Chapter 4 Mathematical Functions,

Characters, and Strings

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 1
 Motivations
Suppose you need to estimate the area enclosed by four
cities, given the GPS locations (latitude and longitude) of
these cities, as shown in the following diagram. How
would you write a program to solve this problem? You will
be able to write such a program after completing this
chapter.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 2
 Objectives
 To solve mathematics problems by using the methods in the Math class (§4.2).
 To represent characters using the char type (§4.3).
 To encode characters using ASCII and Unicode (§4.3.1).
 To represent special characters using the escape sequences (§4.4.2).
 To cast a numeric value to a character and cast a character to an integer (§4.3.3).
 To compare and test characters using the static methods in the Character class (§4.3.4).
 To introduce objects and instance methods (§4.4).
 To represent strings using the String objects (§4.4).
 To return the string length using the length() method (§4.4.1).
 To return a character in the string using the charAt(i) method (§4.4.2).
 To use the + operator to concatenate strings (§4.4.3).
 To read strings from the console (§4.4.4).
 To read a character from the console (§4.4.5).
 To compare strings using the equals method and the compareTo methods (§4.4.6).
 To obtain substrings (§4.4.7).
 To find a character or a substring in a string using the indexOf method (§4.4.8).
 To program using characters and strings (GuessBirthday) (§4.5.1).
 To convert a hexadecimal character to a decimal value (HexDigit2Dec) (§4.5.2).
 To revise the lottery program using strings (LotteryUsingStrings) (§4.5.3).
 To format output using the System.out.printf method (§4.6).

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 3
 Mathematical Functions
Java provides many useful methods in the Math
class for performing common mathematical
functions.

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 The Math Class
 Class constants:
– PI
–E
 Class methods:
– Trigonometric Methods
– Exponent Methods
– Rounding Methods
– min, max, abs, and random Methods

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 5
 Trigonometric Methods
 sin(double a) Examples:

 cos(double a) Math.sin(0) returns 0.0

 tan(double a) Math.sin(Math.PI / 6)
returns 0.5
 acos(double a) Math.sin(Math.PI / 2)
 returns 1.0
asin(double a)
Math.cos(0) returns 1.0
 atan(double a) Math.cos(Math.PI / 6)
returns 0.866
Math.cos(Math.PI / 2)
Radians returns 0
toRadians(90)
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 6
 Exponent Methods
 exp(double a) Examples:
Returns e raised to the power of a.
 Math.exp(1) returns 2.71
log(double a)
Math.log(2.71) returns 1.0
Returns the natural logarithm of a.
Math.pow(2, 3) returns 8.0
 log10(double a) Math.pow(3, 2) returns 9.0
Returns the 10-based logarithm of Math.pow(3.5, 2.5) returns
a. 22.91765
Math.sqrt(4) returns 2.0
 pow(double a, double b)
Math.sqrt(10.5) returns 3.24
Returns a raised to the power of b.
 sqrt(double a)
Returns the square root of a.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 7
 Rounding Methods
 double ceil(double x)
x rounded up to its nearest integer. This integer is returned as a
double value.
 double floor(double x)
x is rounded down to its nearest integer. This integer is returned as a
double value.
 double rint(double x)
x is rounded to its nearest integer. If x is equally close to two integers,
the even one is returned as a double.
 int round(float x)
Return (int)Math.floor(x+0.5).
 long round(double x)
Return (long)Math.floor(x+0.5).

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 8
 Rounding Methods Examples
Math.ceil(2.1) returns 3.0
Math.ceil(2.0) returns 2.0
Math.ceil(-2.0) returns –2.0
Math.ceil(-2.1) returns -2.0
Math.floor(2.1) returns 2.0
Math.floor(2.0) returns 2.0
Math.floor(-2.0) returns –2.0
Math.floor(-2.1) returns -3.0
Math.rint(2.1) returns 2.0
Math.rint(2.0) returns 2.0
Math.rint(-2.0) returns –2.0
Math.rint(-2.1) returns -2.0
Math.rint(2.5) returns 2.0
Math.rint(-2.5) returns -2.0
Math.round(2.6f) returns 3
Math.round(2.0) returns 2
Math.round(-2.0f) returns -2
Math.round(-2.6) returns -3
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 min, max, and abs
 max(a, b)and min(a, b) Examples:
Returns the maximum or
minimum of two parameters.
Math.max(2, 3) returns 3
 abs(a) Math.max(2.5, 3) returns
Returns the absolute value of the 3.0
parameter. Math.min(2.5, 3.6)
 random() returns 2.5
Returns a random double value Math.abs(-2) returns 2
in the range [0.0, 1.0). Math.abs(-2.1) returns
2.1

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 The random Method
Generates a random double value greater than or equal to 0.0 and
less than 1.0 (0 <= Math.random() < 1.0).

Examples:

Returns a random integer

(int)(Math.random() * 10)
between 0 and 9.

50 + (int)(Math.random() * 50) Returns a random integer

between 50 and 99.

In general,

a + Math.random() * b Returns a random number between

a and a + b, excluding a + b.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 11
 Case Study: Computing Angles
of a Triangle
x2, y2
A = acos((a * a - b * b - c * c) / (-2 * b * c))
a B = acos((b * b - a * a - c * c) / (-2 * a * c))
B
c C = acos((c * c - b * b - a * a) / (-2 * a * b))
C
A x3, y3
b
x1, y1

Write a program that prompts the user to enter the

x- and y-coordinates of the three corner points in a
triangle and then displays the triangle’s angles.

ComputeAngles Run

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 Character Data Type
Four hexadecimal digits.
char letter = 'A'; (ASCII)
char numChar = '4'; (ASCII)
char letter = '\u0041'; (Unicode)
char numChar = '\u0034'; (Unicode)

NOTE: The increment and decrement operators can also be used

on char variables to get the next or preceding Unicode character.
For example, the following statements display character b.
char ch = 'a';
System.out.println(++ch);
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 13
 Unicode Format
Java characters use Unicode, a 16-bit encoding scheme
established by the Unicode Consortium to support the
interchange, processing, and display of written texts in the
world’s diverse languages. Unicode takes two bytes,
preceded by \u, expressed in four hexadecimal numbers
that run from '\u0000' to '\uFFFF'. So, Unicode can
represent 65535 + 1 characters.
Unicode \u03b1 \u03b2 \u03b3 for three Greek
letters

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 14
 ASCII Code for Commonly Used
Characters
Characters Code Value in Decimal Unicode Value

'0' to '9' 48 to 57 \u0030 to \u0039

'A' to 'Z' 65 to 90 \u0041 to \u005A
'a' to 'z' 97 to 122 \u0061 to \u007A

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Escape Sequences for Special Characters

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 Appendix B: ASCII Character Set
ASCII Character Set is a subset of the Unicode from \u0000 to \u007f

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 ASCII Character Set, cont.
ASCII Character Set is a subset of the Unicode from \u0000 to \u007f

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 18
 Casting between char and
Numeric Types
int i = 'a'; // Same as int i = (int)'a';

char c = 97; // Same as char c = (char)97;

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 19
 Comparing and Testing
Characters
if (ch >= 'A' && ch <= 'Z')
System.out.println(ch + " is an uppercase letter");
else if (ch >= 'a' && ch <= 'z')
System.out.println(ch + " is a lowercase letter");
else if (ch >= '0' && ch <= '9')
System.out.println(ch + " is a numeric character");

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 20
 Methods in the Character Class
Method Description

isDigit(ch) Returns true if the specified character is a digit.

isLetter(ch) Returns true if the specified character is a letter.
isLetterOfDigit(ch) Returns true if the specified character is a letter or digit.
isLowerCase(ch) Returns true if the specified character is a lowercase letter.
isUpperCase(ch) Returns true if the specified character is an uppercase letter.
toLowerCase(ch) Returns the lowercase of the specified character.
toUpperCase(ch) Returns the uppercase of the specified character.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 21
 The String Type
The char type only represents one character. To represent a string
of characters, use the data type called String. For example,

String message = "Welcome to Java";

String is actually a predefined class in the Java library just like the
System class and Scanner class. The String type is not a primitive
type. It is known as a reference type. Any Java class can be used as
a reference type for a variable. Reference data types will be
thoroughly discussed in Chapter 9, “Objects and Classes.” For the
time being, you just need to know how to declare a String variable,
how to assign a string to the variable, how to concatenate strings,
and to perform simple operations for strings.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 22
Simple Methods for String Objects
Method Description

length() Returns the number of characters in this string.

charAt(index) Returns the character at the specified index from this string.
concat(s1) Returns a new string that concatenates this string with string s1.
toUpperCase() Returns a new string with all letters in uppercase.
toLowerCase() Returns a new string with all letters in lowercase.
trim() Returns a new string with whitespace characters trimmed on both sides.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 23
Simple Methods for String Objects
Strings are objects in Java. The methods in the preceding
table can only be invoked from a specific string instance.
For this reason, these methods are called instance methods.
A non-instance method is called a static method. A static
method can be invoked without using an object. All the
methods defined in the Math class are static methods. They
are not tied to a specific object instance. The syntax to
invoke an instance method is

referenceVariable.methodName(arguments).

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 24
 Getting String Length
String message = "Welcome to Java";
System.out.println("The length of " + message + " is "
+ message.length());

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 25
 Getting Characters from a String

String message = "Welcome to Java";

System.out.println("The first character in message is "
+ message.charAt(0));

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 26
 Converting Strings
"Welcome".toLowerCase() returns a new string, welcome.
"Welcome".toUpperCase() returns a new string,
WELCOME.
" Welcome ".trim() returns a new string, Welcome.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 27
 String Concatenation
String s3 = s1.concat(s2); or String s3 = s1 + s2;

// Three strings are concatenated

String message = "Welcome " + "to " + "Java";

// String Chapter is concatenated with number 2

String s = "Chapter" + 2; // s becomes Chapter2

// String Supplement is concatenated with character B

String s1 = "Supplement" + 'B'; // s1 becomes SupplementB

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 28
 Reading a String from the Console
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("Enter three words separated by spaces: ");
String s1 = input.next();
String s2 = input.next();
String s3 = input.next();
System.out.println("s1 is " + s1);
System.out.println("s2 is " + s2);
System.out.println("s3 is " + s3);

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 29
 Reading a Character from the
Console
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("Enter a character: ");
String s = input.nextLine();
char ch = s.charAt(0);
System.out.println("The character entered is " + ch);

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 30
 Comparing Strings
Method Description

equals(s1) Returns true if this string is equal to string s1.

equalsIgnoreCase(s1) Returns true if this string is equal to string s1; it is case insensitive.
compareTo(s1) Returns an integer greater than 0, equal to 0, or less than 0 to indicate whether
this string is greater than, equal to, or less than s1.
compareToIgnoreCase(s1) Same as compareTo except that the comparison is case insensitive.
startsWith(prefix) Returns true if this string starts with the specified prefix.
endsWith(suffix) Returns true if this string ends with the specified suffix.

OrderTwoCities Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 31
 Obtaining Substrings
Method Description

substring(beginIndex) Returns this string’s substring that begins with the character at the specified
beginIndex and extends to the end of the string, as shown in Figure 4.2.

substring(beginIndex, Returns this string’s substring that begins at the specified beginIndex and
endIndex) extends to the character at index endIndex – 1, as shown in Figure 9.6.
Note that the character at endIndex is not part of the substring.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 32
Finding a Character or a Substring
in a String
Method Description

indexOf(ch) Returns the index of the first occurrence of ch in the string. Returns -1 if not
matched.
indexOf(ch, fromIndex) Returns the index of the first occurrence of ch after fromIndex in the string.
Returns -1 if not matched.
indexOf(s) Returns the index of the first occurrence of string s in this string. Returns -1 if
not matched.
indexOf(s, fromIndex) Returns the index of the first occurrence of string s in this string after
fromIndex. Returns -1 if not matched.
lastIndexOf(ch) Returns the index of the last occurrence of ch in the string. Returns -1 if not
matched.
lastIndexOf(ch, Returns the index of the last occurrence of ch before fromIndex in this
fromIndex) string. Returns -1 if not matched.
lastIndexOf(s) Returns the index of the last occurrence of string s. Returns -1 if not matched.
lastIndexOf(s, Returns the index of the last occurrence of string s before fromIndex.
fromIndex) Returns -1 if not matched.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 33
Finding a Character or a Substring
in a String
int k = s.indexOf(' ');
String firstName = s.substring(0, k);
String lastName = s.substring(k + 1);

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 34
 Conversion between Strings and
Numbers
int intValue = Integer.parseInt(intString);
double doubleValue = Double.parseDouble(doubleString);

String s = number + "";

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 35
 Problem: Guessing Birthday
The program can guess your birth date. Run
to see how it works.

GuessBirthday Run
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 Mathematics Basis for the Game
19 is 10011 in binary. 7 is 111 in binary. 23 is 11101 in binary
10000
10000 00110 1000
10 10 100
+ 1 + 1 + 1
10011 00111 11101

19 7 23

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 37
 Case Study: Converting a
Hexadecimal Digit to a Decimal Value
Write a program that converts a hexadecimal digit
into a decimal value.

HexDigit2Dec Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 38
 Case Study: Revising the
Lottery Program Using Strings
A problem can be solved using many different approaches.
This section rewrites the lottery program in Listing 3.7
using strings. Using strings simplifies this program.

LotteryUsingStrings Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 39
 Formatting Output
Use the printf statement.
System.out.printf(format, items);
Where format is a string that may consist of substrings and
format specifiers. A format specifier specifies how an item
should be displayed. An item may be a numeric value,
character, boolean value, or a string. Each specifier begins
with a percent sign.

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 Frequently-Used Specifiers
Specifier Output Example
%b a boolean value true or false
%c a character 'a'
%d a decimal integer 200
%f a floating-point number 45.460000
%e a number in standard scientific notation 4.556000e+01
%s a string "Java is cool"

int count = 5;
items
double amount = 45.56;
System.out.printf("count is %d and amount is %f", count, amount);

display count is 5 and amount is 45.560000

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, Global Edition. © Pearson Education Limited 2015 41
 FormatDemo

The example gives a program that uses printf to display a

table.

FormatDemo Run

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