Content

Java Lesson 2 • Java Output / Print

➢ Print Text
Java From Scratch ➢ Double Quotes
➢ The Print() Method
➢ Output Numbers

• Java Comments
➢ Single-line Comments
➢ Java Multi-line Comments

• Java Variables
➢ Declaring (Creating) Variables
➢ Final Variables
➢ Java Print Variables
➢ Display Variables
➢ Java Declare Multiple Variables
➢ One Value to Multiple Variables
➢ Java Identifiers
 Java Output / Print
Print Text
You learned from the previous chapter that you can use the println() method to output values or print
text in Java:
Example
System.out.println("Hello World!");

You can add as many println() methods Example

as you want. Note that it will add a new System.out.println("Hello World!");
line for each method: System.out.println("I am learning Java.");
System.out.println("It is awesome!");

Double Quotes
When you are working with text, it must be wrapped inside double quotations marks "".
If you forget the double quotes, an error occurs:
Example
System.out.println("This sentence will work!");
System.out.println(This sentence will produce an error);

The Print() Method

There is also a print() method, which is similar to println().
The only difference is that it does not insert a new line at the end of the output:
Example
System.out.print("Hello World! ");
System.out.print("I will print on the same line.");

Note that we add an extra space (after "Hello World!" in the example above), for better readability.
In this tutorial, we will only use println() as it makes it easier to read the output of code.

Java Output Numbers

Print Numbers
You can also use the println() method to print Example
numbers. System.out.println(3);
However, unlike text, we don't put numbers inside System.out.println(358);
double quotes: System.out.println(50000);

You can also perform mathematical calculations inside

the println() method:

Example Example

System.out.println(3 + 3); System.out.println(2 * 5);

 Java Comments
Comments can be used to explain Java code, and to make it more readable. It can also be used to
prevent execution when testing alternative code.

Single-line Comments
Single-line comments start with two forward slashes (//).
Any text between // and the end of the line is ignored by Java (will not be executed).
This example uses a single-line comment before a line of code:
Example
// This is a comment
System.out.println("Hello World");

This example uses a single-line comment at the end of a line of code:

Example
System.out.println("Hello World"); // This is a comment

Java Multi-line Comments

Multi-line comments start with /* and ends with */.
Any text between /* and */ will be ignored by Java.
This example uses a multi-line comment (a comment block) to explain the code:
Example
/* The code below will print the words Hello World
to the screen, and it is amazing */
System.out.println("Hello World");

Single or multi-line comments?

It is up to you which you want to use. Normally, we use // for short comments, and /* */ for longer.

Exercise:

Insert the missing part to create two types of comments.

This is a single-line comment

This is a multi-line comment
 Java Variables
Variables are containers for storing data values.
In Java, there are different types of variables, for example:
• String - stores text, such as "Hello". String values are surrounded by double quotes
• int - stores integers (whole numbers), without decimals, such as 123 or -123
• float - stores floating point numbers, with decimals, such as 19.99 or -19.99
• char - stores single characters, such as 'a' or 'B'. Char values are surrounded by single quotes
• boolean - stores values with two states: true or false

Declaring (Creating) Variables

To create a variable, you must specify the type and assign it a value:
Syntax
type variableName = value;
Where type is one of Java's types (such as int or String), and variableName is the name of the variable
(such as x or name). The equal sign is used to assign values to the variable.

To create a variable that should store text, To create a variable that should store a number,
look at the following example: look at the following

Example Example
Create a variable called name of Create a variable called myNum of
type String and assign it the value "John": type int and assign it the value 15
int myNum = 15;
String name = "John"; System.out.println(myNum);
System.out.println(name);

You can also declare a variable without assigning the value, and assign the value later:
Example
int myNum;
myNum = 15;
System.out.println(myNum);

Note that if you assign a new value to an existing variable, it will overwrite the previous value:
Example
Change the value of myNum from 15 to 20:
int myNum = 15;
myNum = 20; // myNum is now 20
System.out.println(myNum);
Final Variables
If you don't want others (or yourself) to overwrite existing values, use the final keyword (this will
declare the variable as "final" or "constant", which means unchangeable and read-only):
Example
final int myNum = 15;
myNum = 20; // will generate an error: cannot assign a value to a final
variable

Other Types
A demonstration of how to declare variables of other types:
Example
int myNum = 5;
float myFloatNum = 5.99f;
char myLetter = 'D';
boolean myBool = true;
String myText = "Hello";

Exercise:
Create a variable named carName and assign the value Volvo to it.
= ;

Java Print Variables

Display Variables
The println() method is often used to display variables.
To combine both text and a variable, use You can also use the + character to add a variable
the + character: to another variable:
Example Example
String name = "John"; String firstName = "John ";
System.out.println("Hello " + name); String lastName = "Doe";
String fullName = firstName + lastName;
System.out.println(fullName);

For numeric values, the + character works as a mathematical operator (notice that we use int (integer)
variables here):
Example
int x = 5;
int y = 6;
System.out.println(x + y); // Print the value of x + y

From the example above, you can expect:

• x stores the value 5
• y stores the value 6
• Then we use the println() method to display the value of x + y, which is 11
 Java Declare Multiple Variables
Declare Many Variables
To declare more than one variable of the same type, you can use a comma-separated list:
Example
Instead of writing: You can simply write:
int x = 5;
int y = 6; int x = 5, y = 6, z = 50;
int z = 50; System.out.println(x + y + z);
System.out.println(x + y + z);

One Value to Multiple Variables

You can also assign the same value to multiple variables in one line:
Example
int x, y, z;
x = y = z = 50;
System.out.println(x + y + z);
Exercise:
Fill in the missing parts to create three variables of the same type, using a comma-separated list:
x = 5 y = 6 z = 50;

Java Identifiers
Identifiers
All Java variables must be identified with unique names.
These unique names are called identifiers.
Identifiers can be short names (like x and y) or more descriptive names (age, sum, totalVolume).
Note: It is recommended to use descriptive names in order to create understandable and maintainable
code:
Example
// Good
int minutesPerHour = 60;

// OK, but not so easy to understand what m actually is

int m = 60;

The general rules for naming variables are:

• Names can contain letters, digits, underscores, and dollar signs
• Names must begin with a letter
• Names should start with a lowercase letter and it cannot contain whitespace
• Names can also begin with $ and _ (but we will not use it in this tutorial)
• Names are case sensitive ("myVar" and "myvar" are different variables)
• Reserved words (like Java keywords, such as int or boolean) cannot be used as names