CHAPTER 4

Decision
Structures

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 Topics
• The if Statement
• The if-else Statement
• The PayRoll class
• Nested if Statements
• The if-else-if Statement
• Logical Operators
• Comparing String Objects

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 Topics (cont’d)
• More about Variable Declaration and
Scope
• The Conditional Operator
• The switch Statement
• The SalesCommission Class
• Generating Random Numbers with the
Random Class

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 The if Statement
• The if statement decides whether a
section of code executes or not.
• The if statement uses a boolean to
decide whether the next statement or
block of statements executes.

• if (boolean expression is true)

• execute next statement.

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 Flowcharts
• If statements can be modeled as a flow
chart.

if (coldOutside) Is it cold Yes

outside?
wearCoat();
Wear a coat.

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 Flowcharts (cont’d)
• A block if statement may be modeled
as:
if (coldOutside)
{ Is it cold Yes
wearCoat(); outside?
wearHat(); Wear a coat.
wearGloves();
Wear a hat.
}
Wear gloves.
Note the use of curly
braces to block several
statements together.

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 Relational Operators
• In most cases, the boolean expression, used
by the if statement, uses relational
operators.
Relational Operator Meaning
> is greater than
< is less than
>= is greater than or equal to
<= is less than or equal to
== is equal to
!= is not equal to

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 Boolean Expressions
• A boolean expression is any variable or
calculation that results in a true or false
condition.
Expression Meaning
x > y Is x greater than y?
x < y Is x less than y?
x >= y Is x greater than or equal to y?
x <= y Is x less than or equal to y.
x == y Is x equal to y?
x != y Is x not equal to y?

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 if Statements and Boolean
Expressions
if (x > y)
System.out.println("X is greater than Y");

if(x == y)
System.out.println("X is equal to Y");

if(x != y)
{
System.out.println("X is not equal to Y");
x = y;
System.out.println("However, now it is.");
}

Example: AverageScore.java

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 Programming Style and if
Statements
• An if statement can span more than one line;
however, it is still one statement.

if (average > 95)

grade = ′A′;

is functionally equivalent to

if(average > 95) grade = ′A′;

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 Programming Style and if
Statements (cont’d)
• Rules of thumb:
– The conditionally executed statement should be
on the line after the if condition.
– The conditionally executed statement should be
indented one level from the if condition.
– If an if statement does not have the block curly
braces, it is ended by the first semicolon
encountered after the if condition.
if (expression) No semicolon here.
statement; Semicolon ends statement here.

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Having Multiple Conditionally-
Executed Statements
Conditionally executed statements can be grouped
into a block by using curly braces {} to enclose them.
If curly braces are used to group conditionally
executed statements, the if statement is ended by the
closing curly brace.

if (expression)
{
statement1;
statement2;
Curly brace ends the statement.
}

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Having Multiple Conditionally-
Executed Statements (cont’d)
Remember that when the curly braces are not used, then only the next
statement after the if condition will be executed conditionally.

if (expression)
statement1;
statement2;
statement3;

Only this statement is conditionally executed.

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 Flags
• A flag is a boolean variable that monitors some
condition in a program.
• When a condition is true, the flag is set to true.
• The flag can be tested to see if the condition has
changed.

if (average > 95)

highScore = true;

• Later, this condition can be tested:

if (highScore)
System.out.println("That′s a high score!");

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 Comparing Characters
• Characters can be tested using the relational operators.
• Characters are stored in the computer using the
Unicode character format.
• Unicode is stored as a sixteen (16) bit number.
• Characters are ordinal, meaning they have an order in
the Unicode character set.
• Since characters are ordinal, they can be compared to
each other.
char c = ′A′;
if(c < ′Z′)
System.out.println("A is less than Z");

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 if-else Statements
• The if-else statement adds the ability to
conditionally execute code when the if
condition is false.
if (expression)
statementOrBlockIfTrue;
else
statementOrBlockIfFalse;

• See example: Division.java

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 The Payroll Class
Payroll

- hoursWorked : double
- payRate : double

+ Payroll()
+ setHoursWorked(hours : double) : void
+ setPayRate(rate : double): void
+ getHoursWorked() : double
+ getPayRate() : double
+ getGrossPay() : double

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 if-else Statement
Flowcharts

No Yes
Is it cold
outside?

Wear shorts. Wear a coat.

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 Nested if Statements
• If an if statement appears inside
another if statement (single or block)
it is called a nested if statement.
• The nested if is executed only if the
outer if statement results in a true
condition.
• See example: LoanQualifier.java

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 Nested if Statement
Flowcharts

No Yes
Is it cold
outside?

Wear shorts.
No Is it Yes
snowing?

Wear a jacket. Wear a parka.

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 if-else Matching
• Curly brace use is not required if there
is only one statement to be
conditionally executed.
• However, sometimes curly braces can
help make the program more readable.
• Additionally, proper indentation makes
it much easier to match up else
statements with their corresponding if
statement.
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 if-else Matching
if (employed == ′y′)
{
if (recentGrad == ′y′)
{
System.out.println("You qualify for the " +
"special interest rate.");
}
else
{
System.out.println("You must be a recent " +
"college graduate to qualify.");
}
}
else
{
System.out.println("You must be employed to qualify.");
}

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 if-else-if Statements
• if-else-if statements can become
very complex.
• Imagine the following decision set.
• if it is very cold, wear a heavy coat,
• else, if it is chilly, wear a light jacket,
• else, if it is windy wear a windbreaker,
• else, if it is hot, wear no jacket.

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 if-else-if Statements
if (expression)
statement or block
else if (expression)
statement or block
// Put as many else ifs as needed here
else
statement or block

• Care must be used since else statements match up with the

immediately preceding unmatched if statement.
• See example:
• TestGrade.java, TestResults.java

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 if-else-if Flowchart

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 Logical Operators
• Java provides two binary logical
operators (&& and ||) that are used to
combine boolean expressions.
• Java also provides one unary (!) logical
operator to reverse the truth of a
boolean expression.

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 Logical Operators
Operator Meaning Effect
Connects two boolean expressions into one. Both
&& AND expressions must be true for the overall expression to
be true.
Connects two boolean expressions into one. One or
both expressions must be true for the overall
|| OR
expression to be true. It is only necessary for one to be
true, and it does not matter which one.
The ! operator reverses the truth of a boolean
expression. If it is applied to an expression that is
! NOT
true, the operator returns false. If it is applied to an
expression that is false, the operator returns true.

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 The && Operator
• The logical AND operator (&&) takes two operands
that must both be boolean expressions.
• The resulting combined expression is true if (and
only if) both operands are true.
• See example: LogicalAnd.java

Expression 1 Expression 2 Expression1 && Expression2

true false false
false true false
false false false
true true true

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 The || Operator
• The logical OR operator (||) takes two operands that
must both be boolean expressions.
• The resulting combined expression is false if (and
only if) both operands are false.
• Example: LogicalOr.java

Expression 1 Expression 2 Expression1 || Expression2

true false true
false true true
false false false
true true true

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 The ! Operator
• The ! operator performs a logical NOT operation.
• If an expression is true, !expression will be false.

if (!(temperature > 100))

System.out.println("Below the maximum temperature.");

• If temperature > 100 evaluates to false, then the

output statement will be run.

Expression 1 !Expression1
true false
false true

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 Short Circuiting
• Logical AND and logical OR operations
perform short-circuit evaluation of
expressions.
• Logical AND will evaluate to false as soon
as it sees that one of its operands is a
false expression.
• Logical OR will evaluate to true as soon as
it sees that one of its operands is a true
expression.

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 Order of Precedence
• The ! operator has a higher order of
precedence than the && and ||
operators.
• The && and || operators have a lower
precedence than relational operators
like < and >.
• Parenthesis can be used to force the
precedence to be changed.

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 Order of Precedence
Order of
Operators Description
Precedence
1 (unary negation) ! Unary negation, logical NOT
2 * / % Multiplication, Division, Modulus
3 + - Addition, Subtraction
Less-than, Greater-than, Less-than or
4 < > <= >=
equal to, Greater-than or equal to
5 == != Is equal to, Is not equal to
6 && Logical AND
7 || Logical NOT
= += -= Assignment and combined assignment
8
*= /= %= operators.

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 Comparing String Objects
• In most cases, you cannot use the relational
operators to compare two String objects.
• Reference variables contain the address of
the object they represent.
• Unless the references point to the same
object, the relational operators will not return
true.
• See example: GoodStringCompare.java
• See example: StringCompareTo.java

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 Ignoring Case in String
Comparisons
• In the String class the equals and
compareTo methods are case sensitive.
• In order to compare two String
objects that might have different case,
use:
• equalsIgnoreCase
• compareToIgnoreCase
• See example: SecretWord.java

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 Variable Scope
• In Java, a local variable does not have to be
declared at the beginning of the method.
• The scope of a local variable begins at the
point it is declared and terminates at the end
of the method.
• When a program enters a section of code
where a variable has scope, that variable has
come into scope, which means the variable
is visible to the program.
• See example: VariableScope.java
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 The Conditional Operator
• The conditional operator is a ternary (three
operand) operator.
• You can use the conditional operator to write
a simple statement that works like an if-
else statement.
• The format of the operators is:
expression1 ? expression2 : expression3
• The conditional operator can also return a
value.

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 The Conditional Operator
• The conditional operator can be used
as a shortened if-else statement:
x > y ? z = 10 : z = 5;
• This line is functionally equivalent to:
if(x > y)
z = 10;
else
z = 5;

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 The Conditional Operator
• Many times the conditional operator is
used to supply a value.
number = x > y ? 10 : 5;

• This is functionally equivalent to:

if(x > y)
number = 10;
else
number = 5;

• See example: ConsultantCharges.java

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 The switch Statement
• The if-else statement allows you to make
true / false branches.
• The switch statement allows you to use an
ordinal value to determine how a program
will branch.
• The switch statement can evaluate a char,
byte, short, int, or string value and make
decisions based on the value.

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 The switch Statement
The switch statement takes the form:
switch (testExpression)
{
case Value_1:
// place one or more statements here
break;
case Value_2:
// place one or more statements here
break;
// case statements may be repeated
//as many times as necessary
default:
// place one or more statements here
}

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 The switch Statement
• The testExpression is a variable or expression that
gives a char, byte, short, int or string value.

switch (testExpression)
{
…
}

• The switch statement will evaluate the

testExpression.

• If there is an associated case statement that matches

that value, program execution will be transferred to
that case statement.
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 The switch Statement
• Each case statement will have a corresponding
case value that must be unique.

case value_1:
// place one or more statements here
break;

• If the testExpression matches the case value, the

Java statements between the colon and the break
statement will be executed.

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 The case Statement
• The break statement ends the case statement.
• The break statement is optional.
• If a case does not contain a break, then program
execution continues into the next case.
– See example: NoBreaks.java
– See example: PetFood.java
• The default section is optional and will be
executed if no CaseExpression matches the
SwitchExpression.
• See example: SwitchDemo.java

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The SalesCommission Class
SalesCommision
- sales : double
- rate : double
- commission : double
- advance : double
- pay : double
+ SalesCommission(s: double,
a: double) :
- setRate() : void
-calculatePay() : void
+ getPay() : double
+ getCommission() : double
+ getRate() : double
+ getAdvance() : double
+ getSales() : double
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 Method Decomposition
Using Private Methods

• Long methods can be broken up into

shorter more specialized methods,
known as helper or utility methods.
• Each method should perform a small,
well-defined task.
• Sensitive tasks can be broken into
private methods.
• Private methods are available only to
other methods within the class.

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 Main Programs
• The SalesCommision class is a utility
class.
• It provides an abstraction of the data
and methods needed to calculate a
sales commission.
• The program that utilizes this class is
called the Main program.
• Example: HalsCommission.java

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 Generating Random Numbers with the
Random Class
• Some applications, such as games and
simulations, require the use of randomly
generated numbers.
• The Java API has a class, Random, for this
purpose. To use the Random class, use the
following import statement and create an
instance of the class.
import java.util.Random;
Random randomNumbers = new Random();

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Some Methods of the Random
Class
Method Description
nextDouble() Returns the next random number as a double. The number
will be within the range of 0.0 and 1.0.

nextFloat() Returns the next random number as a float. The number

will be within the range of 0.0 and 1.0.

nextInt() Returns the next random number as an int. The number

will be within the range of an int, which is –2,147,483,648
to +2,147,483,648.
nextInt(int n) This method accepts an integer argument, n. It returns a
random number as an int. The number will be within the
range of 0 to n.

See examples: MathTutor.java, DiceDemo.java

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