In this chapter, we learned what the three core elements of Java programming are—operators, expressions, and statements—and how they are related to each other. We walked you through all the Java operators, discussed the most popular ones with examples, and explained the potential issues with using them. A substantial part of this chapter was dedicated to data type conversion: widening and narrowing, boxing, and unboxing. The equals() method of reference types was also demonstrated and tested on specific examples for a variety of classes and implementations. The String class was used prominently and the popular incorrect explanation of its behavior was resolved.
In the next chapter, we will start writing the program logic—the backbone of any execution flow—using control flow statements, which are going to be defined, explained, and demonstrated...