Java Variables

Java Variable Syntax

Variables are data identifiers. Variables are used to refer to specific values that are generated in a program--values that you want to keep around. Program data is often easier to understand and manipulate if each datum has its own name. Instead of naming each of your nine children George, giving each child a unique name makes it much easier to refer to them and to understand documents such as wills and family trees. The same concept holds true for variables in a program. Giving variables meaningful names makes source code easier to read and understand.

Java has three kinds of variables: local (automatic), instance, and class. Local variables are declared within a method body. Both instance and class variables are declared inside a class body but outside of any method bodies. Instance and class variables look similar, except class variables are prepended with the static modifier.

General Form

Let's take a look at the general form for declaring each kind of variable in a Java class. The following class is not real Java code; it is only pseudocode:

		  
class someClass {

      // Instance Variable
      visibility_modifier variable_type instanceVariableName;

      // Class Variable
      visibility_modifier static variable_type classVariableName;

      returnType someMethod() {

         // Local Variable
         variable_type localVariableName;
      }
   }
 

Variable Identifiers

The pseudocode above contains three variable declarations. The variable names are instanceVariableName, classVariableName, and localVariableName. Variable names must be legal Java identifiers.

• Keywords and reserved words may not be used.
• It must start with a letter, dollar sign ($), or underscore (_).
• Subsequent characters may be letters, dollar signs, underscores, or digits.
• It is case sensitive. For example, mymodel and MyModel are different identifiers.

Variable Scope

Each of the three kinds of variables has a different scope. A variable's scope defines how long that variable lives in the program's memory and when it expires. Once a variable goes out of scope, its memory space is marked for garbage collection by the JVM and the variable may no longer be referenced.

Notice that both instanceVariableName and classVariableName are declared within someClass but outside of any of its methods (only one method exists in this example). localVariableName, on the other hand, is declared within someMethod. Local variables must be declared within methods. This includes being declared within code blocks nested inside of a method--within an if, while, or for block, for instance. A variable is local to the code block within which it is declared. Being declared within a method body makes a variable local to that method. Being declared within an if block makes the variable local to that if block, for example. This means that the variable cannot be used outside of the curly braces within which it was declared. In fact, it can only be used from the line it is declared on until the code block ends.

• Local variables have the most limited scope. They are only valid from the line they are declared on until the closing curly brace of the method or code block within which they are declared.
• Instance variables are in scope as long as their enclosing object is in scope. An instance variable is a part of the object that contains it and cannot live independently of it. Each instance of an object has its own version of instance variables. For example, if an Order class declares that there is an orderDate instance variable, then every Order object will have its own value for orderDate.
• Class variables are in scope from the point the class is loaded into the JVM until the the class is unloaded. Class are loaded into the JVM the first time the class is referenced: often when the first object of that class in instantiated with the new operator. They are the most long-lived kind of variable and come the closest to being a global variable. A class variable's value is shared by all instances of that class. So, even if there are ten Order model objects that contain a class variable named todaysDate, the value that todaysDate contains is shared by all ten objects--there is only one todaysDate.

Variable Type

Primitives are not full-fledged objects in Java. They are treated as lightweight containers for storing and accessing a value. Since they are not objects, they cannot be used where an object is required. For instance, storing primitive values in a java.util.Collection requires the primitive be wrapped in a special wrapper class such as java.lang.Integer or java.lang.Double. Each primitive in Java has a corresponding wrapper class.

Object references are variables that refer to Java objects. Instead of holding a primitive value, they hold the memory address of the object. The object may be of a user-defined class or it may be one of the classes included in the Java APIs such as java.lang.String or java.util.List.

Here are all the possible variable types with their memory requirement and default values:

Variable Visibility

Here is a break down of how each modifier affects access to a variable. They are listed from least restrictive to most restrictive:

Other Variable Modifiers

In the next part of this tutorial we'll take a look at how variables are assigned values. Then we'll put it all together in to a Java program demo.