Java Programming

Fundamentals
Elementary Programming
By Kiswick Chisamu
4. Identifiers

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 2

 Lesson Overview
1. Introduction 10. Numeric Literals
2. Writing a Simple 11. Evaluating Expressions
Program & Operator Precedence
3. Console Input 12. Augmented
4. Identifiers Assignment Operators
5. Variables 13. Increment &
Decrement Operators
6. Assignment
Statements & 14. Numeric Type
Expressions Conversions
7. Named Constants 15. Software Development
Process
8. Naming Conventions
16. Common Errors &
9. Numeric Data Types & Pitfalls
Operations
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 3
 Identifiers
• Identifiers are the names that
identify the elements such as
classes, methods, and variables
in a program.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 4

 Identifier Naming Rules
• All identifiers must obey the
following rules:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 5

 Identifier Naming Rules:
#1
• An identifier is a sequence of
characters that consists of letters,
digits, underscores (_), and
dollar signs ($).

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 6

 Identifier Naming Rules:
#2
• An identifier must start with a
letter, an underscore (_), or a
dollar sign ($). It cannot start with
a digit.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 7

 Identifier Naming Rules:
#3
• An identifier cannot be a reserved
word.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 8

 Identifier Naming Rules:
#4
• An identifier cannot be true,
false, or null.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 9

 Identifier Naming Rules:
#5
• An identifier can be of any
length.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 10

 Valid Identifiers
• For example,
1. $2,
2. ComputeArea,
3. area,
4. radius,
5. print
• are legal identifiers

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 11

 Valid Identifiers
• whereas
• 2A
• d+4
• are not because they do not follow
the rules.
• The Java compiler detects
illegal identifiers and reports
syntax errors.
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 12
 Descriptive Variable
Names
• Identifiers are for naming
variables, methods, classes, and
other items in a program.
• Descriptive identifiers make
programs easy to read.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 13

 Java is Case Sensitive
• For example,
• numberOfStudents is better than
• numStuds,
• numOfStuds,
• numOfStudents.
• We use descriptive names for
complete programs in the text.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 14

 The $ Character
• Do not name identifiers with the
$ character.
• By convention, the $ character
should be used only in
mechanically generated source
code.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 15

REVIEW QUESTIONS

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 16

 QUESTION 1 [12
Marks]
• Which of the following
identifiers are valid?
• Which are Java keywords?
• miles, , Test, , a++, --a,
4#r, $4, #44, apps, class,
public. Int, x, y, , radius.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 17

5. Varibales

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 18

 Lesson Overview
1. Introduction 10. Numeric Literals
2. Writing a Simple 11. Evaluating Expressions
Program & Operator Precedence
3. Console Input 12. Augmented
4. Identifiers Assignment Operators
5. Variables 13. Increment &
Decrement Operators
6. Assignment
Statements & 14. Numeric Type
Expressions Conversions
7. Named Constants 15. Software Development
Process
8. Naming Conventions
16. Common Errors &
9. Numeric Data Types & Pitfalls
Operations
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 19
 Variables
• Variables are used to represent
values that may be changed in the
program.
• Variables are used to store
values to be used later in a
program.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 20

Why The Name Variables?
• They are called variables because
their values can be changed.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 21

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 22
 Variables
• Variables are for representing
data of a certain type.
• To use a variable, you declare it
by telling the compiler its name as
well as what type of data it can
store.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 23

 Variables
• The variable declaration tells the
compiler to allocate appropriate
memory space for the variable
based on its data type.
• The syntax for declaring a variable
is

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 24

Examples of Variable
Declaration

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 25

 Variables
• If variables are of the same type,
they can be declared together, as
follows:

• The variables are separated by

commas.
• For example,

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 26

 Variables
• Variables often have initial values.
• You can declare a variable and
initialize it in one step.
• Consider, for instance, the
following code:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 27

 Variable
• You can also use a shorthand
form to declare and initialize
variables of the same type
together.
• For example,

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 28

 Note on Variables
• A variable must be declared
before it can be assigned a
value.
• A variable declared in a method
must be assigned a value
before it can be used.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 29

 Note on Variables
• Whenever possible, declare a
variable and assign its initial
value in one step.
• This will make the program easy
to read and avoid programming
errors.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 30

 Variable Scope
• Every variable has a scope.
• The scope of a variable is the
part of the program where the
variable can be referenced.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 31

REVIEW QUESTIONS

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 32

 QUESTION 1 [12
Marks]
• Identify and fix the errors in the
following code:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 33

6. Assignment Statements
& Assignment Expressions

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 34

 Lesson Overview
1. Introduction 10. Numeric Literals
2. Writing a Simple 11. Evaluating Expressions
Program & Operator Precedence
3. Console Input 12. Augmented
4. Identifiers Assignment Operators
5. Variables 13. Increment &
Decrement Operators
6. Assignment
Statements & 14. Numeric Type
Expressions Conversions
7. Named Constants 15. Software Development
Process
8. Naming Conventions
16. Common Errors &
9. Numeric Data Types & Pitfalls
Operations
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 35
An Assignment Statement
• An assignment statement
designates a value for a variable.
• An assignment statement can
be used as an expression in Java.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 36

An Assignment Statement
• After a variable is declared, you
can assign a value to it by using an
assignment statement.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 37

The Assignment Operator
• In Java, the equal sign (=) is used
as the assignment operator.
• The syntax for assignment
statements is as follows:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 38

An Assignment Statement
• An expression represents a
computation involving values,
variables, and operators that,
taking them together, evaluates to
a value.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 39

An Assignment Statement
• For example, consider the following
code:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 40

An Assignment Statement
• You can use a variable in an
expression.
• A variable can also be used in
both sides of the = operator.
• For example,

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 41

 Assignment Statement
Example
• In this assignment statement,
the result of x + 1 is assigned to x.
• If x is 1 before the statement is
executed, then it becomes 2 after
the statement is executed.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 42

Placement of the Variable
• To assign a value to a variable,
you must place the variable name
to the left of the assignment
operator.
• Thus, the following statement is
wrong:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 43

 Assignment Expression
• In Java, an assignment
statement is essentially an
expression that evaluates to the
value to be assigned to the
variable on the left side of the
assignment operator.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 44

 Assignment Expression
• For this reason, an assignment
statement is also known as an
assignment expression.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 45

 Assignment Expression
• For example, the following
statement is correct:

• which is equivalent to

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 46

 Assignment Expression
• If a value is assigned to multiple
variables, you can use the
following syntax:

• which is equivalent to

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 47

 Compatible Data Types
• In an assignment statement, the
data type of the variable on the
left must be compatible with the
data type of the value on the
right.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 48

 Compatible Data Types
• For example, int x = 1.0 would be
illegal, because the data type of x
is int.
• You cannot assign a double value
(1.0) to an int variable without
using type casting.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 49

REVIEW QUESTIONS

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 50

 QUESTION 1 [12
Marks]
• Identify and fix the errors in the
following code:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 51

7. Named Constants

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 52

 Lesson Overview
1. Introduction 10. Numeric Literals
2. Writing a Simple 11. Evaluating Expressions
Program & Operator Precedence
3. Console Input 12. Augmented
4. Identifiers Assignment Operators
5. Variables 13. Increment &
Decrement Operators
6. Assignment
Statements & 14. Numeric Type
Expressions Conversions
7. Named Constants 15. Software Development
Process
8. Naming Conventions
16. Common Errors &
9. Numeric Data Types & Pitfalls
Operations
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 53
 What is a constant?
• A named constant is an
identifier that represents a
permanent value.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 54

 What is a constant?
• The value of a variable may
change during the execution of a
program, but a named constant,
or simply constant, represents
permanent data that never
changes.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 55

 Constants
• A constant is also known as a
final variable in Java.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 56

 Constants
• Here is the syntax for declaring a
constant:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 57

 The final Keyword
• A constant must be declared and
initialized in the same
statement.
• The word final is a Java keyword
for declaring a constant.
• By convention, all letters in a
constant are in uppercase.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 58

 Benefits of Using
Constants
• There are three benefits of using
constants:
1. You don’t have to repeatedly type the
same value if it is used multiple times;
2. If you have to change the constant
value, you need to change it only in a
single location in the source code;
3. A descriptive name for a constant
makes the program easy to read.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 59

REVIEW QUESTIONS

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 60

 QUESTION 1 [2
Marks]
• What are the benefits of using
constants?
• Declare an int constant SIZE with
value 20.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 61

8. Named Conventions

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 62

 Lesson Overview
1. Introduction 10. Numeric Literals
2. Writing a Simple 11. Evaluating Expressions
Program & Operator Precedence
3. Console Input 12. Augmented
4. Identifiers Assignment Operators
5. Variables 13. Increment &
Decrement Operators
6. Assignment
Statements & 14. Numeric Type
Expressions Conversions
7. Named Constants 15. Software Development
Process
8. Naming Conventions
16. Common Errors &
9. Numeric Data Types & Pitfalls
Operations
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 63
 Naming Conventions
• Sticking with the Java naming
conventions makes your
programs easy to read and avoids
errors.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 64

 Naming Conventions
• Make sure you choose descriptive
names with straight-forward
meanings for the variables,
constants, classes, and
methods in your program.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 65

 Naming Conventions
• As mentioned earlier, names are
case sensitive.
• Listed below are the conventions
for naming variables, methods,
and classes.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 66

 Naming Conventions:
Variables & Methods
• Use lowercase for variables and
methods—for example, the
variables radius and area, and the
method print.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 67

 Naming Conventions:
Variables & Methods
• If a name consists of several words,
concatenate them into one,
making the first word lowercase
and capitalizing the first letter of
each subsequent word—for
example, the variable
numberOfStudents.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 68

 Naming Variables &
Methods
• This naming style is known as the
camelCase because the
uppercase characters in the
name resemble a camel’s humps.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 69

 Naming Classes
• Capitalize the first letter of each
word in a class name—for example,
the class names ComputeArea
and System.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 70

 Naming Constants
• Capitalize every letter in a
constant, and use underscores
between words—for example, the
constants PI and MAX_VALUE.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 71

 Naming Conventions
• It is important to follow the
naming conventions to make
your programs easy to read.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 72

 Naming Conventions
• Do not choose class names that
are already used in the Java
library.
• For example, since the System
class is defined in Java, you
should not name your class
System.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 73

REVIEW QUESTIONS

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 74

 QUESTION 1 [8
Marks]
• What are the naming conventions
for class names, method names,
constants, and variables?
• Which of the following items can be
a constant, a method, a variable,
or a class according to the Java
naming conventions?
• MAX_VALUE, Test, read, readDouble

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 75

 QUESTION 2 [4
Marks]
• Step 1: Declare a double variable
named miles with an initial value
100.
• Step 2: Declare a double constant
named KILOMETERS_PER_MILE with
value 1.609.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 76

 QUESTION 3 [2
Marks]
• Step 3: Declare a double variable
named kilometers, multiply miles
and KILOMETERS_PER_MILE, and
assign the result to kilometers.
• Step 4: Display kilometers to the
console. What is kilometers after
Step 4?

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 77

9. Numeric Data Types &
Operations

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 78

 Lesson Overview
1. Introduction 10. Numeric Literals
2. Writing a Simple 11. Evaluating Expressions
Program & Operator Precedence
3. Console Input 12. Augmented
4. Identifiers Assignment Operators
5. Variables 13. Increment &
Decrement Operators
6. Assignment
Statements & 14. Numeric Type
Expressions Conversions
7. Named Constants 15. Software Development
Process
8. Naming Conventions
16. Common Errors &
9. Numeric Data Types & Pitfalls
Operations
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 79
 Numeric Types
• Java has six numeric types for
integers and floating-point
numbers with operators +, -, *, /,
and %.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 80

 Numeric Types
• Every data type has a range of
values.
• The compiler allocates memory
space for each variable or
constant according to its data
type.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 81

 Numeric Types
• Java provides eight primitive
data types for numeric values,
characters, and Boolean values.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 82

 Numeric Types
• This section introduces numeric
data types and operators.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 83

 Numeric Types
• The following table lists the six
numeric data types, their
ranges, and their storage sizes.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 84

Numeric Data Types

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 85

 IEEE 754 Standard
• IEEE 754 is a standard approved
by the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers for
representing floating-point
numbers on computers.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 86

 IEEE 754 Standard
• The standard has been widely
adopted.
• Java uses the
• 32-bit IEEE 754 for the float type
• 64-bit IEEE 754 for the double
type.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 87

 IEEE 754 Standard
• The IEEE 754 standard also
defines special floating-point
values.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 88

 Numeric Integer Types
• Java uses four types for
integers:
1. byte,
2. short,
3. int,
4. long.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 89

 Numeric Integer Types
• Choose the type that is most
appropriate for your variable.
• For example, if you know an
integer stored in a variable is
within a range of a byte, declare
the variable as a byte.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 90

 Numeric Floating-Point
Types
• Java uses two types for floating-
point numbers:
1. float
2. double.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 91

 Numeric Floating-Point
Types
• The double type is twice as big as
float, so the double is known as
double precision, and float as
single precision.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 92

 Numeric Floating-Point
Types
• Normally, you should use the
double type, because it is more
accurate than the float type.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 93

 Reading Numbers from
the Keyboard
• You can use the methods listed in
the following table to read a
number of the
• byte,
• short,
• int,
• long,
• float type

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 94

Reading Numbers from
the Keyboard

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 95

Keyboard Input Examples
• The following figure shows
examples of reading input from
the Keyboard:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 96

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 97
 Values Out of Range
• If you enter a value with an
incorrect range or format, a
runtime error would occur.
• For example, if you enter a value
128 for line 3, an error would
occur because 128 is out of
range for a byte type integer

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 98

 Numeric Types
• The operators for numeric data
types include the standard
arithmetic operators:
1. addition (+),
2. subtraction (–),
3. multiplication (*),
4. division (/),
5. and remainder (%).
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 99
 Numeric Types
• as listed in the following table:
• The operands are the values
operated by an operator.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 100

Numeric Operators

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 101

 Integer Division
• When both operands of a
division are integers, the result
of the division is the quotient and
the fractional part is truncated.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 102

 Integer Division
• For example,
• 5 / 2 yields 2, not 2.5,
• –5 / 2 yields –2, not –2.5.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 103

 Floating-Point Division
• To perform a floating-point
division, one of the operands
must be a floating-point
number.
• For example,
• 5.0 / 2 yields 2.5.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 104

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• The % operator, known as
remainder, yields the remainder
after division.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 105

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• The operand on the left is the
dividend, and the operand on the
right is the divisor.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 106

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• Therefore,
• 7 % 3 yields 1,
• 3 % 7 yields 3,
• 12 % 4 yields 0,
• 26 % 8 yields 2,
• 20 % 13 yields 7.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 107

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• The % operator is often used for
positive integers, but it can also
be used with negative integers
and floating-point values.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 108

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• The remainder is negative only if
the dividend is negative.
• For example,
• -7 % 3 yields -1,
• -12 % 4 yields 0,
• -26 % -8 yields -2,
• 20 % -13 yields 7.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 109

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• Remainder is very useful in
programming.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 110

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• For example, an even number %
2 is always 0 and a positive odd
number % 2 is always 1.
• Thus, you can use this property to
determine whether a number is
even or odd.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 111

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• The following program obtains
minutes and remaining seconds
from an amount of time in
seconds.
• For example, 500 seconds
contains 8 minutes and 20
seconds.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 112

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 113
Sample Run

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 114

 Modulo / Remainder
Operator
• The nextInt() method (line 8)
reads an integer for seconds.
• Line 10 obtains the minutes using
seconds / 60.
• Line 11 (seconds % 60) obtains the
remaining seconds after taking
away the minutes.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 115

Unary & Binary Operators
• The + and - operators can be both
unary and binary.
• A unary operator has only one
operand;
• a binary operator has two.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 116

Unary & Binary Operators
• For example, the – operator in –5
is a unary operator to negate
number 5, whereas the – operator
in 4 – 5 is a binary operator for
subtracting 5 from 4

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 117

 Exponent Operations
• The [Link](a, b) method can
be used to compute ab.
• The pow method is defined in the
Math class in the Java API.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 118

 Exponent Operations
• You invoke the method using the
syntax [Link](a, b) (e.g.,
[Link](2, 3)), which returns
the result of ab (23).
• Here, a and b are parameters for
the pow method and the numbers
2 and 3 are actual values used to
invoke the method.
By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 119
 Exponent Operations
• For example,

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 120

REVIEW QUESTIONS

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 121

 QUESTION 1 [2
Marks]
• What is the result of 25 / 4?
• How would you rewrite the
expression if you wished the
result to be a floating-point
number?

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 122

 QUESTION 2 [4
Marks]
• Show the result of the following
code:

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 123

 QUESTION 3 [4
Marks]
• Are the following statements
correct?
• If so, show the output.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 124

QUESTION 4 [1 Mark]
• Write a statement to display the
result of 23.5.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 125

 QUESTION 5 [2
Marks]
• Suppose m and r are integers.
• Write a Java expression for mr2
to obtain a floating-point result.

By Technical Instructor, Mr K Chisamu 126