Multithreaded

Java was designed to meet the real-world requirement of creating interactive, networked
programs. To accomplish this, Java supports multithreaded programming, which allows you to
write programs that do many things simultaneously. The Java run-time system comes with an
elegant yet sophisticated solution for multiprocess .synchronization that enables you to construct
smoothly running interactive systems.
Architecture-Neutral

A central issue for the Java designers was that of code longevity and portability. One of
the main problems facing programmers is that no guarantee exists that if you write a program
today, it will run tomorrow—even on the same machine. Operating system up grades, processor
upgrades, and changes in core system resources can all combine to make a program malfunction.
The Java designers made several hard decisions in the Java language and the Java Virtual
Machine in an attempt to alter this situation forever.‖ To a great extent, this goal was accomplished.

Interpreted and High Performance

As described earlier, Java enables the creation of cross-platform programs by compiling

into an intermediate representation called Java bytecode. This code can be interpreted on any
system that provides a Java Virtual Machine. Most previous attempts at cross platform solutions
have done so at the expense of performance. Other interpreted systems, such as BASIC, Tcl, and
PERL, suffer from almost insurmountable performance deficits. Java, however, was designed to
perform well on very low-power CPUs.

Distributed
Java is designed for the distributed environment of the Internet, because it handles
TCP/IP protocols. In fact, accessing a resource using a URL is not much different from accessing
a file. The original version of Java (Oak) included features for intra address-space messaging.
This allowed objects on two different computers to execute procedures remotely. Java revived
these interfaces in a package called Remote MethodInvocation (RMI). This feature brings an
unparalleled level of abstraction to client/server programming.
Dynamic
Java programs carry with them substantial amounts of run-time type information that is
used to verify and resolve accesses to objects at run time. This makes it possible to dynamically
link code in a safe and expedient manner. This is crucial to the robustness of the applet
environment, in which small fragments of bytecode may be dynamically updated on a running
system.

DATA TYPES
Java defines eight simple (or elemental) types of data: byte, short, int, long, char, float,double,
and boolean. These can be put in four groups:

Integers This group includes byte, short, int, and long, which are for whole valued signed numbers.

Floating-point numbers This group includes float and double, which represent numbers with
fractional precision.

Characters This group includes char, which represents symbols in a character set, like letters
and numbers.

Boolean This group includes boolean, which is a special type for representing true/false
values.
Integers

Java defines four integer types: byte, short, int, and long. All of these are signed,
positive and negative values. Java does not support unsigned, positive-only integers. Many other
Computer languages, including C/C++, support both signed and unsigned integers.

Name Width Range

long 64 –9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807

int 32 –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

short 16 –32,768 to 32,767

byte 8 –128 to 127

byte

The smallest integer type is byte. This is a signed 8-bit type that has a range from –128to
127. Variables of type byte are especially useful when you’re a network or file. They are also usefulnotbe
when directly compatible-intypeswith. Java’s other built
Syntax: byte b, c;

short

short is a signed 16-bit type. It has a range from –32,768 to 32,767. It is probably the
least-used Java type, since it is defined as having its high byte first (called big-endian format).
This type is mostly applicable to 16-bit computers, which are becoming increasingly scarce.
Here are some examples of short variable
declarations: short s;
short t;
int
The most commonly used integer type is int. It is a signed 32-bit type that has a range
from –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. In addition to other uses, variables of type int are
commonly employed to control loops and to index arrays. Any time you have an integer
expression involving bytes, shorts, ints, and literal numbers, the entire expression Is promoted
to int before the calculation is done.
long
long is a signed 64-bit type and is useful for those occasions where an int type is notlarge
enough to hold the desired value. The range of a long is quite large. This makesit useful when
big, whole numbers are needed. For example, here is a program thatcomputes the number of
miles that light will travel in a specified number of days.
Floating-Point Types
Floating-point numbers, also known as real numbers, are used when evaluating expressions that
require fractional precision. For example, calculations such as square root, or transcendentals
such as sine and cosine, result in a value whose precision requires a floating-point type.
Their width and ranges are shown here:
Name Width Bits Approximate Range
double 64 4.9e–324 to 1.8e+308
float 32
float
 The type float specifies a single-precision value that uses 32 bits of storage. Single
precision is faster on some processors and takes half as much space as double precision, but will
become imprecise when the values are either very large or very small. Variables of type float are
useful when you need a fractional component, but don’t require example, float can be useful when
representing dollars and cents.
Here are some example float variable
declarations: float hightemp, lowtemp;
double
Double precision, as denoted by the double keyword, uses 64 bits to store a value.
Double precision is actually faster than single precision on some modern processors that have
been optimized for high-speed mathematical calculations.

Here is a short program that uses double variables to compute the area of a circle:
// Compute the area of a circle.
class Area {
public static void main(String args[]) {
double pi, r, a;
r = 10.8; // radius of circle
pi = 3.1416; // pi, approximately
a = pi * r * r; // compute area
System.out.println("Area of circle is " + a);
}
}
Characters
In Java, the data type used to store characters is char. However, C/C++ programmers
beware: char in Java is not the same as char in C or C++. In C/C++, char is an integertype that
is 8 bits wide. This is not the case in Java. Instead, Java uses Unicode to representcharacters..
There are no negative chars. The standard set of characters known asASCII still ranges from 0 to
127 as always, and the extended 8-bit character set, ISO-Latin-1,ranges from 0 to 255.
Booleans
Java has a simple type, called boolean, for logical values. It can have only one of
twopossible values, true or false. This is the type returned by all relational operators, suc has a <
b. boolean is also the type required by the conditional expressions that govern the control
statements such as if and for.
Here is a program that demonstrates the boolean type:
There are three interesting things to notice about this program. First, as
you can see,when a boolean value is output by println( ), ―true‖ or ―false‖ Second,the value of a boolean
variable is sufficient, by itself, to control the if statement. Thereis
no need to write an if statement like this:
if(b == true) ...
Third, the outcome of a relational operator, such as <, is a boolean value. This is why
the expression 10 > 9 displays the value ―true.‖ Further, around 10 > 9 is necessary because the + operator
has a higher precedence than the >.
Variables
The variable is the basic unit of storage in a Java program. A variable is defined by the
combination of an identifier, a type, and an optional initializer. In addition, all variables have a
scope, which defines their visibility, and a lifetime. These elementsare examined next.
Declaring a Variable
In Java, all variables must be declared before they can be used. The basic form of
a variable declaration is shown here:
type identifier [ = value][, identifier [= value] ...] ;
The type is one of Java’s atomic types, or the nam interface types are discussed later in Part I of this
book.) The identifier is the name of the variable.

Here are several examples of variable declarations of various types. Note that
some include an initialization.

int a, b, c; // declares three ints, a, b, and c.

int d = 3, e, f = 5; // declares three more ints, initializing
// d and f.
byte z = 22; // initializes z.
double pi = 3.14159; // declares an approximation of pi.
char x = 'x'; // the variable x has the value 'x'.
The Scope and Lifetime of Variables
So far, all of the variables used have been declared at the start of the main( ) method.
However, Java allows variables to be declared within any block. As explained in Chapter 2, a
block is begun with an opening curly brace and ended by a closing curlybrace. A block defines a
scope. Thus, each time you start a new block, you are creating a new scope. As you probably
know from your previous programming experience, a scope determines what objects are visible
to other parts of your program. It also determines the lifetime of those objects.
Most other computer languages define two general categories of scopes: global and local.
However, these traditional scopes do not fit scope defined by a method begins with its opening
curly brace.

To understand the effect of nested scopes, consider the following

program: // Demonstrate block scope.
Arrays
An array is a group of like-typed variables that are referred to by a common name.
Arrays of any type can be created and may have one or more dimensions. A specific elementin
an array is accessed by its index. Arrays offer a convenient means of grouping related
information.
One-Dimensional Arrays
A one-dimensional array is, essentially, a list of like-typed variables. To create an array, you
first must create an array variable of the desired type. The general form of a one dimensional
array declaration is

type var-name[ ];

Here, type declares the base type of the array. The base type determines the data
type of each element that comprises the array.

// Demonstrate a one-dimensional array.

class Array {
public static void main(String args[]) {
int month_days[];
month_days = new int[12];
month_days[0] = 31;
month_days[1] = 28;
month_days[2] = 31;
month_days[3] = 30;
month_days[4] = 31;
month_days[5] = 30;
month_days[6] = 31;
month_days[7] = 31;
month_days[8] = 30;
month_days[9] = 31;
month_days[10] = 30;
month_days[11] = 31;

System.out.println("April has " + month_days[3] + " days.");

}
}
Multidimensional Arrays
In Java, multidimensional arrays are actually arrays of arrays. These, as you mightexpect,
look and act like regular multidimensional arrays. However, as you will see there are a couple of
subtle differences. To declare a multidimensional array variable,specify each additional index
using another set of square brackets. For example, the following declares a two-dimensional
array variable called twoD.
int twoD[][] = new int[4][5];
This allocates a 4 by 5 array and assigns it to twoD. Internally this matrix is implemented as an
array of arrays of int.
// Demonstrate a two-dimensional
array. class TwoDArray {
public static void main(String args[]) {
int twoD[][]= new int[4][5];
int i, j, k = 0;
for(i=0; i<4; i++)
for(j=0; j<5; j++)
{ twoD[i][j] = k;
k++;
}
for(i=0; i<4; i++) {
for(j=0; j<5; j++)
System.out.print(twoD[i][j] + "
"); System.out.println();
}
}
}

This program generates the following

output: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19
As stated earlier, since multidimensional arrays are actually arrays of arrays, the length of each
array is under your control. For example, the following program creates a two dimensional array
in which the sizes of the second dimension are unequal.