Presentation for use with the textbook Data Structures and

Algorithms in Java, 6th edition, by M. T. Goodrich, R. Tamassia,

and M. H. Goldwasser, Wiley, 2014

Java Primer 1: Types, Classes

and Operators

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

The Java Compiler

q
q

Java is a compiled language.

Programs are compiled into byte-code executable files,
which are executed through the Java virtual machine
(JVM).
n

The JVM reads each instruction and executes that instruction.

A programmer defines a Java program in advance and

saves that program in a text file known as source code.
For Java, source code is conventionally stored in a file
named with the .java suffix (e.g., demo.java) and the
byte-code file is stored in a file named with a .class
suffix, which is produced by the Java compiler.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

An Example Program

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

Components of a Java Program

q

In Java, executable statements are placed in

functions, known as methods, that belong
to class definitions.
The static method named main is the first
method to be executed when running a Java
program.
Any set of statements between the braces
{ and } define a program block.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

Identifiers
q

The name of a class, method, or variable in

Java is called an identifier, which can be any
string of characters as long as it begins with a
letter and consists of letters.
Exceptions:

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

Base Types
q

Java has several base types, which are basic ways of

storing data.
An identifier variable can be declared to hold any
base type and it can later be reassigned to hold
another value of the same type.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

Classes and Objects

q

Every object is an instance of a class, which serves as the

type of the object and as a blueprint, defining the data which
the object stores and the methods for accessing and modifying
that data. The critical members of a class in Java are the
following:
n

Instance variables, which are also called fields, represent the data
associated with an object of a class. Instance variables must have a type,
which can either be a base type (such as int, float, or double) or any class
type.
Methods in Java are blocks of code that can be called to perform actions.
Methods can accept parameters as arguments, and their behavior may
depend on the object upon which they are invoked and the values of any
parameters that are passed. A method that returns information to the
caller without changing any instance variables is known as an accessor
method, while an update method is one that may change one or more
instance variables when called.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

Another Example

This class includes one instance variable, named count,

which will have a default value of zero, unless we
otherwise initialize it.
The class includes two special methods known as
constructors, one accessor method, and three update
methods.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

Creating and Using Objects

q

Classes are known as reference types in Java, and a variable

of that type is known as a reference variable.
A reference variable is capable of storing the location (i.e.,
memory address) of an object from the declared class.
n

So we might assign it to reference an existing instance or a newly

constructed instance.
A reference variable can also store a special value, null, that represents the
lack of an object.

In Java, a new object is created by using the new operator

followed by a call to a constructor for the desired class.
A constructor is a method that always shares the same name
as its class. The new operator returns a reference to the newly
created instance; the returned reference is typically assigned to
a variable for further use.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

Continued Example

Here, a new Counter is constructed at line 4, with its reference

assigned to the variable c. That relies on a form of the
constructor, Counter( ), that takes no arguments between the
parentheses.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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The Dot Operator

q

One of the primary uses of an object

reference variable is to access the members
of the class for this object, an instance of its
class.
This access is performed with the dot (.)
operator.
We call a method associated with an object
by using the reference variable name,
following that by the dot operator and then
the method name and its parameters.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Wrapper Types
q

There are many data structures and

algorithms in Javas libraries that are
specifically designed so that they only work
with object types (not primitives).
To get around this obstacle, Java defines a
wrapper class for each base type.
n

Java provides additional support for implicitly

converting between base types and their wrapper
types through a process known as automatic
boxing and unboxing.

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Java Primer 1

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Example Wrapper Types

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Signatures
q

If there are several methods with this same name

defined for a class, then the Java runtime system
uses the one that matches the actual number of
parameters sent as arguments, as well as their
respective types.
A methods name combined with the number and
types of its parameters is called a methods
signature, for it takes all of these parts to determine
the actual method to perform for a certain method
call.
A reference variable v can be viewed as a pointer
to some object o.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Defining Classes
q

A class definition is a block of code,

delimited by braces { and } , within
which is included declarations of instance
variables and methods that are the members
of the class.
Immediately before the definition of a class,
instance variable, or method in Java,
keywords known as modifiers can be placed
to convey additional stipulations about that
definition.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Access Control Modifiers

q

The public class modifier designates that all classes

may access the defined aspect.
The protected class modifier designates that access
to the defined aspect is only granted to classes that
are designated as subclasses of the given class through
inheritance or in the same package.
The private class modifier designates that access to a
defined member of a class be granted only to code
within that class.
When a variable or method of a class is declared as
static, it is associated with the class as a whole, rather
than with each individual instance of that class.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Parameters
q

A methods parameters are defined in a comma-separated list

enclosed in parentheses after the name of the method.
n

A parameter consists of two parts, the parameter type and the

parameter name.
If a method has no parameters, then only an empty pair of
parentheses is used.

All parameters in Java are passed by value, that is, any time
we pass a parameter to a method, a copy of that parameter is
made for use within the method body.
n

n
n

So if we pass an int variable to a method, then that variables

integer value is copied.
The method can change the copy but not the original.
If we pass an object reference as a parameter to a method, then
the reference is copied as well.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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The Keyword this

q

Within the body of a method in Java, the

keyword this is automatically defined as a
reference to the instance upon which the method
was invoked. There are three common uses:
1.

2.

3.

To store the reference in a variable, or send it as a

parameter to another method that expects an
instance of that type as an argument.
To differentiate between an instance variable and a
local variable with the same name.
To allow one constructor body to invoke another
constructor body.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Expressions and Operators

Existing values can be combined into
expressions using special symbols and
keywords known as operators.
q The semantics of an operator depends
upon the type of its operands.
q For example, when a and b are
numbers, the syntax a + b indicates
addition, while if a and b are strings,
the operator + indicates concatenation.
q

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Java Primer 1

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Arithmetic Operators
q

Java supports the following arithmetic operators:

If both operands have type int, then the result is an int;

if one or both operands have type float, the result is a
float.
Integer division has its result truncated.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Increment and Decrement Ops

q

Java provides the plus-one increment (++)

and decrement () operators.
n

If such an operator is used in front of a variable

reference, then 1 is added to (or subtracted from)
the variable and its value is read into the
expression.
If it is used after a variable reference, then the
value is first read and then the variable is
incremented or decremented by 1.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Logical Operators
q

Java supports the following operators for numerical

values, which result in Boolean values:

Boolean values also have the following operators:

The and and or operators short circuit, in that they

do not evaluate the second operand if the result can
be determined based on the value of the first operand.

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Bitwise Operators
q

Java provides the following bitwise

operators for integers and booleans:

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Operator Precedence

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Casting
Casting is an operation that allows us to
change the type of a value.
q We can take a value of one type and
cast it into an equivalent value of
another type.
q There are two forms of casting in Java:
explicit casting and implicit casting.
q

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Java Primer 1

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Explicit Casting
q

Java supports an explicit casting syntax with the

following form:
(type) exp
Here type is the type that we would like the
expression exp to have.
This syntax may only be used to cast from one
primitive type to another primitive type, or from one
reference type to another reference type.
Examples:

2014 Goodrich, Tamassia, Goldwasser

Java Primer 1

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Implicit Casting
q

There are cases where Java will perform an implicit

cast based upon the context of an expression.
You can perform a widening cast between primitive
types (such as from an int to a double), without
explicit use of the casting operator.
However, if attempting to do an implicit narrowing
cast, a compiler error results.

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Java Primer 1

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