Unit 2: Basic Elements of Java

• Variables and Expressions

• The Class String
• Keyboard and Screen I/O
• Documentation and Style
• Graphics Supplement

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Variables and Expressions
UNIT 2: BASIC ELEMENTS OF JAVA
Variables
• Variables store data such as numbers and letters.
• Think of them as places to store data.
• They are implemented as memory locations.
• The data stored by a variable is called its value.
• The value is stored in the memory location.
• Its value can be changed.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Variables
• Sample program
• Class EggBasket

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Variables and Values
• Variables
numberOfBaskets
eggsPerBasket
totalEggs
• Assigning values
eggsPerBasket = 6;
eggsPerBasket = eggsPerBasket - 2;

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Naming and Declaring Variables
• Choose names that are helpful such as count or
speed, but not c or s.
• When you declare a variable, you provide its name and
type.
int numberOfBaskets,eggsPerBasket;
• A variable's type determines what kinds of values it
can hold (int, double, char, etc.).
• A variable must be declared before it is used.
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Syntax and Examples
• Syntax
type variable_1, variable_2, …;
(variable_1 is a generic variable called a syntactic
variable)
• Examples
int styleChoice, numberOfChecks;
double balance, interestRate;
char jointOrIndividual;

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Data Types
• A class type is used for a class of objects and has
both data and methods.
• "Java is fun" is a value of class type String
• A primitive type is used for simple,
nondecomposable values such as an individual
number or individual character.
• int, double, and char are primitive types.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Primitive Types

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Java Identifiers
• An identifier is a name, such as the name of a
variable.
• Identifiers may contain only
• Letters
• Digits (0 through 9)
• The underscore character (_)
• And the dollar sign symbol ($) which has a special
meaning
• The first character cannot be a digit.
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Java Identifiers
• Identifiers may not contain any spaces, dots (.),
asterisks (*), or other characters:
7-11 netscape.com util.* (not allowed)
• Identifiers can be arbitrarily long.
• Since Java is case sensitive, stuff, Stuff, and
STUFF are different identifiers.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Keywords or Reserved Words
• Words such as if are called keywords or reserved
words and have special, predefined meanings.
• Cannot be used as identifiers.
• See Appendix 1 for a complete list of Java keywords.

• Example keywords: int, public, class

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Naming Conventions
• Class types begin with an uppercase letter
(e.g. String).
• Primitive types begin with a lowercase letter (e.g.
int).
• Variables of both class and primitive types begin
with a lowercase letters
(e.g. myName, myBalance).
• Multiword names are "punctuated" using uppercase
letters.
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Where to Declare Variables

• Declare a variable
• Just before it is used or
• At the beginning of the section of your program that is
enclosed in {}.
public static void main(String[] args)
{ /* declare variables here */
. . .
}

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Primitive Types
• Four integer types (byte, short, int, and
long)
• int is most common
• Two floating-point types (float and double)
• double is more common
• One character type (char)
• One boolean type (boolean)

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Examples of Primitive Values
• Integer types
0 -1 365 12000
• Floating-point types
0.99 -22.8 3.14159 5.0
• Character type
'a' 'A' '#' ' '
• Boolean type
true false
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Assignment Statements
• An assignment statement is used to assign a value to
a variable.
answer = 42;
• The "equal sign" is called the assignment operator.
• We say, "The variable named answer is assigned a
value of 42," or more simply, "answer is assigned
42."

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Assignment Statements
• Syntax
variable = expression
where expression can be another variable, a
literal or constant (such as a number), or something
more complicated which combines variables and
literals using operators
(such as + and -)

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Assignment Examples
amount = 3.99;
firstInitial = 'W';
score = numberOfCards + handicap;
eggsPerBasket = eggsPerBasket - 2;

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Initializing Variables
• A variable that has been declared, but no yet given a
value is said to be uninitialized.
• Uninitialized class variables have the value null.
• Uninitialized primitive variables may have a default
value.
• It's good practice not to rely on a default value.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Initializing Variables
• To protect against an uninitialized variable (and to
keep the compiler happy), assign a value at the time
the variable is declared.
• Examples:
int count = 0;
char grade = 'A';

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Initializing Variables
• syntax
type variable_1 = expression_1,
variable_2 = expression_2, …;

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Assignment Evaluation
• The expression on the right-hand side of the assignment
operator (=) is evaluated first.
• The result is used to set the value of the variable on the
left-hand side of the assignment operator.
score = numberOfCards + handicap;
eggsPerBasket = eggsPerBasket - 2;

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Simple Input

• Sometimes the data needed for a computation are

obtained from the user at run time.
• Keyboard input requires
import java.util.Scanner
at the beginning of the file.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Simple Input
• Data can be entered from the keyboard using
Scanner keyboard =
new Scanner(System.in);
followed, for example, by
eggsPerBasket =
keyboard.nextInt();
which reads one int value from the keyboard and
assigns it to eggsPerBasket.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Simple Input
• Sample program
class EggBasket2

Sample
Sample
screen
screen
output
output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Simple Screen Output
System.out.println("The count is " + count);

• Outputs the sting literal "the count is "

• Followed by the current value of the variable count.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Constants
• Literal expressions such as 2, 3.7, or 'y' are
called constants.
• Integer constants can be preceded by a + or - sign,
but cannot contain commas.
• Floating-point constants can be written
• With digits after a decimal point or
• Using e notation.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
e Notation
• e notation is also called scientific notation or
floating-point notation.
• Examples
• 865000000.0 can be written as 8.65e8
• 0.000483 can be written as 4.83e-4
• The number in front of the e does not need to
contain a decimal point.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Imprecision in Floating-Point Numbers
• Floating-point numbers often are only approximations
since they are stored with a finite number of bits.
• Hence 1.0/3.0 is slightly less than 1/3.
• 1.0/3.0 + 1.0/3.0 + 1.0/3.0
is less than 1.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Named Constants
• Java provides mechanism to …
• Define a variable
• Initialize it
• Fix the value so it cannot be changed
public static final Type Variable = Constant;

• Example
public static final double PI = 3.14159;

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Assignment Compatibilities
• Java is said to be strongly typed.
• You can't, for example, assign a floating point value to a
variable declared to store an integer.
• Sometimes conversions between numbers are
possible.
doubleVariable = 7;
is possible even if doubleVariable is of type
double, for example.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Assignment Compatibilities

• A value of one type can be assigned to a variable of

any type further to the right
byte --> short --> int --> long
--> float --> double
• But not to a variable of any type further to the left.
• You can assign a value of type char to a variable of type
int.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Type Casting
• A type cast temporarily changes the value of a
variable from the declared type to some other type.
• For example,
double distance;
distance = 9.0;
int points;
points = (int)distance;
• Illegal without (int)
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Type Casting
• The value of (int)distance is 9,
• The value of distance, both before and after the
cast, is 9.0.
• Any nonzero value to the right of the decimal point
is truncated rather than rounded.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Arithmetic Operators
• Arithmetic expressions can be formed using the +,
-, *, and / operators together with variables or
numbers referred to as operands.
• When both operands are of the same type, the result is of
that type.
• When one of the operands is a floating-point type and the
other is an integer, the result is a floating point type.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Arithmetic Operations
• Example
If hoursWorked is an int to which the value 40 has
been assigned, and payRate is a double to which
8.25 has been assigned

hoursWorked * payRate

is a double with a value of 500.0.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Arithmetic Operations
• Expressions with two or more operators can be
viewed as a series of steps, each involving only two
operands.
• The result of one step produces one of the operands to be
used in the next step.
• example
balance + (balance * rate)

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Arithmetic Operations
• If at least one of the operands is a floating-point type
and the rest are integers, the result will be a floating
point type.
• The result is the rightmost type from the following
list that occurs in the expression.
byte --> short --> int --> long
--> float --> double

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
The Division Operator
• The division operator (/) behaves as expected if
one of the operands is a floating-point type.
• When both operands are integer types, the result is
truncated, not rounded.
• Hence, 99/100 has a value of 0.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
The mod Operator
• The mod (%) operator is used with operators of
integer type to obtain the remainder after integer
division.
• 14 divided by 4 is 3 with a remainder of 2.
• Hence, 14 % 4 is equal to 2.
• The mod operator has many uses, including
• determining if an integer is odd or even
• determining if one integer is evenly divisible by another
integer.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Parentheses and Precedence
• Parentheses can communicate the order in which
arithmetic operations are performed
• examples:
(cost + tax) * discount
(cost + (tax * discount)
• Without parentheses, an expressions is evaluated
according to the rules of precedence.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Precedence Rules
• Figure 2.2 Precedence Rules

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Precedence Rules
• The binary arithmetic operators *, /, and %, have
lower precedence than the unary operators +, -,
++, --, and !, but have higher precedence than
the binary arithmetic operators + and -.
• When binary operators have equal precedence, the
operator on the left acts before the operator(s) on the
right.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Precedence Rules
• When unary operators have equal precedence, the
operator on the right acts before the operation(s) on
the left.
• Even when parentheses are not needed, they can be
used to make the code clearer.
balance + (interestRate * balance)
• Spaces also make code clearer
balance + interestRate*balance
but spaces do not dictate precedence.
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Sample Expressions
• Some Arithmetic Expressions in Java

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Specialized Assignment Operators

• Assignment operators can be combined with arithmetic

operators (including -, *, /, and %, discussed
later).
amount = amount + 5;
can be written as
amount += 5;
yielding the same results.
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Case Study:Vending Machine Change
• Requirements
• The user enters an amount between 1 cent and 99 cents.
• The program determines a combination of coins equal to
that amount.
• For example, 55 cents can be two quarters and one nickel.
• Denominations: quarter, dime, nickel, penny

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Increment and Decrement Operators

• Used to increase (or decrease) the value of a

variable by 1
• Easy to use, important to recognize
• The increment operator
count++ or ++count
• The decrement operator
count-- or --count

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Increment and Decrement Operators

• equivalent operations
count++;
++count;
count = count + 1;

count--;
--count;
count = count - 1;
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Increment and Decrement Operators in
Expressions
• after executing
int m = 4;
int result = 3 * (++m)
result has a value of 15 and m has a value of 5
• after executing
int m = 4;
int result = 3 * (m++)
result has a value of 12 and m has a value of 5

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Class String
UNIT 2: BASIC ELEMENTS OF JAVA
 The Class String
• We've used constants of type String already.
"Enter a whole number from 1 to 99."
• A value of type String is a
• Sequence of characters
• Treated as a single item.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
String Constants and Variables
• Declaring
String greeting;
greeting = "Hello!";
or
String greeting = "Hello!";
or
String greeting = new String("Hello!");
• Printing
System.out.println(greeting);

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Concatenation of Strings
• Two strings are concatenated using the + operator.
String greeting = "Hello";
String sentence;
sentence = greeting + " officer";
System.out.println(sentence);
• Any number of strings can be concatenated using
the + operator.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Concatenating Strings and Integers
String solution;
solution = "The answer is " + 42;
System.out.println (solution);

The temperature is 72
The answer is 42

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
String Methods
• An object of the String class stores data
consisting of a sequence of characters.
• Objects have methods as well as data
• The length() method returns the number of
characters in a particular String object.
String greeting = "Hello";
int n = greeting.length();

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 The Method length()

• The method length() returns an int.

• You can use a call to method length() anywhere an int
can be used.
int count = command.length();
System.out.println("Length is " +
command.length());
count = command.length() + 3;

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
String Indices

• Positions start with 0, not 1.

• The 'J' in "Java is fun." is in position 0
• A position is referred to an an index.
• The 'f' in "Java is fun." is at index 8.
 String Methods

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 String Methods

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 String Methods

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 String Methods

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 String Processing
• No methods allow you to change the value of a
String object.
• But you can change the value of a String variable.
• Sample program StringDemo

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Escape Characters
• How would you print
"Java" refers to a language. ?
• The compiler needs to be told that the quotation
marks (") do not signal the start or end of a string,
but instead are to be printed.
System.out.println(
"\"Java\" refers to a language.");

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Escape Characters

• Figure 2.6
• Each escape sequence is a single character even
though it is written with two symbols.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Examples
System.out.println("abc\\def");

abc\def

System.out.println("new\nline");
new
line

char singleQuote = '\'';

System.out.println '
(singleQuote);
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
The Unicode Character Set
• Most programming languages use the ASCII
character set.
• Java uses the Unicode character set which includes
the ASCII character set.
• The Unicode character set includes characters from
many different alphabets (but you probably won't
use them).

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Basic I/O
UNIT 2: BASIC ELEMENTS OF JAVA
Screen Output
• We've seen several examples of screen output
already.
• System.out is an object that is part of Java.
• println() is one of the methods available to the
System.out object.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Screen Output
• The concatenation operator (+) is useful when
everything does not fit on one line.
System.out.println("Lucky number = " + 13 +
"Secret number = " + number);
• Do not break the line except immediately before or after
the concatenation operator (+).

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Screen Output
• Alternatively, use print()
System.out.print("One, two,");
System.out.print(" buckle my shoe.");
System.out.println(" Three, four,");
System.out.println(" shut the door.");

ending with a println().

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Keyboard Input
• Java has reasonable facilities for handling keyboard
input.
• These facilities are provided by the Scanner class
in the java.util package.
• A package is a library of classes.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Using the Scanner Class
• Near the beginning of your program, insert
import java.util.Scanner;
• Create an object of the Scanner class
Scanner keyboard =
new Scanner (System.in)
• Read data (an int or a double, for example)
int n1 = keyboard.nextInt();
double d1 = keyboard,nextDouble();

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Keyboard Input Demonstration
• Sample program
class ScannerDemo

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Some Scanner Class Methods

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Some Scanner Class Methods

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
nextLine()Method Caution

• The nextLine() method reads

• The remainder of the current line,
• Even if it is empty.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 nextLine()Method Caution
• Example – given following declaration.
int n;
String s1, s2;
n = keyboard.nextInt();
s1 = keyboard.nextLine();
s2 = keyboard.nextLine();
• Assume input shown
42
and don't you
forget it.
n is set to 42
but s1 is set to the empty string.
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
The Empty String
• A string can have any number of characters,
including zero.
• The string with zero characters is called the empty
string.
• The empty string is useful and can be created in
many ways including
String s3 = "";

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Other Input Delimiters (optional)

• Almost any combination of characters and strings can

be used to separate keyboard input.
• to change the delimiter to "##"
keyboard2.useDelimiter("##");
• whitespace will no longer be a delimiter for keyboard2
input

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Other Input Delimiters
• Sample program
class DelimitersDemo

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Documentation and Style
UNIT 2: BASIC ELEMENTS OF JAVA
Documentation and Style
• Most programs are modified over time to respond to
new requirements.
• Programs which are easy to read and understand are
easy to modify.
• Even if it will be used only once, you have to read it
in order to debug it .

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Meaningful Variable Names
• A variable's name should suggest its use.
• Observe conventions in choosing names for
variables.
• Use only letters and digits.
• "Punctuate" using uppercase letters at word boundaries
(e.g. taxRate).
• Start variables with lowercase letters.
• Start class names with uppercase letters.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Comments
• The best programs are self-documenting.
• Clean style
• Well-chosen names
• Comments are written into a program as needed
explain the program.
• They are useful to the programmer, but they are ignored
by the compiler.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Comments
• A comment can begin with //.
• Everything after these symbols and to the end of the
line is treated as a comment and is ignored by the
compiler.
double radius; //in centimeters

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Comments
• A comment can begin with /* and end with */
• Everything between these symbols is treated as a
comment and is ignored by the compiler.
/**
This program should only
be used on alternate Thursdays,
except during leap years, when it should
only be used on alternate Tuesdays.
*/
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Comments
• A javadoc comment, begins with /** and ends with
*/.
• It can be extracted automatically from Java
software.
/** method change requires the number of
coins to be nonnegative */

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
When to Use Comments
• Begin each program file with an explanatory
comment
• What the program does
• The name of the author
• Contact information for the author
• Date of the last modification.
• Provide only those comments which the expected
reader of the program file will need in order to
understand it.
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Comments Example
• View sample program
class CircleCalculation, listing 2.7

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Indentation
• Indentation should communicate nesting clearly.
• A good choice is four spaces for each level of
indentation.
• Indentation should be consistent.
• Indentation should be used for second and
subsequent lines of statements which do not fit on a
single line.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Indentation
• Indentation does not change the behavior of the
program.
• Proper indentation helps communicate to the human
reader the nested structures of the program

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Using Named Constants
• To avoid confusion, always name constants
(and variables).
area = PI * radius * radius;
is clearer than
area = 3.14159 * radius * radius;
• Place constants near the beginning of the program.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Named Constants
• Once the value of a constant is set (or changed by an
editor), it can be used (or reflected) throughout the
program.
public static final double INTEREST_RATE = 6.65;

• If a literal (such as 6.65) is used instead, every

occurrence must be changed, with the risk than
another literal with the same value might be changed
unintentionally.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Declaring Constants
• Syntax
public static final
Variable_Type = Constant;
• Examples
public static final double
PI = 3.14159;
public static final String MOTTO = "The
customer is always right.";
• By convention, uppercase letters are used for constants.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Named Constants
• Sample program
class CircleCalculation2

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Graphics Supplement
UNIT 2: BASIC ELEMENTS OF JAVA
Style Rules Applied to a Graphics Applet
• Named constants makes it easier to find values.
• Comments and named constants make changing the
code much easier.
• Named constants protect against changing the wrong
value.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
JFrame
• Sample program
class HappyFaceJFrame

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 JOptionPane
• Sample program
class JOptionPaneDemo

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
JOptionPane
• JOptionPane can be used to construct windows
that interact with the user.
• The JOptionPane class is imported by
import javax.swing.JApplet;
• The JOptionPane class produces windows for
obtaining input or displaying output.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
JOptionPane
• Use showInputDialog() for input .
• Only string values can be input.
• To convert an input value from a string to an integer
use the parseInt() method from the Integer
class, use
appleCount =
Integer.parseInt(appleString);

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
JOptionPane
• Output is displayed using the
showMessageDialog method.
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "The
total number of fruits = " +
totalFruitCount);

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
JOptionPane
• Syntax
• Input
String_Variable =
JOptionPane.showInputDialogue
(String_Expression);
• Output
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog
(null, String_Expression);
• System.exit(0) ends the program.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
JOptionPane Cautions

• If the input is not in the correct format, the program

will crash.
• If you omit the last line (System.exit(0)), the
program will not end, even when the OK button in
the output window is clicked.
• Always label any output.

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Inputting Numeric Types
• JOptionPane.showInputDialog can be used
to input any of the numeric types.
• Methods for converting strings to numbers

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Multi-Line Output Windows
• To output multiple lines using the method
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog, insert
the new line character '\n' into the string used as
the second argument.
OptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
"The number of apples\n" +
"plus the number of oranges\n" +
"is equal to " + totalFruit);

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
Multi-Line Output Windows
• A dialog window containing multiline output

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
 Programming Example
• Sample program
class ChangeMakerWindow

Sample
Sample
Screen
Screen
Output
Output
Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015
References
• Walter Savitch
• Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and
Programming 6th ed. Boston, Pearson Education © 2015

Walter Savitch, Java : An Introduction to Problem Solving and Programming 6th ed.
Boston, Pearson Education © 2015