Lecture 04
Variables, Data-Types and
Type Conversion
Lecture Outline
• Value, Variable and Data Type
• Type Conversion
• Arithmetic Expression Evaluation
• Scope of Variable
Variable
• Variable is used to store a value inside a computer
• A variable is a space in the memory to store a value
• This space is reserved until the variable is required
3 Important Characteristics of Variable
• Type
• How much memory do a variable need.
• This information is determined by a type.
• Name
• How to differentiate a variable with another variable of the
same type.
• Name refers to the memory location assigned to this variable.
• Value
• What is the value?
• The actual value contained by a variable.
Variable - Example
• int temperature = 35;
• Type of variable is integer (written as “int” in Java)
• temperature is the name of variable which we will use
whenever we want to access or store the value in it
• 35 is the initial value that we are assigning it at the time of
declaration
Variable – Example – Memory View
00000000 Location 0
Locations 0 – 3 are collectively 00000000 Location 1
called as ‘temperature’ 00000000 Location 2
00100011 Location 3
Location 4
100011 is the binary equivalent of 35 Location 5
Variable Type
• Among other advantages a ‘type’ binds the memory to a
variable name.
• Java is more strictly typed than either language.
• For example, in C/C++ you can assign a floating-point value to
an integer. In Java, you cannot
• Also, in C/C++, there is not necessarily strong type-checking
between a parameter and an argument. In Java, there is
Primitive Data Types - Numeric
• Whole Numbers
• Floating Point Numbers
Primitive Data Types – Non-Numeric
Relative Comparison of int and double
int numPeople = 2;
Reserves 32 bits (4 bytes)
and sets the value stored
in that space to 2. The name
‘numPeople’ is associated with
this space.
double bill = 32.45;
Reserves 64 bits (8 bytes)
and sets the value stored
in that space to 32.45. The name
‘bill’ is associated with
this space.
Type Conversion
• Java can perform conversion automatically
• int value can be assigned to long
• Depends upon type compatibility
• Not all type conversions implicitly allowed
• Can’t assign a long value to int
• Solution: Casting
• Type casting is when you assign a value of one primitive
data type to another type.
Type Conversion – Widening Conversion
• Narrow data types are converted into broad data type
with out loss of information
• Both types are compatible.
• Numeric types are not compatible with boolean and char
• Destination type is larger than source type.
• Example
• byte -> int
• int -> long
int myInt = 9;
// Automatic casting: int to double
double myDouble = myInt;
Type Conversion – Narrowing Conversion
• Broader data type is converted into narrower data type
with loss of information
• Process is called casting (explicit type conversion)
float x = 3.4f;
int y = x; // Narrowing Conversion, Error
int y = (int) x; // No Error
Permitted Conversions
• byte -> short, int, long, float, or double
• short -> int, long, float, or double
• char -> int, long, float, or double
• int -> long, float, or double
• long -> float or double
• float -> double
Type Conversion in Expressions
Type Conversion in Expressions - Output
Description
• In the first subexpression, f * b, b is promoted to a
float and the result of the subexpression is float.
• Next, in the subexpression i / c, c is promoted to int,
and the result is of type int.
• Then, in d * s, the value of s is promoted to double,
and the type of the subexpression is double.
• Finally, these three intermediate values, float, int, and
double, are considered.
• The outcome of float plus an int is a float. Then the
resultant float minus the last double is promoted to
double, which is the type for the final result of the
expression.
Manipulating Variables
• Assignment Statement
• In Mathematics the value x = x + 1 is not possible why?
• In Java x = x +1 is possible because “=” is an assignment
operator and not an equality operator.
• Assignment operator means that the contents of the right hand
side is transferred to the memory location of the left hand side.
• Example:
• X = 5671;
Constants
• Constants are values which cannot be modified e.g. the
value of Pi
• To declare a constant in Java, we write a keyword “final”
before the variable type
final double pi = 3.14;
What is the result of this expression?
• 6 + 2 * 3 / 6;
• 7
• 0.5
• 13.0
• 4
Manipulating Values
• Mathematical Operators
• Common mathematical operators are available in Java for
manipulating values e.g. addition(+), subtraction(-),
multiplication(*), division(/), and modulus (%)
• Operator Precedence
• Operator precedence controls the order in which operations are
performed
• Operator Associativity
• The associativity of an operator specifies the order in which
operations of the same precedence are performed
• Do all multiplications, divisions and remainders from left
to right
• Do additions and subtractions from left to right
Scope of Variables
• Most other computer languages define two general
categories of scopes: global and local.
• In Java, the two major scopes are those defined by a
class and those defined by a method.
• The scope defined by a method begins with its opening
curly brace.
Non-Primitive Data Types
• So far the variable types that we have studied are
primitive data types.
• Primitive data types only have a memory space for
storing values.
• However, Object-Oriented Programming is special
because OOP has more variables then just primitive data
types.
What Will Happen Here?
float f = 65/10 + 38/10;
System.out.println(f);
Thank You
Any Questions?
