integer is even or odd. N is even if N % 2 is
zero, and it is odd if N % 2 is 1. More generally, you can check whether an integer N is evenly
divisible by an integer M by checking whether N % M is zero.
Finally, you might need the unary minus operator, which takes the negative of a number.
46 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

For example, -X has the same value as (-1)*X. For completeness, Java also has a unary plus
operator, as in +X, even though it doesn’t really do anything.
By the way, recall that the + operator can also be used to concatenate a value of any
type onto a String. This is another example of type conversion. In Java, any type can be
automatically converted into type String.

2.5.2 Increment and Decrement

You’ll find that adding 1 to a variable is an extremely common operation in programming.
Subtracting 1 from a variable is also pretty common. You might perform the operation of
adding 1 to a variable with assignment statements such as:
counter = counter + 1;
goalsScored = goalsScored + 1;

The effect of the assignment statement x = x + 1 is to take the old value of the variable
x, compute the result of adding 1 to that value, and store the answer as the new value of
x. The same operation can be accomplished by writing x++ (or, if you prefer, ++x). This
actually changes the value of x, so that it has the same effect as writing “x = x + 1”. The two
statements above could be written
counter++;
goalsScored++;

Similarly, you could write x-- (or --x) to subtract 1 from x. That is, x-- performs the same
computation as x = x - 1. Adding 1 to a variable is called incrementing that variable,
and subtracting 1 is called decrementing . The operators ++ and -- are called the increment
operator and the decrement operator, respectively. These operators can be used on variables
belonging to any of the numerical types and also on variables of type char.
Usually, the operators ++ or -- are used in statements like “x++;” or “x--;”. These state-
ments are commands to change the value of x. However, it is also legal to use x++, ++x, x--,
or --x as expressions, or as parts of larger expressions. That is, you can write things like:
y = x++;
y = ++x;
TextIO.putln(--x);
z = (++x) * (y--);

The statement “y = x++;” has the effects of adding 1 to the value of x and, in addition, assigning
some value to y. The value assigned to y is the value of the expression x++, which is defined
to be the old value of x, before the 1 is added. Thus, if the value of x is 6, the statement “y
= x++;” will change the value of x to 7, but it will change the value of y to 6 since the value
assigned to y is the old value of x. On the other hand, the value of ++x is defined to be the
new value of x, after the 1 is added. So if x is 6, then the statement “y = ++x;” changes the
values of both x and y to 7. The decrement operator, --, works in a similar way.
This can be confusing. My advice is: Don’t be confused. Use ++ and -- only in stand-alone
statements, not in expressions. I will follow this advice in all the examples in these notes.

2.5.3 Relational Operators

Java has boolean variables and boolean-valued expressions that can be used to express con-
ditions that can be either true or false. One way to form a boolean-valued expression is
2.5. DETAILS OF EXPRESSIONS 47

to compare two values using a relational operator . Relational operators are used to test
whether two values are equal, whether one value is greater than another, and so forth. The
relational operators in Java are: ==, !=, <, >, <=, and >=. The meanings of these operators are:
A == B Is A "equal to" B?
A != B Is A "not equal to" B?
A < B Is A "less than" B?
A > B Is A "greater than" B?
A <= B Is A "less than or equal to" B?
A >= B Is A "greater than or equal to" B?

These operators can be used to compare values of any of the numeric types. They can also be
used to compare values of type char. For characters, < and > are defined according the numeric
Unicode values of the characters. (This might not always be what you want. It is not the same
as alphabetical order because all the upper case letters come before all the lower case letters.)
When using boolean expressions, you should remember that as far as the computer is con-
cerned, there is nothing special about boolean values. In the next chapter, you will see how to
use them in loop and branch statements. But you can also assign boolean-valued expressions
to boolean variables, just as you can assign numeric values to numeric variables.
By the way, the operators == and != can be used to compare boolean values. This is
occasionally useful. For example, can you figure out what this does:
boolean sameSign;
sameSign = ((x > 0) == (y > 0));

One thing that you cannot do with the relational operators <, >, <=, and <= is to use them
to compare values of type String. You can legally use == and != to compare Strings, but
because of peculiarities in the way objects behave, they might not give the results you want.
(The == operator checks whether two objects are stored in the same memory location, rather
than whether they contain the same value. Occasionally, for some objects, you do want to make
such a check—but rarely for strings. I’ll get back to this in a later chapter.) Instead, you should
use the subroutines equals(), equalsIgnoreCase(), and compareTo(), which were described
in Section 2.3, to compare two Strings.

2.5.4 Boolean Operators

In English, complicated conditions can be formed using the words “and”, “or”, and “not.” For
example, “If there is a test and you did not study for it. . . ”. “And”, “or”, and “not” are
boolean operators, and they exist in Java as well as in English.
In Java, the boolean operator “and” is represented by &&. The && operator is used to
combine two boolean values. The result is also a boolean value. The result is true if both
of the combined values are true, and the result is false if either of the combined values is
false. For example, “(x == 0) && (y == 0)” is true if and only if both x is equal to 0 and
y is equal to 0.
The boolean operator “or” is represented by ||. (That’s supposed to be two of the vertical
line characters, |.) The expression “A || B” is true if either A is true or B is true, or if both
are true. “A || B” is false only if both A and B are false.
The operators && and || are said to be short-circuited versions of the boolean operators.
This means that the second operand of && or || is not necessarily evaluated. Consider the test
(x != 0) && (y/x > 1)
48 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

Suppose that the value of x is in fact zero. In that case, the division y/x is undefined math-
matically. However, the computer will never perform the division, since when the computer
evaluates (x != 0), it finds that the result is false, and so it knows that ((x != 0) && any-
thing) has to be false. Therefore, it doesn’t bother to evaluate the second operand, (y/x > 1).
The evaluation has been short-circuited and the division by zero is avoided. Without the short-
circuiting, there would have been a division by zero. (This may seem like a technicality, and it
is. But at times, it will make your programming life a little easier.)
The boolean operator “not” is a unary operator. In Java, it is indicated by ! and is written
in front of its single operand. For example, if test is a boolean variable, then
test = ! test;
will reverse the value of test, changing it from true to false, or from false to true.

2.5.5 Conditional Operator

Any good programming language has some nifty little features that aren’t really necessary but
that let you feel cool when you use them. Java has the conditional operator. It’s a ternary
operator—that is, it has three operands—and it comes in two pieces, ? and :, that have to be
used together. It takes the form
hboolean-expression i ? hexpression1 i : hexpression2 i
The computer tests the value of hboolean-expressioni. If the value is true, it evaluates
hexpression1 i; otherwise, it evaluates hexpression2 i. For example:
next = (N % 2 == 0) ? (N/2) : (3*N+1);
will assign the value N/2 to next if N is even (that is, if N % 2 == 0 is true), and it will assign
the value (3*N+1) to next if N is odd. (The parentheses in this example are not required, but
they do make the expression easier to read.)

2.5.6 Assignment Operators and Type-Casts

You are already familiar with the assignment statement, which uses the symbol “=” to assign
the value of an expression to a variable. In fact, = is really an operator in the sense that an
assignment can itself be used as an expression or as part of a more complex expression. The
value of an assignment such as A=B is the same as the value that is assigned to A. So, if you
want to assign the value of B to A and test at the same time whether that value is zero, you
could say:
if ( (A=B) == 0 )...
Usually, I would say, don’t do things like that!
In general, the type of the expression on the right-hand side of an assignment statement
must be the same as the type of the variable on the left-hand side. However, in some cases,
the computer will automatically convert the value computed by the expression to match the
type of the variable. Consider the list of numeric types: byte, short, int, long, float, double.
A value of a type that occurs earlier in this list can be converted automatically to a value that
occurs later. For example:
int A;
double X;
short B;
2.5. DETAILS OF EXPRESSIONS 49

A = 17;
X = A; // OK; A is converted to a double
B = A; // illegal; no automatic conversion
// from int to short

The idea is that conversion should only be done automatically when it can be done without
changing the semantics of the value. Any int can be converted to a double with the same
numeric value. However, there are int values that lie outside the legal range of shorts. There
is simply no way to represent the int 100000 as a short, for example, since the largest value of
type short is 32767.
In some cases, you might want to force a conversion that wouldn’t be done automatically.
For this, you can use what is called a type cast. A type cast is indicated by putting a type
name, in parentheses, in front of the value you want to convert. For example,
int A;
short B;
A = 17;
B = (short)A; // OK; A is explicitly type cast
// to a value of type short

You can do type casts from any numeric type to any other numeric type. However, you should
note that you might change the numeric value of a number by type-casting it. For example,
(short)100000 is -31072. (The -31072 is obtained by taking the 4-byte int 100000 and throwing
away two of those bytes to obtain a short—you’ve lost the real information that was in those
two bytes.)
As another example of type casts, consider the problem of getting a random integer between
1 and 6. The function Math.random() gives a real number between 0.0 and 0.9999. . . , and so
6*Math.random() is between 0.0 and 5.999. . . . The type-cast operator, (int), can be used to
convert this to an integer: (int)(6*Math.random()). A real number is cast to an integer by
discarding the fractional part. Thus, (int)(6*Math.random()) is one of the integers 0, 1, 2, 3,
4, and 5. To get a number between 1 and 6, we can add 1: “(int)(6*Math.random()) + 1”.
You can also type-cast between the type char and the numeric types. The numeric value
of a char is its Unicode code number. For example, (char)97 is ’a’, and (int)’+’ is 43.
(However, a type conversion from char to int is automatic and does not have to be indicated
with an explicit type cast.)
Java has several variations on the assignment operator, which exist to save typing. For
example, “A += B” is defined to be the same as “A = A + B”. Every operator in Java that
applies to two operands gives rise to a similar assignment operator. For example:
x -= y; // same as: x = x - y;
x *= y; // same as: x = x * y;
x /= y; // same as: x = x / y;
x %= y; // same as: x = x % y; (for integers x and y)
q &&= p; // same as: q = q && p; (for booleans q and p)

The combined assignment operator += even works with strings. Recall that when the + operator
is used with a string as one of the operands, it represents concatenation. Since str += x is
equivalent to str = str + x, when += is used with a string on the left-hand side, it appends
the value on the right-hand side onto the string. For example, if str has the value “tire”, then
the statement str += ’d’; changes the value of str to “tired”.
50 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

2.5.7 Type Conversion of Strings

In addition to automatic type conversions and explicit type casts, there are some other cases
where you might want to convert a value of one type into a value of a different type. One
common example is the conversion of a String value into some other type, such as converting
the string "10" into the int value 10 or the string "17.42e-2" into the double value 0.1742. In
Java, these conversions are handled by built-in functions.
There is a standard class named Integer that contains several subroutines and variables
related to the int data type. (Recall that since int is not a class, int itself can’t contain
any subroutines or variables.) In particular, if str is any expression of type String, then
Integer.parseInt(str) is a function call that attempts to convert the value of str into a
value of type int. For example, the value of Integer.parseInt("10") is the int value 10. If
the parameter to Integer.parseInt does not represent a legal int value, then an error occurs.
Similarly, the standard class named Double includes a function Double.parseDouble that
tries to convert a parameter of type String into a value of type double. For example, the
value of the function call Double.parseDouble("3.14") is the double value 3.14. (Of course,
in practice, the parameter used in Double.parseDouble or Integer.parseInt would be a
variable or expression rather than a constant string.)
Type conversion functions also exist for converting strings into enumerated type values.
(Enumerated types, or enums, were introduced in Subsection 2.3.3.) For any enum type, a
predefined function named valueOf is automatically defined for that type. This is a function
that takes a string as parameter and tries to convert it to a value belonging to the enum. The
valueOf function is part of the enum type, so the name of the enum is part of the full name of
the function. For example, if an enum Suit is defined as
enum Suit { SPADE, DIAMOND, CLUB, HEART }

then the name of the type conversion function would be Suit.valueOf. The value of the
function call Suit.valueOf("CLUB") would be the enumerated type value Suit.CLUB. For the
conversion to succeed, the string must exactly match the simple name of one of the enumerated
type constants (without the “Suit.” in front).

2.5.8 Precedence Rules

If you use several operators in one expression, and if you don’t use parentheses to explicitly
indicate the order of evaluation, then you have to worry about the precedence rules that deter-
mine the order of evaluation. (Advice: don’t confuse yourself or the reader of your program;
use parentheses liberally.)
Here is a listing of the operators discussed in this section, listed in order from highest
precedence (evaluated first) to lowest precedence (evaluated last):
Unary operators: ++, --, !, unary - and +, type-cast
Multiplication and division: *, /, %
Addition and subtraction: +, -
Relational operators: <, >, <=, >=
Equality and inequality: ==, !=
Boolean and: &&
Boolean or: ||
Conditional operator: ?:
Assignment operators: =, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=
2.6. PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS 51

Operators on the same line have the same precedence. When operators of the same precedence
are strung together in the absence of parentheses, unary operators and assignment operators are
evaluated right-to-left, while the remaining operators are evaluated left-to-right. For example,
A*B/C means (A*B)/C, while A=B=C means A=(B=C). (Can you see how the expression A=B=C
might be useful, given that the value of B=C as an expression is the same as the value that is
assigned to B?)

2.6 Programming Environments

Although the Java language is highly standardized, the procedures for creating, compil-
ing, and editing Java programs vary widely from one programming environment to another.
There are two basic approaches: a command line environment , where the user types com-
mands and the computer responds, and an integrated development environment (IDE),
where the user uses the keyboard and mouse to interact with a graphical user interface. While
there is just one common command line environment for Java programming, there is a wide
variety of IDEs.
I cannot give complete or definitive information on Java programming environments in this
section, but I will try to give enough information to let you compile and run the examples from
this textbook, at least in a command line environment. There are many IDEs, and I can’t
cover them all here. I will concentrate on Eclipse, one of the most popular IDEs for Java
programming, but some of the information that is presented will apply to other IDEs as well.
One thing to keep in mind is that you do not have to pay any money to do Java programming
(aside from buying a computer, of course). Everything that you need can be downloaded for
free on the Internet.

2.6.1 Java Development Kit

The basic development system for Java programming is usually referred to as the JDK (Java
Development Kit). It is a part of J2SE, the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition. This book
requires J2SE version 5.0 (or higher). Confusingly, the JDK that is part of J2SE version 5.0
is sometimes referred to as JDK 1.5 instead of 5.0. Note that J2SE comes in two versions,
a Development Kit version and a Runtime version. The Runtime can be used to run Java
programs and to view Java applets in Web pages, but it does not allow you to compile your
own Java programs. The Development Kit includes the Runtime and adds to it the JDK which
lets you compile programs. You need a JDK for use with this textbook.
Java was developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc., which makes its JDK for Windows and Linux
available for free download at its Java Web site, java.sun.com. If you have a Windows computer,
it might have come with a Java Runtime, but you might still need to download the JDK. Some
versions of Linux come with the JDK either installed by default or on the installation media. If
you need to download and install the JDK, be sure to get JDK 5.0 (or higher). As of June, 2006,
the download page for JDK 5.0 can be found at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp.
Mac OS comes with Java. The version included with Mac OS 10.4 is 1.4.2, the version
previous to Java 5.0. However, JDK Version 5.0 is available for Mac OS 10.4 on Apple’s Web
site and can also be installed through the standard Mac OS Software Update application.
If a JDK is installed on your computer, you can use the command line environment to
compile and run Java programs. Some IDEs depend on the JDK, so even if you plan to use an
IDE for programming, you might still need a JDK.
52 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

2.6.2 Command Line Environment

Many modern computer users find the command line environment to be pretty alien and unin-
tuitive. It is certainly very different from the graphical user interfaces that most people are used
to. However, it takes only a little practice to learn the basics of the command line environment
and to become productive using it.
To use a command line programming environment, you will have to open a window where
you can type in commands. In Windows, you can open such a command window by running
the program named cmd . One way to run cmd is to use the “Run Program” feature in the
Start menu, and enter “cmd” as the name of the program. In Mac OS, you want to run the
Terminal program, which can be be found in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
In Linux, there are several possibilities, including Konsole, gterm , and xterm .
No matter what type of computer you are using, when you open a command window, it
will display a prompt of some sort. Type in a command at the prompt and press return. The
computer will carry out the command, displaying any output in the command window, and will
then redisplay the prompt so that you can type another command. One of the central concepts
in the command line environment is the current directory which contains the files to which
commands that you type apply. (The words “directory” and “folder” mean the same thing.)
Often, the name of the current directory is part of the command prompt. You can get a list of
the files in the current directory by typing in the command dir (on Windows) or ls (on Linux
and Mac OS). When the window first opens, the current directory is your home directory ,
where all your files are stored. You can change the current directory using the cd command
with the name of the directory that you want to use. For example, to change into your Desktop
directory, type in the command cd Desktop and press return.
You should create a directory (that is, a folder) to hold your Java work. For example, create a
directory named javawork in your home directory. You can do this using your computer’s GUI;
another way to do it is to open a command window and enter the command mkdir javawork.
When you want to work on programming, open a command window and enter the command
cd javawork to change into your work directory. Of course, you can have more than one
working directory for your Java work; you can organize your files any way you like.
∗ ∗ ∗
The most basic commands for using Java on the command line are javac and java ; javac
is used to compile Java source code, and java is used to run Java stand-alone applications. If a
JDK is correctly installed on your computer, it should recognize these commands when you type
them in on the command line. Try typing the commands java -version and javac -version
which should tell you which version of Java is installed. If you get a message such as “Command
not found,” then Java is not correctly installed. If the “java” command works, but “javac” does
not, it means that a Java Runtime is installed rather than a Development Kit.
To test the javac command, place a copy of TextIO.java into your working directory. (If you
downloaded the Web site of this book, you can find it in the directory named source; you can
use your computer’s GUI to copy-and-paste this file into your working directory. Alternatively,
you can navigate to TextIO.java on the book’s Web site and use the “Save As” command in
your Web browser to save a copy of the file into your working directory.) Type the command:
javac TextIO.java
This will compile TextIO.java and will create a bytecode file named TextIO.class in the same
directory. Note that if the command succeeds, you will not get any response from the computer;
it will just redisplay the command prompt to tell you it’s ready for another command.
2.6. PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS 53

To test the java command, copy sample program Interest2.java from this book’s source
directory into your working directory. First, compile the program with the command
javac Interest2.java

Remember that for this to succeed, TextIO must already be in the same directory. Then you
can execute the program using the command
java Interest2

Be careful to use just the name of the program, Interest2, not the name of the Java source
code file or the name of the compiled class file. When you give this command, the program will
run. You will be asked to enter some information, and you will respond by typing your answers
into the command window, pressing return at the end of the line. When the program ends, you
will see the command prompt, and you can enter another command.
You can follow the same procedure to run all of the examples in the early sections of this
book. When you start work with applets, you will need a different command to execute the
applets. That command will be introduced later in the book.
∗ ∗ ∗
To create your own programs, you will need a text editor . A text editor is a computer
program that allows you to create and save documents that contain plain text. It is important
that the documents be saved as plain text, that is without any special encoding or formatting
information. Word processor documents are not appropriate, unless you can get your word
processor to save as plain text. A good text editor can make programming a lot more pleasant.
Linux comes with several text editors. On Windows, you can use notepad in a pinch, but you
will probably want something better. For Mac OS, you might download the free TextWrangler
application. One possibility that will work on any platform is to use jedit, a good programmer’s
text editor that is itself written in Java and that can be downloaded for free from www.jedit.org.
To create your own programs, you should open a command line window and cd into the
working directory where you will store your source code files. Start up your text editor program,
such as by double-clicking its icon or selecting it from a Start menu. Type your code into the
editor window, or open an existing source code file that you want to modify. Save the file.
Remember that the name of a Java source code file must end in “.java”, and the rest of the
file name must match the name of the class that is defined in the file. Once the file is saved in
your working directory, go to the command window and use the javac command to compile it,
as discussed above. If there are syntax errors in the code, they will be listed in the command
window. Each error message contains the line number in the file where the computer found the
error. Go back to the editor and try to fix the errors, save your changes, and they try the
javac command again. (It’s usually a good idea to just work on the first few errors; sometimes
fixing those will make other errors go away.) Remember that when the javac command finally
succeeds, you will get no message at all. Then you can use the java command to run your
program, as described above. Once you’ve compiled the program, you can run it as many times
as you like without recompiling it.
That’s really all there is to it: Keep both editor and command-line window open. Edit,
save, and compile until you have eliminated all the syntax errors. (Always remember to save
the file before compiling it—the compiler only sees the saved file, not the version in the editor
window.) When you run the program, you might find that it has semantic errors that cause it
to run incorrectly. It that case, you have to go back to the edit/save/compile loop to try to
find and fix the problem.
54 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

2.6.3 IDEs and Eclipse

In an Integrated Development Environment, everything you need to create, compile, and run
programs is integrated into a single package, with a graphical user interface that will be familiar
to most computer users. There are many different IDEs for Java program development, ranging
from fairly simple wrappers around the JDK to highly complex applications with a multitude
of features. For a beginning programmer, there is a danger in using an IDE, since the difficulty
of learning to use the IDE, on top of the difficulty of learning to program, can be overwhelming.
Recently, however, I have begun using one IDE, Eclipse, in my introductory programming
courses. Eclipse has a variety of features that are very useful for a beginning programmer.
And even though it has many advanced features, its design makes it possible to use Eclipse
without understanding its full complexity. It is likely that other modern IDEs have similar
properties, but my only in-depth experience is with Eclipse. Eclipse is used by many professional
programmers and is probably the most commonly used Java IDE. (In fact, Eclipse is actually
a general development platform that can be used for other purposes besides Java development,
but its most common use is Java.)
Eclipse is itself written in Java. It requires Java 1.4 (or higher) to run, so it works on any
computer platform that supports Java 1.4, including Linux, Windows, and recent versions of
Mac OS. If you want to use Eclipse to compile and run Java 5.0 programs, you need Eclipse
version 3.1 (or higher). Furthermore, Eclipse requires a JDK. You should make sure that
JDK 5.0 (or higher) is installed on your computer, as described above, before you install
Eclipse. Eclipse can be downloaded for free from www.eclipse.org.
The first time you start Eclipse, you will be asked to specify a workspace, which is the
directory where all your work will be stored. You can accept the default name, or provide one
of your own. When startup is complete, the Eclipse window will be filled by a large “Welcome”
screen that includes links to extensive documentation and tutorials. You can close this screen,
by clicking the “X” next to the word “Welcome”; you can get back to it later by choosing
“Welcome” from the “Help” menu.
The Eclipse GUI consists of one large window that is divided into several sections. Each
section contains one or more views. If there are several views in one section, there there will
be tabs at the top of the section to select the view that is displayed in that section. Each view
displays a different type of information. The whole set of views is called a perspective. Eclipse
uses different perspectives, that is different sets of views of different types of information, for
different tasks. The only perspective that you will need is the “Java Perspective.” Select the
“Java Perspective” from the “Open Perspective” submenu of the “Window” menu. (You will
only have to do this once, the first time you start Eclipse.) The Java perspective includes a
large area in the center of the window where you will create and edit your Java programs. To
the left of this is the Package Explorer view, which will contain a list of your Java projects and
source code files. To the right is an “Outline” view which shows an outline of the file that you
are currently editing; I don’t find this very useful, and I suggest that you close the Outline view
by clicking the “X” next to the word Outline. Several other views that will be useful while you
are compiling and running programs appear in a section of the window below the editing area.
If you accidently close one of the important views, such as the Package Explorer, you can get
it back by selecting it form the “Show View” submenu of the “Window” menu.
∗ ∗ ∗
To do any work in Eclipse, you need a project. To start a Java project, go to the “New”
submenu in the “File” menu, and select the “Project” command. In the window that pops
2.6. PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS 55

up, make sure “Java Project” is selected, and click the “Next” button. In the next window,
it should only be necessary to fill in a “Project Name” for the project and click the “Finish”
button. The project should appear in the “Package Explorer” view. Click on the small triangle
next to the project name to see the contents of the project. At the beginning, it contains only
the “JRE System Library”; this is the collection of standard built-in classes that come with
Java.
To run the TextIO based examples from this textbook, you must add the source code file
TextIO.java to your project. If you have downloaded the Web site of this book, you can find a
copy of TextIO.java in the source directory. Alternatively, you can navigate to the file on-line
and use the “Save As” command of your Web browser to save a copy of the file onto your
computer. The easiest way to get TextIO into your project is to locate the source code file on
your computer and drag the file icon onto the project name in the Eclipse window. If that
doesn’t work, you can try using copy-and-paste: Right-click the file icon (or control-click on
Mac OS), select “Copy” from the pop-up menu, right-click the project name in the Eclipse
window, and select “Paste”. If you also have trouble with that, you can try using the “Import”
command in the “File” menu; select “File system” in the window that pops up, click “Next”,
and provide the necessary information in the next window. (Unfortunately, using the file import
window is rather complicated. If you find that you have to use it, you should consult the Eclipse
documentation about it.) In any case, TextIO should appear in your project, inside a package
named “default package”. You will need to click the small triangle next to “default package”
to see the file. Once a file is in this list, you can open it by double-clicking it; it will appear in
the editing area of the Eclipse window.
To run any of the Java programs from this textbook, copy the source code file into your
Eclipse Java project. To run the program, right-click the file name in the Package Explorer
view (or control-click in Mac OS). In the menu that pops up, go to the “Run As” submenu, and
select “Java Application”. The program will be executed. If the program writes to standard
output, the output will appear in the “Console” view, under the editing area. If the program
uses TextIO for input, you will have to type the required input into the “Console” view—click
the “Console” view before you start typing, so that the characters that you type will be sent to
the correct part of the window. (Note that if you don’t like doing I/O in the “Console” view,
you can use an alternative version of TextIO.java that opens a separate window for I/O. You
can find this “GUI” version of TextIO in a directory named TextIO-GUI inside this textbook’s
source directory.)
You can have more than one program in the same Eclipse project, or you can create addi-
tional projects to organize your work better. Remember to place a copy of TextIO.java in any
project that requires it.
∗ ∗ ∗
To create your own Java program, you must create a new Java class. To do this, right-click
the Java project name in the “Project Explorer” view. Go to the “New” submenu of the popup
menu, and select “Class”. In the window that opens, type in the name of the class, and click
the “Finish” button. Note that you want the name of the class, not the name of the source code
file, so don’t add “.java” at the end of the name. The class should appear inside the “default
package,” and it should automatically open in the editing area so that you can start typing in
your program.
Eclipse has several features that aid you as you type your code. It will underline any syntax
error with a jagged red line, and in some cases will place an error marker in the left border
of the edit window. If you hover the mouse cursor over the error marker, a description of the
56 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

error will appear. Note that you do not have to get rid of every error immediately as you type;
some errors will go away as you type in more of the program. If an error marker displays a
small “light bulb,” Eclipse is offering to try to fix the error for you. Click the light bulb to get
a list of possible fixes, then double click the fix that you want to apply. For example, if you
use an undeclared variable in your program, Eclipse will offer to declare it for you. You can
actually use this error-correcting feature to get Eclipse to write certain types of code for you!
Unfortunately, you’ll find that you won’t understand a lot of the proposed fixes until you learn
more about the Java language.
Another nice Eclipse feature is code assist. Code assist can be invoked by typing Control-
Space. It will offer possible completions of whatever you are typing at the moment. For example,
if you type part of an identifier and hit Control-Space, you will get a list of identifiers that start
with the characters that you have typed; use the up and down arrow keys to select one of the
items in the list, and press Return or Enter. (Or hit Escape to dismiss the list.) If there is
only one possible completion when you hit Control-Space, it will be inserted automatically. By
default, Code Assist will also pop up automatically, after a short delay, when you type a period
or certain other characters. For example, if you type “TextIO.” and pause for just a fraction
of a second, you will get a list of all the subroutines in the TextIO class. Personally, I find this
auto-activation annoying. You can disable it in the Eclipse Preferences. (Look under Java /
Editor / Code Assist, and turn off the “Enable auto activation” option.) You can still call up
Code Assist manually with Control-Space.
Once you have an error-free program, you can run it as described above, by right-clicking its
name in the Package Explorer and using “Run As / Java Application”. If you find a problem
when you run it, it’s very easy to go back to the editor, make changes, and run it again. Note
that using Eclipse, there is no explicit “compile” command. The source code files in your
project are automatically compiled, and are re-compiled whenever you modify them.
Although I have only talked about Eclipse here, if you are using a different IDE, you will
probably find a lot of similarities. Most IDEs use the concept of a “project” to which you have
to add your source code files, and most of them have menu commands for running a program.
All of them, of course, come with built-in text editors.

2.6.4 The Problem of Packages

Every class in Java is contained in something called a package. Classes that are not explicitly
put into a different package are in the “default” package. Almost all the examples in this
textbook are in the default package, and I will not even discuss packages in any depth until
Section 4.5. However, some IDEs might force you to pay attention to packages.
When you create a class in Eclipse, you might notice a message that says that “The use
of the default package is discouraged.” Although this is true, I have chosen to use it anyway,
since it seems easier for beginning programmers to avoid the whole issue of packages, at least
at first. Some IDEs might be even less willing than Eclipse to use the default package. If you
create a class in a package, the source code starts with a line that specifies which package the
class is in. For example, if the class is in a package named testpkg, then the first line of the
source code will be
package testpkg;

In an IDE, this will not cause any problem unless the program you are writing depends on
TextIO. You will not be able to use TextIO in a program unless TextIO is placed into the same
package as the program. This means that you have to modify the source code file TextIO.java
2.6. PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS 57

to specify the package; just add a package statement using the same package name as the
program. Then add the modified TextIO.java to the same folder that contains the program
source code. Once you’ve done this, the example should run in the same way as if it were in
the default package.
By the way, if you use packages in a command-line environment, other complications arise.
For example, if a class is in a package named testpkg, then the source code file must be in
a subdirectory named testpkg that is inside your main Java working directory. Nevertheless,
when you compile or execute the program, you should be in the main directory, not in the
subdirectory. When you compile the source code file, you have to include the name of the
directory in the command: Use “javac testpkg/ClassName.java” on Linux or Mac OS, or
“javac testpkg\ClassName.java” on Windows. The command for executing the program is
then “java testpkg.ClassName”, with a period separating the package name from the class
name. Since packages can contain subpackages, it can get even worse than this! However, you
will not need to worry about any of that when using the examples in this book.
58 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

Exercises for Chapter 2

1. Write a program that will print your initials to standard output in letters that are nine
lines tall. Each big letter should be made up of a bunch of *’s. For example, if your initials
were “DJE”, then the output would look something like:
****** ************* **********
** ** ** **
** ** ** **
** ** ** **
** ** ** ********
** ** ** ** **
** ** ** ** **
** ** ** ** **
***** **** **********

2. Write a program that simulates rolling a pair of dice. You can simulate rolling one die by
choosing one of the integers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 at random. The number you pick represents
the number on the die after it is rolled. As pointed out in Section 2.5, The expression
(int)(Math.random()*6) + 1

does the computation you need to select a random integer between 1 and 6. You can
assign this value to a variable to represent one of the dice that are being rolled. Do this
twice and add the results together to get the total roll. Your program should report the
number showing on each die as well as the total roll. For example:
The first die comes up 3
The second die comes up 5
Your total roll is 8

3. Write a program that asks the user’s name, and then greets the user by name. Before
outputting the user’s name, convert it to upper case letters. For example, if the user’s
name is Fred, then the program should respond “Hello, FRED, nice to meet you!”.

4. Write a program that helps the user count his change. The program should ask how many
quarters the user has, then how many dimes, then how many nickels, then how many
pennies. Then the program should tell the user how much money he has, expressed in
dollars.

5. If you have N eggs, then you have N/12 dozen eggs, with N%12 eggs left over. (This is
essentially the definition of the / and % operators for integers.) Write a program that asks
the user how many eggs she has and then tells the user how many dozen eggs she has and
how many extra eggs are left over.
A gross of eggs is equal to 144 eggs. Extend your program so that it will tell the user
how many gross, how many dozen, and how many left over eggs she has. For example, if
the user says that she has 1342 eggs, then your program would respond with
Your number of eggs is 9 gross, 3 dozen, and 10
Exercises 59

since 1342 is equal to 9*144 + 3*12 + 10.

6. Suppose that a file named “testdata.txt” contains the following information: The first
line of the file is the name of a student. Each of the next three lines contains an integer.
The integers are the student’s scores on three exams. Write a program that will read
the information in the file and display (on standard output) a message the contains the
name of the student and the student’s average grade on the three exams. The average is
obtained by adding up the individual exam grades and then dividing by the number of
exams.
60 CHAPTER 2. NAMES AND THINGS

Quiz on Chapter 2

1. Briefly explain what is meant by the syntax and the semantics of a programming language.
Give an example to illustrate the difference between a syntax error and a semantics error.

2. What does the computer do when it executes a variable declaration statement. Give an
example.

3. What is a type, as this term relates to programming?

4. One of the primitive types in Java is boolean. What is the boolean type? Where are
boolean values used? What are its possible values?

5. Give the meaning of each of the following Java operators:

a) ++
b) &&
c) !=

6. Explain what is meant by an assignment statement, and give an example. What are
assignment statements used for?

7. What is meant by precedence of operators?

8. What is a literal?

9. In Java, classes have two fundamentally different purposes. What are they?

10. What is the difference between the statement “x = TextIO.getDouble();” and the state-
ment “x = TextIO.getlnDouble();”

11. Explain why the value of the expression 2 + 3 + "test" is the string "5test" while the
value of the expression "test" + 2 + 3 is the string "test23". What is the value of
"test" + 2 * 3 ?

12. Integrated Development Environments such as Eclipse often use syntax coloring , which
assigns various colors to the characters in a program to reflect the syntax of the language.
A student notices that Eclipse colors the word String differently from int, double, and
boolean. The student asks why String should be a different color, since all these words
are names of types. What’s the answer to the student’s question?
Chapter 3

Programming in the Small II:

Control

The basic building blocks of programs—variables, expressions, assignment statements, and

subroutine call statements—were covered in the previous chapter. Starting with this chapter,
we look at how these building blocks can be put together to build complex programs with more
interesting behavior.
Since we are still working on the level of “programming in the small” in this chapter, we are
interested in the kind of complexity that can occur within a single subroutine. On this level,
complexity is provided by control structures. The two types of control structures, loops and
branches, can be used to repeat a sequence of statements over and over or to choose among two
or more possible courses of action. Java includes several control structures of each type, and
we will look at each of them in some detail.
This chapter will also begin the study of program design. Given a problem, how can you
come up with a program to solve that problem? We’ll look at a partial answer to this question
in Section 3.2.

3.1 Blocks, Loops, and Branches

The ability of a computer to perform complex tasks is built on just a few ways of
combining simple commands into control structures. In Java, there are just six such structures
that are used to determine the normal flow of control in a program—and, in fact, just three
of them would be enough to write programs to perform any task. The six control structures
are: the block , the while loop, the do..while loop, the for loop, the if statement, and the
switch statement. Each of these structures is considered to be a single “statement,” but each
is in fact a structured statement that can contain one or more other statements inside itself.

3.1.1 Blocks
The block is the simplest type of structured statement. Its purpose is simply to group a
sequence of statements into a single statement. The format of a block is:
{
hstatements i
}

61
62 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

That is, it consists of a sequence of statements enclosed between a pair of braces, “{” and “}”.
(In fact, it is possible for a block to contain no statements at all; such a block is called an
empty block , and can actually be useful at times. An empty block consists of nothing but
an empty pair of braces.) Block statements usually occur inside other statements, where their
purpose is to group together several statements into a unit. However, a block can be legally
used wherever a statement can occur. There is one place where a block is required: As you
might have already noticed in the case of the main subroutine of a program, the definition of a
subroutine is a block, since it is a sequence of statements enclosed inside a pair of braces.
I should probably note again at this point that Java is what is called a free-format language.
There are no syntax rules about how the language has to be arranged on a page. So, for example,
you could write an entire block on one line if you want. But as a matter of good programming
style, you should lay out your program on the page in a way that will make its structure as
clear as possible. In general, this means putting one statement per line and using indentation
to indicate statements that are contained inside control structures. This is the format that I
will generally use in my examples.
Here are two examples of blocks:
{
System.out.print("The answer is ");
System.out.println(ans);
}

{ // This block exchanges the values of x and y

int temp; // A temporary variable for use in this block.
temp = x; // Save a copy of the value of x in temp.
x = y; // Copy the value of y into x.
y = temp; // Copy the value of temp into y.
}

In the second example, a variable, temp, is declared inside the block. This is perfectly legal,
and it is good style to declare a variable inside a block if that variable is used nowhere else
but inside the block. A variable declared inside a block is completely inaccessible and invisible
from outside that block. When the computer executes the variable declaration statement, it
allocates memory to hold the value of the variable. When the block ends, that memory is
discarded (that is, made available for reuse). The variable is said to be local to the block.
There is a general concept called the “scope” of an identifier. The scope of an identifier is the
part of the program in which that identifier is valid. The scope of a variable defined inside a
block is limited to that block, and more specifically to the part of the block that comes after
the declaration of the variable.

3.1.2 The Basic While Loop

The block statement by itself really doesn’t affect the flow of control in a program. The five
remaining control structures do. They can be divided into two classes: loop statements and
branching statements. You really just need one control structure from each category in order to
have a completely general-purpose programming language. More than that is just convenience.
In this section, I’ll introduce the while loop and the if statement. I’ll give the full details of
these statements and of the other three control structures in later sections.
A while loop is used to repeat a given statement over and over. Of course, it’s not likely
that you would want to keep repeating it forever. That would be an infinite loop, which is
3.1. BLOCKS, LOOPS, AND BRANCHES 63

generally a bad thing. (There is an old story about computer pioneer Grace Murray Hopper,
who read instructions on a bottle of shampoo telling her to “lather, rinse, repeat.” As the story
goes, she claims that she tried to follow the directions, but she ran out of shampoo. (In case
you don’t get it, this is a joke about the way that computers mindlessly follow instructions.))
To be more specific, a while loop will repeat a statement over and over, but only so long
as a specified condition remains true. A while loop has the form:
while (hboolean-expression i)
hstatement i

Since the statement can be, and usually is, a block, many while loops have the form:
while (hboolean-expression i) {
hstatements i
}

The semantics of this statement go like this: When the computer comes to a while state-
ment, it evaluates the hboolean-expressioni, which yields either true or false as the value. If
the value is false, the computer skips over the rest of the while loop and proceeds to the next
command in the program. If the value of the expression is true, the computer executes the
hstatementi or block of hstatementsi inside the loop. Then it returns to the beginning of the
while loop and repeats the process. That is, it re-evaluates the hboolean-expressioni, ends the
loop if the value is false, and continues it if the value is true. This will continue over and over
until the value of the expression is false; if that never happens, then there will be an infinite
loop.
Here is an example of a while loop that simply prints out the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5:
int number; // The number to be printed.
number = 1; // Start with 1.
while ( number < 6 ) { // Keep going as long as number is < 6.
System.out.println(number);
number = number + 1; // Go on to the next number.
}
System.out.println("Done!");

The variable number is initialized with the value 1. So the first time through the while loop,
when the computer evaluates the expression “number < 6”, it is asking whether 1 is less than 6,
which is true. The computer therefor proceeds to execute the two statements inside the loop.
The first statement prints out “1”. The second statement adds 1 to number and stores the
result back into the variable number; the value of number has been changed to 2. The computer
has reached the end of the loop, so it returns to the beginning and asks again whether number is
less than 6. Once again this is true, so the computer executes the loop again, this time printing
out 2 as the value of number and then changing the value of number to 3. It continues in this
way until eventually number becomes equal to 6. At that point, the expression “number < 6”
evaluates to false. So, the computer jumps past the end of the loop to the next statement
and prints out the message “Done!”. Note that when the loop ends, the value of number is 6,
but the last value that was printed was 5.
By the way, you should remember that you’ll never see a while loop standing by itself
in a real program. It will always be inside a subroutine which is itself defined inside some
class. As an example of a while loop used inside a complete program, here is a little program
that computes the interest on an investment over several years. This is an improvement over
examples from the previous chapter that just reported the results for one year:
64 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

public class Interest3 {

/*
This class implements a simple program that
will compute the amount of interest that is
earned on an investment over a period of
5 years. The initial amount of the investment
and the interest rate are input by the user.
The value of the investment at the end of each
year is output.
*/

public static void main(String[] args) {

double principal; // The value of the investment.

double rate; // The annual interest rate.

/* Get the initial investment and interest rate from the user. */

TextIO.put("Enter the initial investment: ");

principal = TextIO.getlnDouble();

TextIO.put("Enter the annual interest rate: ");

rate = TextIO.getlnDouble();

/* Simulate the investment for 5 years. */

int years; // Counts the number of years that have passed.

years = 0;
while (years < 5) {
double interest; // Interest for this year.
interest = principal * rate;
principal = principal + interest; // Add it to principal.
years = years + 1; // Count the current year.
System.out.print("The value of the investment after ");
System.out.print(years);
System.out.print(" years is $");
System.out.printf("%1.2f", principal);
System.out.println();
} // end of while loop

} // end of main()

} // end of class Interest3

You should study this program, and make sure that you understand what the computer does
step-by-step as it executes the while loop.

3.1.3 The Basic If Statement

An if statement tells the computer to take one of two alternative courses of action, depending
on whether the value of a given boolean-valued expression is true or false. It is an example of
a “branching” or “decision” statement. An if statement has the form:
3.1. BLOCKS, LOOPS, AND BRANCHES 65

if ( hboolean-expression i )
hstatement i
else
hstatement i
When the computer executes an if statement, it evaluates the boolean expression. If the value
is true, the computer executes the first statement and skips the statement that follows the
“else”. If the value of the expression is false, then the computer skips the first statement and
executes the second one. Note that in any case, one and only one of the two statements inside
the if statement is executed. The two statements represent alternative courses of action; the
computer decides between these courses of action based on the value of the boolean expression.
In many cases, you want the computer to choose between doing something and not doing
it. You can do this with an if statement that omits the else part:
if ( hboolean-expression i )
hstatement i
To execute this statement, the computer evaluates the expression. If the value is true, the
computer executes the hstatementi that is contained inside the if statement; if the value is
false, the computer skips that hstatementi.
Of course, either or both of the hstatementi’s in an if statement can be a block, so that an
if statement often looks like:
if ( hboolean-expression i ) {
hstatements i
}
else {
hstatements i
}
or:
if ( hboolean-expression i ) {
hstatements i
}
As an example, here is an if statement that exchanges the value of two variables, x and y,
but only if x is greater than y to begin with. After this if statement has been executed, we
can be sure that the value of x is definitely less than or equal to the value of y:
if ( x > y ) {
int temp; // A temporary variable for use in this block.
temp = x; // Save a copy of the value of x in temp.
x = y; // Copy the value of y into x.
y = temp; // Copy the value of temp into y.
}
Finally, here is an example of an if statement that includes an else part. See if you can
figure out what it does, and why it would be used:
if ( years > 1 ) { // handle case for 2 or more years
System.out.print("The value of the investment after ");
System.out.print(years);
System.out.print(" years is $");
}
else { // handle case for 1 year
66 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

System.out.print("The value of the investment after 1 year is $");

} // end of if statement
System.out.printf("%1.2f", principal); // this is done in any case

I’ll have more to say about control structures later in this chapter. But you already know
the essentials. If you never learned anything more about control structures, you would already
know enough to perform any possible computing task. Simple looping and branching are all
you really need!

3.2 Algorithm Development

Programming is difficult (like many activities that are useful and worthwhile—and like
most of those activities, it can also be rewarding and a lot of fun). When you write a program,
you have to tell the computer every small detail of what to do. And you have to get everything
exactly right, since the computer will blindly follow your program exactly as written. How,
then, do people write any but the most simple programs? It’s not a big mystery, actually. It’s
a matter of learning to think in the right way.
A program is an expression of an idea. A programmer starts with a general idea of a task
for the computer to perform. Presumably, the programmer has some idea of how to perform
the task by hand, at least in general outline. The problem is to flesh out that outline into a
complete, unambiguous, step-by-step procedure for carrying out the task. Such a procedure is
called an “algorithm.” (Technically, an algorithm is an unambiguous, step-by-step procedure
that terminates after a finite number of steps; we don’t want to count procedures that go on
forever.) An algorithm is not the same as a program. A program is written in some particular
programming language. An algorithm is more like the idea behind the program, but it’s the
idea of the steps the program will take to perform its task, not just the idea of the task itself.
The steps of the algorithm don’t have to be filled in in complete detail, as long as the steps are
unambiguous and it’s clear that carrying out the steps will accomplish the assigned task. An
algorithm can be expressed in any language, including English. Of course, an algorithm can
only be expressed as a program if all the details have been filled in.
So, where do algorithms come from? Usually, they have to be developed, often with a lot of
thought and hard work. Skill at algorithm development is something that comes with practice,
but there are techniques and guidelines that can help. I’ll talk here about some techniques and
guidelines that are relevant to “programming in the small,” and I will return to the subject
several times in later chapters.

3.2.1 Pseudocode and Stepwise Refinement

When programming in the small, you have a few basics to work with: variables, assignment
statements, and input/output routines. You might also have some subroutines, objects, or
other building blocks that have already been written by you or someone else. (Input/output
routines fall into this class.) You can build sequences of these basic instructions, and you can
also combine them into more complex control structures such as while loops and if statements.
Suppose you have a task in mind that you want the computer to perform. One way to
proceed is to write a description of the task, and take that description as an outline of the
algorithm you want to develop. Then you can refine and elaborate that description, gradually
adding steps and detail, until you have a complete algorithm that can be translated directly
into programming language. This method is called stepwise refinement, and it is a type of
3.2. ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT 67

top-down design. As you proceed through the stages of stepwise refinement, you can write out
descriptions of your algorithm in pseudocode—informal instructions that imitate the structure
of programming languages without the complete detail and perfect syntax of actual program
code.
As an example, let’s see how one might develop the program from the previous section, which
computes the value of an investment over five years. The task that you want the program to
perform is: “Compute and display the value of an investment for each of the next five years,
where the initial investment and interest rate are to be specified by the user.” You might then
write—or at least think—that this can be expanded as:
Get the user’s input
Compute the value of the investment after 1 year
Display the value
Compute the value after 2 years
Display the value
Compute the value after 3 years
Display the value
Compute the value after 4 years
Display the value
Compute the value after 5 years
Display the value
This is correct, but rather repetitive. And seeing that repetition, you might notice an
opportunity to use a loop. A loop would take less typing. More important, it would be more
general: Essentially the same loop will work no matter how many years you want to process.
So, you might rewrite the above sequence of steps as:
Get the user’s input
while there are more years to process:
Compute the value after the next year
Display the value
Following this algorithm would certainly solve the problem, but for a computer, we’ll have
to be more explicit about how to “Get the user’s input,” how to “Compute the value after the
next year,” and what it means to say “there are more years to process.” We can expand the
step, “Get the user’s input” into
Ask the user for the initial investment
Read the user’s response
Ask the user for the interest rate
Read the user’s response
To fill in the details of the step “Compute the value after the next year,” you have to
know how to do the computation yourself. (Maybe you need to ask your boss or professor for
clarification?) Let’s say you know that the value is computed by adding some interest to the
previous value. Then we can refine the while loop to:
while there are more years to process:
Compute the interest
Add the interest to the value
Display the value
As for testing whether there are more years to process, the only way that we can do that is
by counting the years ourselves. This displays a very common pattern, and you should expect
to use something similar in a lot of programs: We have to start with zero years, add one each
68 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

time we process a year, and stop when we reach the desired number of years. So the while
loop becomes:
years = 0
while years < 5:
years = years + 1
Compute the interest
Add the interest to the value
Display the value

We still have to know how to compute the interest. Let’s say that the interest is to be
computed by multiplying the interest rate by the current value of the investment. Putting
this together with the part of the algorithm that gets the user’s inputs, we have the complete
algorithm:
Ask the user for the initial investment
Read the user’s response
Ask the user for the interest rate
Read the user’s response
years = 0
while years < 5:
years = years + 1
Compute interest = value * interest rate
Add the interest to the value
Display the value

Finally, we are at the point where we can translate pretty directly into proper programming-
language syntax. We still have to choose names for the variables, decide exactly what we want
to say to the user, and so forth. Having done this, we could express our algorithm in Java as:
double principal, rate, interest; // declare the variables
int years;
System.out.print("Type initial investment: ");
principal = TextIO.getlnDouble();
System.out.print("Type interest rate: ");
rate = TextIO.getlnDouble();
years = 0;
while (years < 5) {
years = years + 1;
interest = principal * rate;
principal = principal + interest;
System.out.println(principal);
}

This still needs to be wrapped inside a complete program, it still needs to be commented,
and it really needs to print out more information in a nicer format for the user. But it’s
essentially the same program as the one in the previous section. (Note that the pseudocode
algorithm uses indentation to show which statements are inside the loop. In Java, indentation
is completely ignored by the computer, so you need a pair of braces to tell the computer which
statements are in the loop. If you leave out the braces, the only statement inside the loop would
be “years = years + 1;". The other statements would only be executed once, after the loop
ends. The nasty thing is that the computer won’t notice this error for you, like it would if you
left out the parentheses around “(years < 5)”. The parentheses are required by the syntax of
3.2. ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT 69

the while statement. The braces are only required semantically. The computer can recognize
syntax errors but not semantic errors.)
One thing you should have noticed here is that my original specification of the problem—
“Compute and display the value of an investment for each of the next five years”—was far from
being complete. Before you start writing a program, you should make sure you have a complete
specification of exactly what the program is supposed to do. In particular, you need to know
what information the program is going to input and output and what computation it is going
to perform. Here is what a reasonably complete specification of the problem might look like in
this example:
“Write a program that will compute and display the value of
an investment for each of the next five years. Each year, interest
is added to the value. The interest is computed by multiplying
the current value by a fixed interest rate. Assume that the initial
value and the rate of interest are to be input by the user when the
program is run.”

3.2.2 The 3N+1 Problem

Let’s do another example, working this time with a program that you haven’t already seen. The
assignment here is an abstract mathematical problem that is one of my favorite programming
exercises. This time, we’ll start with a more complete specification of the task to be performed:
“Given a positive integer, N, define the ’3N+1’ sequence start-
ing from N as follows: If N is an even number, then divide N by
two; but if N is odd, then multiply N by 3 and add 1. Continue
to generate numbers in this way until N becomes equal to 1. For
example, starting from N = 3, which is odd, we multiply by 3 and
add 1, giving N = 3*3+1 = 10. Then, since N is even, we divide
by 2, giving N = 10/2 = 5. We continue in this way, stopping
when we reach 1, giving the complete sequence: 3, 10, 5, 16, 8, 4,
2, 1.
“Write a program that will read a positive integer from the
user and will print out the 3N+1 sequence starting from that
integer. The program should also count and print out the number
of terms in the sequence.”
A general outline of the algorithm for the program we want is:
Get a positive integer N from the user;
Compute, print, and count each number in the sequence;
Output the number of terms;
The bulk of the program is in the second step. We’ll need a loop, since we want to keep
computing numbers until we get 1. To put this in terms appropriate for a while loop, we want
to continue as long as the number is not 1. So, we can expand our pseudocode algorithm to:
Get a positive integer N from the user;
while N is not 1:
Compute N = next term;
Output N;
Count this term;
Output the number of terms;
70 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

In order to compute the next term, the computer must take different actions depending on
whether N is even or odd. We need an if statement to decide between the two cases:
Get a positive integer N from the user;
while N is not 1:
if N is even:
Compute N = N/2;
else
Compute N = 3 * N + 1;
Output N;
Count this term;
Output the number of terms;
We are almost there. The one problem that remains is counting. Counting means that you
start with zero, and every time you have something to count, you add one. We need a variable
to do the counting. (Again, this is a common pattern that you should expect to see over and
over.) With the counter added, we get:
Get a positive integer N from the user;
Let counter = 0;
while N is not 1:
if N is even:
Compute N = N/2;
else
Compute N = 3 * N + 1;
Output N;
Add 1 to counter;
Output the counter;
We still have to worry about the very first step. How can we get a positive integer from the
user? If we just read in a number, it’s possible that the user might type in a negative number
or zero. If you follow what happens when the value of N is negative or zero, you’ll see that the
program will go on forever, since the value of N will never become equal to 1. This is bad. In
this case, the problem is probably no big deal, but in general you should try to write programs
that are foolproof. One way to fix this is to keep reading in numbers until the user types in a
positive number:
Ask user to input a positive number;
Let N be the user’s response;
while N is not positive:
Print an error message;
Read another value for N;
Let counter = 0;
while N is not 1:
if N is even:
Compute N = N/2;
else
Compute N = 3 * N + 1;
Output N;
Add 1 to counter;
Output the counter;
The first while loop will end only when N is a positive number, as required. (A common
beginning programmer’s error is to use an if statement instead of a while statement here:
“If N is not positive, ask the user to input another value.” The problem arises if the second
3.2. ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT 71

number input by the user is also non-positive. The if statement is only executed once, so the
second input number is never tested. With the while loop, after the second number is input,
the computer jumps back to the beginning of the loop and tests whether the second number
is positive. If not, it asks the user for a third number, and it will continue asking for numbers
until the user enters an acceptable input.)
Here is a Java program implementing this algorithm. It uses the operators <= to mean “is
less than or equal to” and != to mean “is not equal to.” To test whether N is even, it uses
“N % 2 == 0”. All the operators used here were discussed in Section 2.5.
/**
* This program prints out a 3N+1 sequence starting from a positive
* integer specified by the user. It also counts the number of
* terms in the sequence, and prints out that number.
*/
public class ThreeN1 {

public static void main(String[] args) {

int N; // for computing terms in the sequence

int counter; // for counting the terms

TextIO.put("Starting point for sequence: ");

N = TextIO.getlnInt();
while (N <= 0) {
TextIO.put("The starting point must be positive. Please try again: ");
N = TextIO.getlnInt();
}
// At this point, we know that N > 0

counter = 0;
while (N != 1) {
if (N % 2 == 0)
N = N / 2;
else
N = 3 * N + 1;
TextIO.putln(N);
counter = counter + 1;
}

TextIO.putln();
TextIO.put("There were ");
TextIO.put(counter);
TextIO.putln(" terms in the sequence.");

} // end of main()

} // end of class ThreeN1

Two final notes on this program: First, you might have noticed that the first term of the
sequence—the value of N input by the user—is not printed or counted by this program. Is
this an error? It’s hard to say. Was the specification of the program careful enough to decide?
This is the type of thing that might send you back to the boss/professor for clarification. The
problem (if it is one!) can be fixed easily enough. Just replace the line “counter = 0” before
the while loop with the two lines:
72 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

TextIO.putln(N); // print out initial term

counter = 1; // and count it

Second, there is the question of why this problem is at all interesting. Well, it’s interesting
to mathematicians and computer scientists because of a simple question about the problem that
they haven’t been able to answer: Will the process of computing the 3N+1 sequence finish after
a finite number of steps for all possible starting values of N? Although individual sequences are
easy to compute, no one has been able to answer the general question. To put this another
way, no one knows whether the process of computing 3N+1 sequences can properly be called
an algorithm, since an algorithm is required to terminate after a finite number of steps! (This
discussion assumes that the value of N can take on arbitrarily large integer values, which is not
true for a variable of type int in a Java program.)

3.2.3 Coding, Testing, Debugging

It would be nice if, having developed an algorithm for your program, you could relax, press a
button, and get a perfectly working program. Unfortunately, the process of turning an algorithm
into Java source code doesn’t always go smoothly. And when you do get to the stage of a working
program, it’s often only working in the sense that it does something. Unfortunately not what
you want it to do.
After program design comes coding: translating the design into a program written in Java
or some other language. Usually, no matter how careful you are, a few syntax errors will creep
in from somewhere, and the Java compiler will reject your program with some kind of error
message. Unfortunately, while a compiler will always detect syntax errors, it’s not very good
about telling you exactly what’s wrong. Sometimes, it’s not even good about telling you where
the real error is. A spelling error or missing “{” on line 45 might cause the compiler to choke
on line 105. You can avoid lots of errors by making sure that you really understand the syntax
rules of the language and by following some basic programming guidelines. For example, I
never type a “{” without typing the matching “}”. Then I go back and fill in the statements
between the braces. A missing or extra brace can be one of the hardest errors to find in a large
program. Always, always indent your program nicely. If you change the program, change the
indentation to match. It’s worth the trouble. Use a consistent naming scheme, so you don’t
have to struggle to remember whether you called that variable interestrate or interestRate.
In general, when the compiler gives multiple error messages, don’t try to fix the second error
message from the compiler until you’ve fixed the first one. Once the compiler hits an error in
your program, it can get confused, and the rest of the error messages might just be guesses.
Maybe the best advice is: Take the time to understand the error before you try to fix it.
Programming is not an experimental science.
When your program compiles without error, you are still not done. You have to test the
program to make sure it works correctly. Remember that the goal is not to get the right output
for the two sample inputs that the professor gave in class. The goal is a program that will
work correctly for all reasonable inputs. Ideally, when faced with an unreasonable input, it
will respond by gently chiding the user rather than by crashing. Test your program on a wide
variety of inputs. Try to find a set of inputs that will test the full range of functionality that
you’ve coded into your program. As you begin writing larger programs, write them in stages
and test each stage along the way. You might even have to write some extra code to do the
testing—for example to call a subroutine that you’ve just written. You don’t want to be faced,
if you can avoid it, with 500 newly written lines of code that have an error in there somewhere.
3.3. WHILE AND DO..WHILE 73

The point of testing is to find bugs—semantic errors that show up as incorrect behavior
rather than as compilation errors. And the sad fact is that you will probably find them. Again,
you can minimize bugs by careful design and careful coding, but no one has found a way to
avoid them altogether. Once you’ve detected a bug, it’s time for debugging . You have to
track down the cause of the bug in the program’s source code and eliminate it. Debugging is a
skill that, like other aspects of programming, requires practice to master. So don’t be afraid of
bugs. Learn from them. One essential debugging skill is the ability to read source code—the
ability to put aside preconceptions about what you think it does and to follow it the way the
computer does—mechanically, step-by-step—to see what it really does. This is hard. I can still
remember the time I spent hours looking for a bug only to find that a line of code that I had
looked at ten times had a “1” where it should have had an “i”, or the time when I wrote a
subroutine named WindowClosing which would have done exactly what I wanted except that
the computer was looking for windowClosing (with a lower case “w”). Sometimes it can help
to have someone who doesn’t share your preconceptions look at your code.
Often, it’s a problem just to find the part of the program that contains the error. Most
programming environments come with a debugger , which is a program that can help you find
bugs. Typically, your program can be run under the control of the debugger. The debugger
allows you to set “breakpoints” in your program. A breakpoint is a point in the program where
the debugger will pause the program so you can look at the values of the program’s variables.
The idea is to track down exactly when things start to go wrong during the program’s execution.
The debugger will also let you execute your program one line at a time, so that you can watch
what happens in detail once you know the general area in the program where the bug is lurking.
I will confess that I only rarely use debuggers myself. A more traditional approach to
debugging is to insert debugging statements into your program. These are output statements
that print out information about the state of the program. Typically, a debugging statement
would say something like
System.out.println("At start of while loop, N = "+ N);

You need to be able to tell from the output where in your program the output is coming from,
and you want to know the value of important variables. Sometimes, you will find that the
computer isn’t even getting to a part of the program that you think it should be executing.
Remember that the goal is to find the first point in the program where the state is not what
you expect it to be. That’s where the bug is.
And finally, remember the golden rule of debugging: If you are absolutely sure that every-
thing in your program is right, and if it still doesn’t work, then one of the things that you are
absolutely sure of is wrong.

3.3 The while and do..while Statements

Statements in Java can be either simple statements or compound statements. Simple
statements, such as assignment statements and subroutine call statements, are the basic building
blocks of a program. Compound statements, such as while loops and if statements, are used to
organize simple statements into complex structures, which are called control structures because
they control the order in which the statements are executed. The next five sections explore
the details of control structures that are available in Java, starting with the while statement
and the do..while statement in this section. At the same time, we’ll look at examples of
programming with each control structure and apply the techniques for designing algorithms
74 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

that were introduced in the previous section.

3.3.1 The while Statement

The while statement was already introduced in Section 3.1. A while loop has the form
while ( hboolean-expression i )
hstatement i

The hstatementi can, of course, be a block statement consisting of several statements grouped
together between a pair of braces. This statement is called the body of the loop. The body
of the loop is repeated as long as the hboolean-expressioni is true. This boolean expression is
called the continuation condition, or more simply the test, of the loop. There are a few
points that might need some clarification. What happens if the condition is false in the first
place, before the body of the loop is executed even once? In that case, the body of the loop is
never executed at all. The body of a while loop can be executed any number of times, including
zero. What happens if the condition is true, but it becomes false somewhere in the middle of
the loop body? Does the loop end as soon as this happens? It doesn’t, because the computer
continues executing the body of the loop until it gets to the end. Only then does it jump back
to the beginning of the loop and test the condition, and only then can the loop end.
Let’s look at a typical problem that can be solved using a while loop: finding the average
of a set of positive integers entered by the user. The average is the sum of the integers, divided
by the number of integers. The program will ask the user to enter one integer at a time. It
will keep count of the number of integers entered, and it will keep a running total of all the
numbers it has read so far. Here is a pseudocode algorithm for the program:
Let sum = 0
Let count = 0
while there are more integers to process:
Read an integer
Add it to the sum
Count it
Divide sum by count to get the average
Print out the average

But how can we test whether there are more integers to process? A typical solution is to
tell the user to type in zero after all the data have been entered. This will work because we
are assuming that all the data are positive numbers, so zero is not a legal data value. The zero
is not itself part of the data to be averaged. It’s just there to mark the end of the real data.
A data value used in this way is sometimes called a sentinel value. So now the test in the
while loop becomes “while the input integer is not zero”. But there is another problem! The
first time the test is evaluated, before the body of the loop has ever been executed, no integer
has yet been read. There is no “input integer” yet, so testing whether the input integer is zero
doesn’t make sense. So, we have to do something before the while loop to make sure that the
test makes sense. Setting things up so that the test in a while loop makes sense the first time
it is executed is called priming the loop. In this case, we can simply read the first integer
before the beginning of the loop. Here is a revised algorithm:
Let sum = 0
Let count = 0
Read an integer
while the integer is not zero:
3.3. WHILE AND DO..WHILE 75

Add the integer to the sum

Count it
Read an integer
Divide sum by count to get the average
Print out the average
Notice that I’ve rearranged the body of the loop. Since an integer is read before the loop, the
loop has to begin by processing that integer. At the end of the loop, the computer reads a new
integer. The computer then jumps back to the beginning of the loop and tests the integer that
it has just read. Note that when the computer finally reads the sentinel value, the loop ends
before the sentinel value is processed. It is not added to the sum, and it is not counted. This
is the way it’s supposed to work. The sentinel is not part of the data. The original algorithm,
even if it could have been made to work without priming, was incorrect since it would have
summed and counted all the integers, including the sentinel. (Since the sentinel is zero, the sum
would still be correct, but the count would be off by one. Such so-called off-by-one errors
are very common. Counting turns out to be harder than it looks!)
We can easily turn the algorithm into a complete program. Note that the program cannot
use the statement “average = sum/count;” to compute the average. Since sum and count
are both variables of type int, the value of sum/count is an integer. The average should be
a real number. We’ve seen this problem before: we have to convert one of the int values to
a double to force the computer to compute the quotient as a real number. This can be done
by type-casting one of the variables to type double. The type cast “(double)sum” converts
the value of sum to a real number, so in the program the average is computed as “average =
((double)sum) / count;”. Another solution in this case would have been to declare sum to
be a variable of type double in the first place.
One other issue is addressed by the program: If the user enters zero as the first input value,
there are no data to process. We can test for this case by checking whether count is still equal
to zero after the while loop. This might seem like a minor point, but a careful programmer
should cover all the bases.
Here is the program:
/*
* This program reads a sequence of positive integers input
* by the user, and it will print out the average of those
* integers. The user is prompted to enter one integer at a
* time. The user must enter a 0 to mark the end of the
* data. (The zero is not counted as part of the data to
* be averaged.) The program does not check whether the
* user’s input is positive, so it will actually work for
* both positive and negative input values.
*/
public class ComputeAverage {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int inputNumber; // One of the integers input by the user.
int sum; // The sum of the positive integers.
int count; // The number of positive integers.
double average; // The average of the positive integers.
/* Initialize the summation and counting variables. */
sum = 0;
76 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

count = 0;
/* Read and process the user’s input. */
TextIO.put("Enter your first positive integer: ");
inputNumber = TextIO.getlnInt();
while (inputNumber != 0) {
sum += inputNumber; // Add inputNumber to running sum.
count++; // Count the input by adding 1 to count.
TextIO.put("Enter your next positive integer, or 0 to end: ");
inputNumber = TextIO.getlnInt();
}
/* Display the result. */
if (count == 0) {
TextIO.putln("You didn’t enter any data!");
}
else {
average = ((double)sum) / count;
TextIO.putln();
TextIO.putln("You entered " + count + " positive integers.");
TextIO.putf("Their average is %1.3f.\n", average);
}
} // end main()
} // end class ComputeAverage

3.3.2 The do..while Statement

Sometimes it is more convenient to test the continuation condition at the end of a loop, instead
of at the beginning, as is done in the while loop. The do..while statement is very similar
to the while statement, except that the word “while,” along with the condition that it tests,
has been moved to the end. The word “do” is added to mark the beginning of the loop. A
do..while statement has the form
do
hstatement i
while ( hboolean-expression i );
or, since, as usual, the hstatementi can be a block,
do {
hstatements i
} while ( hboolean-expression i );
Note the semicolon, ’;’, at the very end. This semicolon is part of the statement, just as
the semicolon at the end of an assignment statement or declaration is part of the statement.
Omitting it is a syntax error. (More generally, every statement in Java ends either with a
semicolon or a right brace, ’}’.)
To execute a do loop, the computer first executes the body of the loop—that is, the statement
or statements inside the loop—and then it evaluates the boolean expression. If the value of
the expression is true, the computer returns to the beginning of the do loop and repeats the
process; if the value is false, it ends the loop and continues with the next part of the program.
3.3. WHILE AND DO..WHILE 77

Since the condition is not tested until the end of the loop, the body of a do loop is always
executed at least once.
For example, consider the following pseudocode for a game-playing program. The do loop
makes sense here instead of a while loop because with the do loop, you know there will be at
least one game. Also, the test that is used at the end of the loop wouldn’t even make sense at
the beginning:
do {
Play a Game
Ask user if he wants to play another game
Read the user’s response
} while ( the user’s response is yes );

Let’s convert this into proper Java code. Since I don’t want to talk about game playing at the
moment, let’s say that we have a class named Checkers, and that the Checkers class contains
a static member subroutine named playGame() that plays one game of checkers against the
user. Then, the pseudocode “Play a game” can be expressed as the subroutine call statement
“Checkers.playGame();”. We need a variable to store the user’s response. The TextIO class
makes it convenient to use a boolean variable to store the answer to a yes/no question. The
input function TextIO.getlnBoolean() allows the user to enter the value as “yes” or “no”.
“Yes” is considered to be true, and “no” is considered to be false. So, the algorithm can be
coded as
boolean wantsToContinue; // True if user wants to play again.
do {
Checkers.playGame();
TextIO.put("Do you want to play again? ");
wantsToContinue = TextIO.getlnBoolean();
} while (wantsToContinue == true);

When the value of the boolean variable is set to false, it is a signal that the loop should end.
When a boolean variable is used in this way—as a signal that is set in one part of the program
and tested in another part—it is sometimes called a flag or flag variable (in the sense of a
signal flag).
By the way, a more-than-usually-pedantic programmer would sneer at the test
“while (wantsToContinue == true)”. This test is exactly equivalent to “while
(wantsToContinue)”. Testing whether “wantsToContinue == true” is true amounts to the
same thing as testing whether “wantsToContinue” is true. A little less offensive is an expression
of the form “flag == false”, where flag is a boolean variable. The value of “flag == false”
is exactly the same as the value of “!flag”, where ! is the boolean negation operator. So
you can write “while (!flag)” instead of “while (flag == false)”, and you can write
“if (!flag)” instead of “if (flag == false)”.
Although a do..while statement is sometimes more convenient than a while statement,
having two kinds of loops does not make the language more powerful. Any problem that can be
solved using do..while loops can also be solved using only while statements, and vice versa.
In fact, if hdoSomethingi represents any block of program code, then
do {
hdoSomething i
} while ( hboolean-expression i );

has exactly the same effect as

78 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

hdoSomething i
while ( hboolean-expression i ) {
hdoSomething i
}
Similarly,
while ( hboolean-expression i ) {
hdoSomething i
}
can be replaced by
if ( hboolean-expression i ) {
do {
hdoSomething i
} while ( hboolean-expression i );
}
without changing the meaning of the program in any way.

3.3.3 break and continue

The syntax of the while and do..while loops allows you to test the continuation condition at
either the beginning of a loop or at the end. Sometimes, it is more natural to have the test
in the middle of the loop, or to have several tests at different places in the same loop. Java
provides a general method for breaking out of the middle of any loop. It’s called the break
statement, which takes the form
break;
When the computer executes a break statement in a loop, it will immediately jump out
of the loop. It then continues on to whatever follows the loop in the program. Consider for
example:
while (true) { // looks like it will run forever!
TextIO.put("Enter a positive number: ");
N = TextIO.getlnInt();
if (N > 0) // input is OK; jump out of loop
break;
TextIO.putln("Your answer must be > 0.");
}
// continue here after break
If the number entered by the user is greater than zero, the break statement will be executed
and the computer will jump out of the loop. Otherwise, the computer will print out “Your
answer must be > 0.” and will jump back to the start of the loop to read another input value.
(The first line of this loop, “while (true)” might look a bit strange, but it’s perfectly
legitimate. The condition in a while loop can be any boolean-valued expression. The computer
evaluates this expression and checks whether the value is true or false. The boolean literal
“true” is just a boolean expression that always evaluates to true. So “while (true)” can be
used to write an infinite loop, or one that will be terminated by a break statement.)
A break statement terminates the loop that immediately encloses the break statement. It
is possible to have nested loops, where one loop statement is contained inside another. If you
use a break statement inside a nested loop, it will only break out of that loop, not out of
3.4. THE FOR STATEMENT 79

the loop that contains the nested loop. There is something called a labeled break statement
that allows you to specify which loop you want to break. This is not very common, so I will
go over it quickly. Labels work like this: You can put a label in front of any loop. A label
consists of a simple identifier followed by a colon. For example, a while with a label might
look like “mainloop: while...”. Inside this loop you can use the labeled break statement
“break mainloop;” to break out of the labeled loop. For example, here is a code segment that
checks whether two strings, s1 and s2, have a character in common. If a common character is
found, the value of the flag variable nothingInCommon is set to false, and a labeled break is
is used to end the processing at that point:
boolean nothingInCommon;
nothingInCommon = true; // Assume s1 and s2 have no chars in common.
int i,j; // Variables for iterating through the chars in s1 and s2.

i = 0;
bigloop: while (i < s1.length()) {
j = 0;
while (j < s2.length()) {
if (s1.charAt(i) == s2.charAt(j)) { // s1 and s2 have a comman char.
nothingInCommon = false;
break bigloop; // break out of BOTH loops
}
j++; // Go on to the next char in s2.
}
i++; //Go on to the next char in s1.
}

The continue statement is related to break, but less commonly used. A continue state-
ment tells the computer to skip the rest of the current iteration of the loop. However, instead
of jumping out of the loop altogether, it jumps back to the beginning of the loop and continues
with the next iteration (including evaluating the loop’s continuation condition to see whether
any further iterations are required). As with break, when a continue is in a nested loop, it
will continue the loop that directly contains it; a “labeled continue” can be used to continue
the containing loop instead.
break and continue can be used in while loops and do..while loops. They can also be
used in for loops, which are covered in the next section. In Section 3.6, we’ll see that break can
also be used to break out of a switch statement. A break can occur inside an if statement,
but in that case, it does not mean to break out of the if. Instead, it breaks out of the loop or
switch statement that contains the if statement. If the if statement is not contained inside a
loop or switch, then the if statement cannot legally contain a break. A similar consideration
applies to continue statements inside ifs.

3.4 The for Statement

We turn in this section to another type of loop, the for statement. Any for loop is
equivalent to some while loop, so the language doesn’t get any additional power by having for
statements. But for a certain type of problem, a for loop can be easier to construct and easier
to read than the corresponding while loop. It’s quite possible that in real programs, for loops
actually outnumber while loops.
80 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

3.4.1 For Loops

The for statement makes a common type of while loop easier to write. Many while loops have
the general form:
hinitialization i
while ( hcontinuation-condition i ) {
hstatements i
hupdate i
}

For example, consider this example, copied from an example in Section 3.2:
years = 0; // initialize the variable years
while ( years < 5 ) { // condition for continuing loop
interest = principal * rate; //
principal += interest; // do three statements
System.out.println(principal); //
years++; // update the value of the variable, years
}

This loop can be written as the following equivalent for statement:

for ( years = 0; years < 5; years++ ) {
interest = principal * rate;
principal += interest;
System.out.println(principal);
}

The initialization, continuation condition, and updating have all been combined in the first line
of the for loop. This keeps everything involved in the “control” of the loop in one place, which
helps makes the loop easier to read and understand. The for loop is executed in exactly the
same way as the original code: The initialization part is executed once, before the loop begins.
The continuation condition is executed before each execution of the loop, and the loop ends
when this condition is false. The update part is executed at the end of each execution of the
loop, just before jumping back to check the condition.
The formal syntax of the for statement is as follows:
for ( hinitialization i; hcontinuation-condition i; hupdate i )
hstatement i

or, using a block statement:

for ( hinitialization i; hcontinuation-condition i; hupdate i ) {
hstatements i
}

The hcontinuation-conditioni must be a boolean-valued expression. The hinitializationi can

be any expression, but is usually an assignment statement. The hupdatei can also be any
expression, but is usually an increment, a decrement, or an assignment statement. Any of
the three can be empty. If the continuation condition is empty, it is treated as if it were
“true,” so the loop will be repeated forever or until it ends for some other reason, such as
a break statement. (Some people like to begin an infinite loop with “for (;;)” instead of
“while (true)”.)
3.4. THE FOR STATEMENT 81

Usually, the initialization part of a for statement assigns a value to some variable, and the
update changes the value of that variable with an assignment statement or with an increment
or decrement operation. The value of the variable is tested in the continuation condition, and
the loop ends when this condition evaluates to false. A variable used in this way is called a
loop control variable. In the for statement given above, the loop control variable is years.
Certainly, the most common type of for loop is the counting loop, where a loop control
variable takes on all integer values between some minimum and some maximum value. A
counting loop has the form
for ( hvariable i = hmin i; hvariable i <= hmax i; hvariable i++ ) {
hstatements i
}

where hmini and hmax i are integer-valued expressions (usually constants). The hvariablei takes
on the values hmini, hmini+1, hmini+2, . . . , hmax i. The value of the loop control variable is
often used in the body of the loop. The for loop at the beginning of this section is a counting
loop in which the loop control variable, years, takes on the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Here is an even
simpler example, in which the numbers 1, 2, . . . , 10 are displayed on standard output:
for ( N = 1 ; N <= 10 ; N++ )
System.out.println( N );

For various reasons, Java programmers like to start counting at 0 instead of 1, and they
tend to use a “<” in the condition, rather than a “<=”. The following variation of the above
loop prints out the ten numbers 0, 1, 2, . . . , 9:
for ( N = 0 ; N < 10 ; N++ )
System.out.println( N );

Using < instead of <= in the test, or vice versa, is a common source of off-by-one errors in
programs. You should always stop and think, Do I want the final value to be processed or not?
It’s easy to count down from 10 to 1 instead of counting up. Just start with 10, decrement
the loop control variable instead of incrementing it, and continue as long as the variable is
greater than or equal to one.
for ( N = 10 ; N >= 1 ; N-- )
System.out.println( N );

Now, in fact, the official syntax of a for statemenent actually allows both the initialization
part and the update part to consist of several expressions, separated by commas. So we can
even count up from 1 to 10 and count down from 10 to 1 at the same time!
for ( i=1, j=10; i <= 10; i++, j-- ) {
TextIO.putf("%5d", i); // Output i in a 5-character wide column.
TextIO.putf("%5d", j); // Output j in a 5-character column
TextIO.putln(); // and end the line.
}

As a final example, let’s say that we want to use a for loop that prints out just the even
numbers between 2 and 20, that is: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. There are several ways to
do this. Just to show how even a very simple problem can be solved in many ways, here are
four different solutions (three of which would get full credit):
82 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

(1) // There are 10 numbers to print.

// Use a for loop to count 1, 2,
// ..., 10. The numbers we want
// to print are 2*1, 2*2, ... 2*10.
for (N = 1; N <= 10; N++) {
System.out.println( 2*N );
}

(2) // Use a for loop that counts

// 2, 4, ..., 20 directly by
// adding 2 to N each time through
// the loop.
for (N = 2; N <= 20; N = N + 2) {
System.out.println( N );
}

(3) // Count off all the numbers

// 2, 3, 4, ..., 19, 20, but
// only print out the numbers
// that are even.
for (N = 2; N <= 20; N++) {
if ( N % 2 == 0 ) // is N even?
System.out.println( N );
}

(4) // Irritate the professor with

// a solution that follows the
// letter of this silly assignment
// while making fun of it.
for (N = 1; N <= 1; N++) {
System.out.print("2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20");
}

Perhaps it is worth stressing one more time that a for statement, like any statement, never
occurs on its own in a real program. A statement must be inside the main routine of a program
or inside some other subroutine. And that subroutine must be defined inside a class. I should
also remind you that every variable must be declared before it can be used, and that includes
the loop control variable in a for statement. In all the examples that you have seen so far in
this section, the loop control variables should be declared to be of type int. It is not required
that a loop control variable be an integer. Here, for example, is a for loop in which the variable,
ch, is of type char, using the fact that the ++ operator can be applied to characters as well as
to numbers:
// Print out the alphabet on one line of output.
char ch; // The loop control variable;
// one of the letters to be printed.
for ( ch = ’A’; ch <= ’Z’; ch++ )
System.out.print(ch);
System.out.println();
3.4. THE FOR STATEMENT 83

3.4.2 Example: Counting Divisors

Let’s look at a less trivial problem that can be solved with a for loop. If N and D are positive
integers, we say that D is a divisor of N if the remainder when D is divided into N is zero.
(Equivalently, we could say that N is an even multiple of D.) In terms of Java programming, D
is a divisor of N if N % D is zero.
Let’s write a program that inputs a positive integer, N, from the user and computes how
many different divisors N has. The numbers that could possibly be divisors of N are 1, 2, . . . , N.
To compute the number of divisors of N, we can just test each possible divisor of N and count
the ones that actually do divide N evenly. In pseudocode, the algorithm takes the form
Get a positive integer, N, from the user
Let divisorCount = 0
for each number, testDivisor, in the range from 1 to N:
if testDivisor is a divisor of N:
Count it by adding 1 to divisorCount
Output the count
This algorithm displays a common programming pattern that is used when some, but not all,
of a sequence of items are to be processed. The general pattern is
for each item in the sequence:
if the item passes the test:
process it
The for loop in our divisor-counting algorithm can be translated into Java code as
for (testDivisor = 1; testDivisor <= N; testDivisor++) {
if ( N % testDivisor == 0 )
divisorCount++;
}
On a modern computer, this loop can be executed very quickly. It is not impossible to run
it even for the largest legal int value, 2147483647. (If you wanted to run it for even larger
values, you could use variables of type long rather than int.) However, it does take a noticeable
amount of time for very large numbers. So when I implemented this algorithm, I decided to
output a dot every time the computer has tested one million possible divisors. In the improved
version of the program, there are two types of counting going on. We have to count the number
of divisors and we also have to count the number of possible divisors that have been tested.
So the program needs two counters. When the second counter reaches 1000000, the program
outputs a ’.’ and resets the counter to zero so that we can start counting the next group of one
million. Reverting to pseudocode, the algorithm now looks like
Get a positive integer, N, from the user
Let divisorCount = 0 // Number of divisors found.
Let numberTested = 0 // Number of possible divisors tested
// since the last period was output.
for each number, testDivisor, in the range from 1 to N:
if testDivisor is a divisor of N:
Count it by adding 1 to divisorCount
Add 1 to numberTested
if numberTested is 1000000:
print out a ’.’
Let numberTested = 0
Output the count
84 CHAPTER 3. CONTROL

Finally, we can translate the algorithm into a complete Java program:

/**
* This program reads a positive integer from the user.
* It counts how many divisors that number has, and
* then it prints the result.
*/
public class CountDivisors {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int N; // A positive integer entered by the user.
// Divisors of this number will be counted.
int testDivisor; // A number between 1 and N that is a
// possible divisor of N.
int divisorCount; // Number of divisors of N that have been found.
int numberTested; // Used to count how many possible divisors
// of N have been tested. When the number
// reaches 1000000, a period is output and
// the value of numberTested is reset to zero.
/* Get a positive integer from the user. */
while (true) {
TextIO.put("Enter a positive integer: ");
N = TextIO.getlnInt();
if (N > 0)
break;
TextIO.putln("That number is not positive. Please try again.");
}
/* Count the divisors, printing a "." after every 1000000 tests. */
divisorCount = 0;
numberTested = 0;
for (testDivisor = 1; testDivisor <= N; testDivisor++) {
if ( N % testDivisor == 0 )
divisorCount++;
numberTested++;
if (numberTested == 1000000) {
TextIO.put(’.’);
numberTested = 0;
}
}
/* Display the result. */
TextIO.putln();
TextIO.putln("The number of divisors of " + N
+ " is " + divisorCount);
} // end main()
} // end class CountDivisors
3.4. THE FOR STATEMENT 85

3.4.3 Nested for Loops

Control structures in Java are statements that contain statements. In particular, control struc-
tures can contain control structures. You’ve already seen several examples of if statements
inside loops, and one example of a while loop inside another while, but any combination of one
control structure inside another is possible. We say that one structure is nested inside another.
You can even have multiple levels of nesting, such as a while loop inside an if statement inside
another while loop. The syntax of Java does not set a limit on the number of levels of nesting.
As a practical matter, though, it’s difficult to understand a program that has more than a few
levels of nesting.
Nested for loops arise naturally in many algorithms, and it is important to understand how
they work. Let’s look at a couple of examples. First, consider the problem of printing out a
multiplication table like this one:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36
4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72
7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84
8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72 80 88 96
9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99 108
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 110 121 132
12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 132 144
The data in the table are arranged into 12 rows and 12 columns. The process of printing them
out can be expressed in a pseudocode algorithm as
for each rowNumber = 1, 2, 3, ..., 12:
Print the first twelve multiples of rowNumber on one line
Output a carriage return
The first step in the for loop can itself be expressed as a for loop. We can expand “Print the
first twelve multiples of rowNumber on one line” as:
for N = 1, 2, 3, ..., 12:
Print N * rowNumber
so a refined algorithm for printing the table has one for loop nested inside another:
for each rowNumber = 1, 2, 3, ..., 12:
for N = 1, 2, 3, ..., 12:
Print N * rowNumber
Output a carriage return
We want to print the output in neat columns, with each output number taking up four spaces.
This can be done using formatted output with format specifier %4d. Assuming that rowNumber
and N have been declared to be variables of type int, the algorithm can be expressed in Java as
for ( rowNumber = 1; rowNumber <= 12; rowNumber++ ) {
for ( N = 1; N <= 12; N++ ) {
// print in 4-character columns
System.out.printf( "%4d;", N * rowNumber ); // No carriage return !
}