OCA EXAM 8
CHAPTER 2 – Operators & Statements
By İbrahim Kürce
Brief of OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808
Jeanne Boyarsky, Scott Selikoff
Operators and Statements
A Java operator is a special symbol that can be applied to a set of variables, values, or
literals— referred to as operands— and that returns a result. Three flavors of operators are
available in Java: unary, binary, and ternary.
Unless overridden with parentheses, Java operators follow order of operation, listed in
Table below, by decreasing order of operator precedence.
Working with Binary Arithmetic Operators
Arithmetic Operators
Arithmetic operators are often encountered in early mathematics and include addition
(+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), and modulus (%).
They also include the unary operators, + + and –
The multiplicative operators (*, /, %) have a higher order of precedence than the additive
operators (+, -).
Numeric Promotion
Numeric Promotion Rules
If two values have different data types, Java will automatically promote one of the values to the
larger of the two data types.
If one of the values is integral and the other is floating-point, Java will automatically promote the
integral value to the floating-point value's data type.
Smaller data types, namely byte, short, and char, are first promoted to int any time they're used
with a Java binary arithmetic operator, even if neither of the operands is int.
After all promotion has occurred and the operands have the same data type, the resulting value
will have the same data type as its promoted operands.
Numeric Promotion
For the third rule, note that unary operators are excluded from this rule. For example,
applying ++ to a short value results in a short value.
What is the data type of x * y?
int x = 1;
long y = 33; //long
What is the data type of x + y?
double x = 39.21;
float y = 2.1; // error
Numeric Promotion
What is the data type of x / y?
short x = 10;
short y = 3;
x and y will both be promoted to int before the operation, resulting in an output of type int.
What is the data type of x * y / z?
short x = 14;
float y = 13;
double z = 30; //double
Working with Unary Operators
By definition, a unary operator is one that requires exactly one operand, or variable, to
function.
Logical Complement and Negation
Operators
The logical complement operator, !, flips the value of a boolean expression.
Likewise, the negation operator, -, reverses the sign of a numeric expression, as shown in
these statements:
Unlike some other programming languages, in Java 1 and true are not related in any way,
just as 0 and false are not related.
Increment and Decrement Operators
Increment and decrement operators, + + and --, respectively, can be applied to numeric
operands and have the higher order or precedence, as compared to binary operators.
If the operator is placed before the operand, referred to as the pre-increment operator and
the pre-decrement operator, then the operator is applied first and the value return is the
new value of the expression. Alternatively, if the operator is placed after the operand,
referred to as the post-increment operator and the post-decrement operator, then the
original value of the expression is returned, with operator applied after the value is
returned.
Increment and Decrement Operators
Assignment Operators
An assignment operator is a binary operator that modifies, or assigns, the variable on the
left-hand side of the operator, with the result of the value on the right-hand side of the
equation.
int x = 1;
Java will automatically promote from smaller to larger data types, as we saw in the
previous section on arithmetic operators, but it will throw a compiler exception if it detects
you are trying to convert from larger to smaller data types.
Casting Primitive Values
Casting Primitive Values
Compound Assignment Operators
Besides the simple assignment operator, =, there are also numerous compound assignment
operators.
Only two of the compound operators are required for the exam, + = and -=.
Compound operators are useful for more than just shorthand— they can also save us from
having to explicitly cast a value.
Compound Assignment Operators
One final thing to know about the assignment operator is that the result of the assignment
is an expression in and of itself, equal to the value of the assignment.
Relational Operators
We now move on to relational operators, which compare two expressions and return a
boolean value.
The first four relational operators are applied to numeric primitive data types only. If the
two numeric operands are not of the same data type, the smaller one is promoted.
The instanceof operator, while useful for determining whether an arbitrary object is a
member of a particular class or interface, is out of scope for the OCA exam.
Logical Operators
The logical operators, (&), (|), and (^), may be applied to both numeric and boolean data
types. When they're applied to boolean data types, they're referred to as logical operators.
Alternatively, when they're applied to numeric data types, they're referred to as bitwise
operators, as they perform bitwise comparisons of the bits that compose the number. For
the exam, though, you don't need to know anything about numeric bitwise comparisons.
Logical Operators
We present the conditional operators, && and | |, which are often referred to as short-
circuit operators. The short-circuit operators are nearly identical to the logical operators, &
and |, respectively, except that the right-hand side of the expression may never be
evaluated if the final result can be determined by the left-hand side of the expression.
boolean x = true || (y < 4);
Since we know the left-hand side is true, there's no need to evaluate the right-hand side.
Logical Operators
Because x >= 6 is true, the increment operator on the right-hand side of the expression is
never evaluated, so the output is 6.
Equality Operators
The equality operators are used in one of three scenarios:
Comparing two numeric primitive types. If the numeric values are of different data types, the
values are automatically promoted as previously described. For example, 5 = = 5.00 returns true
since the left side is promoted to a double.
Comparing two boolean values.
Comparing two objects, including null and String values.
Equality Operators
Two references are equal if and only if they point to the same object, or both point to null.
In this example, as well as during the OCA exam, you may be presented with class names
that are unfamiliar, such as File. Many times you can answer questions about these classes
without knowing the specific details of these classes.
Understanding Java Statements
a Java statement is a complete unit of execution in Java, terminated with a semicolon (;).
Control flow statements break up the flow of execution by using decision making, looping,
and branching, allowing the application to selectively execute particular segments of code.
a block of code in Java is a group of zero or more statements between balanced braces,
({}), and can be used anywhere a single statement is allowed.
The if-then Statement
We only want to execute a block of code under certain circumstances. The if-then
statement is for it.
The if-then Statement
Watch Indentation and Braces
One area that the exam writers will try to trip you up is on if-then statements without
braces ({}). For example, take a look at this slightly modified form of our example:
Remember that in Java, unlike some other programming languages, tabs are just
whitespace and are not evaluated as part of the execution.
The if-then-else Statement
The if-then-else Statement
We can append additional if-then statements to an else block to arrive at a more refined
example:
The Java process will continue execution until it encounters an if-then statement that
evaluates to true. If neither of the first two expressions are true, it will execute the final
code of the else block.
The if-then-else Statement
For example, see what happens if we reorder the previous snippet of code as follows:
Be careful
Ternary Operator
The conditional operator, ? :, otherwise known as the ternary operator, is the only operator that takes
three operands and is of the form:
There is no requirement that second and third expressions in ternary operations have the same data
types, although it may come into play when combined with the assignment operator.
Ternary Operator
As of Java 7, only one of the right-hand expressions of the ternary operator will be
evaluated at runtime.
The switch Statement
The switch Statement
A switch statement has a target variable that is not evaluated until runtime. Prior to Java
5.0, this variable could only be int values or those values that could be promoted to int,
specifically byte, short, char, or int. When enum was added in Java 5.0, support was added
to switch statements to support enum values. In Java 7, switch statements were further
updated to allow matching on String values. Finally, the switch statement also supports any
of the primitive numeric wrapper classes, such as Byte, Short, Character, or Integer.
The switch Statement
The values in each case statement must be compile-time constant values of the same data
type as the switch value. This means you can use only literals, enum constants, or final
constant variables of the same data type.
As we'll soon see, if you leave out the break statement, flow will continue to the next
proceeding case or default block automatically.
Another thing you might notice is that the default block is not at the end of the switch
statement. There is no requirement that the case or default statements be in a particular
order.
The switch Statement
Weekday Saturday
The order of the case and default statements is now important since placing the default
statement at the end of the switch statement would cause only one word to be output.
The exam creators are fond of switch examples that are missing break statements.
The switch Statement
The while Statement
A repetition control structure, which we refer to as a loop, executes a statement of code
multiple times in succession.
The simplest such repetition control structure in Java is the while statement.
During execution, the boolean expression is evaluated before each iteration of the loop and
exits if the evaluation returns false.
The while Statement
Infinite loops
You may notice one glaring problem with this statement: it will never end!
The result is that the loop will never end, creating what is commonly referred to as an
infinite loop.
The do-while Statement
Java also allows for the creation of a do-while loop, which like a while loop, is a repetition
control structure with a termination condition and statement, or block of statements.
Unlike a while loop, though, a do-while loop guarantees that the statement or block will be
executed at least once.
The do-while Statement
Java will execute the statement block first, and then check the loop condition. Even though
the loop exits right away, the statement block was still executed once.
The for Statement
Starting in Java 5.0, there are now two types of for statements. The first is referred to as the
basic for loop, and the second is often called the enhanced for loop.
For clarity, we'll refer to the enhanced for loop as the for-each statement throughout the
book.
A basic for loop has the same conditional boolean expression and statement, or block of
statements, as the other loops you have seen, as well as two new sections: an initialization
block and an update statement.
The for Statement
The for Statement
Note that each section is separated by a semicolon. The initialization and update sections
may contain multiple statements, separated by commas.
Like a while loop, the boolean condition is evaluated on every iteration of the loop before
the loop executes. Since it returns true, the loop executes and outputs the 0 followed by a
space. Next, the loop executes the update section, which in this case increases the value of
i to 1. The loop then evaluates the boolean expression a second time, and the process
repeats multiple times.
The for Statement
Creating an Infinite Loop
Adding Multiple Terms to the for Statement
The for-each Statement
Starting with Java 5.0, Java developers have had a new type of enhanced for loop at their
disposal, one specifically designed for iterating over arrays and Collection objects. This
enhanced for loop, which for clarity we'll refer to as a for-each loop.
The for-each Statement
For the OCA exam, the only members of the Collections framework that you need to be
aware of are List and ArrayList.
Nested Loops
Adding Optional Labels
One thing we skipped when we presented if-then statements, switch statements, and loops
is that they can all have optional labels. A label is an optional pointer to the head of a
statement that allows the application flow to jump to it or break from it.
The break Statement
As you saw when working with switch statements, a break statement transfers the flow of
control out to the enclosing statement. The same holds true for break statements that
appear inside of while, do-while, and for loops, as it will end the loop early.
The break Statement
The continue Statement
continue statement, a statement that causes flow to finish the execution of the current loop.
The continue Statement
1a 3a 4a
Advanced flow control usage
Review Questions
Answer
int, long, double
Question
Answer
B,C,D,F
Question
Answer
D=8
Question
Answer
D
Question
Answer
D
Question
Answer
B=2
