Book Image

Introduction to Programming

By : Nick Samoylov
Book Image

Introduction to Programming

By: Nick Samoylov

Overview of this book

Have you ever thought about making your computer do what you want it to do? Do you want to learn to program, but just don't know where to start? Instead of guiding you in the right direction, have other learning resources got you confused with over-explanations? Don't worry. Look no further. Introduction to Programming is here to help. Written by an industry expert who understands the challenges faced by those from a non-programming background, this book takes a gentle, hand-holding approach to introducing you to the world of programming. Beginning with an introduction to what programming is, you'll go on to learn about languages, their syntax, and development environments. With plenty of examples for you to code alongside reading, the book's practical approach will help you to grasp everything it has to offer. More importantly, you'll understand several aspects of application development. As a result, you'll have your very own application running by the end of the book. To help you comprehensively understand Java programming, there are exercises at the end of each chapter to keep things interesting and encourage you to add your own personal touch to the code and, ultimately, your application.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)

Boxing and unboxing between primitive and reference types

Boxing converts the value of a primitive type to an object of a corresponding wrapper class. Unboxing converts the object of a wrapper class to a value of the corresponding primitive type.

Boxing

Boxing a primitive type can be done either automatically (called autoboxing) or explicitly using the valueOf() method available in each wrapper type:

int n = 12;
Integer integer = n; //an example of autoboxing
System.out.println(integer); //prints: 12
integer = Integer.valueOf(n);
System.out.println(integer); //prints: 12

Byte b = Byte.valueOf((byte)n);
Short s = Short.valueOf((short)n);
Long l = Long.valueOf(n);
Float f = Float.valueOf(n);
Double d = Double.valueOf(n);
...