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Data Types and
Variables
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Data Types
Data Type simply means the type of data. It tells the
compiler or interpreter how the programmer intends
to use the data.
Every data has a type and every type is strictly
defined.
Java’s types are divided into primitive types and
reference types.
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Primitive Types
Type Bytes Range
byte 1 -128, 127
short 2 -32768, 32767
int 4 -2B, 2B
Long 8
float 4
double 8
char 2 0 – 65,536
boolean 1
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Identifiers
Identifiers are the names that identify the elements such
as classes, methods, and variables in a program.
An identifier is a sequence of characters that consists of
letters, digits, underscores (_), and dollar signs ($).
An identifier must start with a letter, an underscore (_),
or a dollar sign ($). It cannot start with a digit.
An identifier cannot be a reserved word.
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Variables
A variable is the basic unit of storage in a Java
program.
is a location in the computer’s memory where a value
can be stored for use later in a program.
All variables must be declared with a name and a
type before they can be used.
A variable’s name enables the program to access the
variable’s value in memory.
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Declaring a Variable
Type identifier [ = value ];
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The Scope and Lifetime of Variables
Local Variables
Variables declared within a block or a method.
Variables declared inside a scope are not visible
to code outside that scope.
Global Variables
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Type Conversion and Casting
Type conversion is assigning a value of one type to a
variable of another type.
Example; it is possible to assign an int value to a long
variable.
However, not all types are compatible, and thus, not
all type conversions are implicitly allowed.
Casting allows you to perform explicit conversion
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between incompatible types.
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Java’s Automatic Conversions
When one type of data is assigned to another type of
variable, an automatic type conversion will take place
if the following two conditions are met:
The two types are compatible
The destination type is larger than the source type.
Example, the int type is always large enough to hold
all valid byte and short values, so no explicit cast
statement is required.
Yeboah Adjei-Twum
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Java’s Automatic Conversions
For widening conversions, the numeric types,
including integer and floating point types, are
compatible with each other.
However, there are no automatic conversions from
the numeric types to char or boolean.
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Scenario 1
A program that finds that adds two numbers.
Define all the ‘identifiers’ (Choosing appropriate identifiers)
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A customer of a bank made a deposit of GHC 500 on 14/09/2019.
The details of the customer is as follows:
Name: Abigail Ayebeng
Balance before the deposit: GHC 1200.
Write a program that displays:
The name of the customer
The date of the last deposit
The current balance of the customer
(Note first assign the values to variables and then during printing, call the
variables instead of the values themselves. Choose appropriate identifiers)
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