When we
declare a variable, it is possible to give it an initial value. Here’s an example: int courses = 5; double
credits = 17.5; There’s a
little peculiarity when initializing the value of a variable declared as a float. In this case, the
numeric value must end with the letter ‘F’: float credits = 17.5F; Without this
extra character, the compiler would give an error that the types are
incompatible. We’ll discuss type
compatibility in the next unit. If we don’t
wish to initialize the value of a variable when we declare it, we may still
assign it a value later on in our program using the assignment operator. The assignment operator in Java is the ‘=’
symbol (make sure you don’t confuse that with the ‘==’ operator which checks
for equality). Here’s an example: int rabbits; //
some other Java statements rabbits
= 322; We may also
use the assignment operator to copy the value of one variable to another
(from the right operand to left operand).
Consider this: int squirrels = 15; int walnuts; walnuts
= squirrels; After the last
statement executes, the value of walnuts will also
be 15. |