Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson

Search Feedback Form

Variable Initialization

Local variables and member variables can be initialized with an assignment statement when they're declared. The data type of the variable must match the data type of the value assigned to it. The MaxVariablesDemo program provides initial values for all its local variables when they are declared. The local variable declarations from that program follow, with the initialization code set in red:

// integers
byte largestByte = Byte.MAX_VALUE;
short largestShort = Short.MAX_VALUE;
int largestInteger = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
long largestLong = Long.MAX_VALUE;

// real numbers
float largestFloat = Float.MAX_VALUE;
double largestDouble = Double.MAX_VALUE;

// other primitive types
char aChar = 'S';
boolean aBoolean = true;

Parameters and exception-handler parameters cannot be initialized in this way. The value for a parameter is set by the caller.

Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson

Search Feedback Form

Copyright 1995-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.