Java: The Complete Reference, Thirteenth Edition, 13th Edition

CHAPTER

3

Data Types, Variables, and Arrays

This chapter examines three of Java’s most fundamental elements: data types, variables, and arrays. As with all modern programming languages, Java supports several types of data. You may use these types to declare variables and to create arrays. As you will see, Java’s approach to these items is clean, efficient, and cohesive.

Java Is a Strongly Typed Language

It is important to state at the outset that Java is a strongly typed language. Indeed, part of Java’s safety and robustness comes from this fact. Let’s see what this means. First, every variable has a type, every expression has a type, and every type is strictly defined. Second, all assignments, whether explicit or via parameter passing in method ...