Java in a Nutshell, 5th Edition

Statements

A statement is a single command executed by the Java interpreter. By default, the Java interpreter runs one statement after another, in the order they are written. Many of the statements defined by Java, however, are flow-control statements, such as conditionals and loops, that alter this default order of execution in well-defined ways. Table 2-5 summarizes the statements defined by Java.

Table 2-5. Java statements

Statement	Purpose	Syntax
expression	side effects	var = expr ; expr ++; method ( ); new Type ( );
compound	group statements	{ statements }
empty	do nothing	;
labeled	name a statement	label : statement
variable	declare a variable	[final] type name [= value ] [, name [= value ]] ...;
if	conditional	if ( expr ) statement [ else statement ]
switch	conditional	switch ( expr ) { [ case expr : statements ] ... [ default: statements ] }
while	loop	while ( expr ) statement
do	loop	do statement while ( expr );
for	simplified loop	for ( init ; test ; increment ) statement
for/in	collection iteration	for ( variable : iterable ) statement Java 5.0 and later; also called “foreach”
break	exit block	break [ label ] ;
continue	restart loop	continue [ label ] ;
return	end method	return [ expr ] ;
synchronized	critical section	synchronized ( expr ) { statements }
throw	throw exception	throw expr ;
try	handle exception	try { statements } [ catch ( type name ...