1. The int type

If you want to store whole number in variables, then you need to use the int type.

The word int is short for Integer , which of course is a good hint that this type lets you store integer numbers.

Variables whose type is int are capable of storing integer numbers ranging from -2 billion to +2 billion. To be more precise, from -2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647.

Interesting fact

These decidedly non-round numbers are related to how the computer's memory is organized.

In Java, 4 bytes of memory are allocated for the int type. Each byte of memory consists of 8 bits. Each bit can only represent 2 values: 0 or 1. An int variable contains 32 bits and can represent 4,294,967,296 values.

Half of this range was set aside for negative numbers, and the other half for positive numbers. And that's how we get the range from -2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647.

Java university

2. Creating an int variable

The int type is for storing integers. To create a variable in code that can store integer numbers, you need to use a statement like this:

int name;
Declaring an int variable

Where name is the name of the variable. Examples:

Statement Description 
int x;
 An x integer variable is created 
int count;
A count integer variable is created 
int currentYear;
 A currentYear integer variable is created

The case of the letters matters. That means the commands int color and int Color will declare two different variables.

And the commands Int Color and INT COLOR won't make any sense to the compiler, causing it to report an error. int is a special keyword for the integer type and it must be written in lowercase.

3. Shorthand for creating variables

If you need to create many variables of the same type in the same place in a program, you can use this shorthand notation:

int name1, name2, name3;
Shorthand for creating multiple variables of the same type

Examples:

Statements Shorthand 
int x;
int y;
int z;
 
int x, y, z;
 
int count;
int totalCount;
 
int count, totalCount;
 
int day;
int month;
int year;
 
int day, month, year;

4. Assigning values

To put a value into an int variable, you need to this statement:

name = value;
Assigning a value to a variable

Where the value can be any integer expression. Examples:

Statement Note 
int a;
a = 5;
 
int b;
b = 2*1000*1000*1000;
 
int c;
c = -10000000;
 
int d;
d = 3000000000;
 This code won't compile, because 3,000,000,000 is greater than the maximum possible value for an int, which is 2,147,483,647

5. Shorthand for creating and initializing a variable

You can use a single command to create (declare) a variable and assign a value to it. This is what is done most often, since we usually declare a variable when we need to store a value.

Here's what the command looks like:

int name = value;
Shorthand for creating and initializing a variable

Examples:

Statement Note 
int a = 5; 
 
int b = 2*1000*1000*1000;
 The value of the variable will be 2 billion 
int c = -10000000;
 The value of the variable will be negative 10 million 
int d = 3000000000; 
 This code won't compile, because 3,000,000,000 is greater than the maximum possible value for an int: 2,147,483,647

You can also declare several variables in a single line. In this case, the command will look like:

int name1 = value1, name2 = value2, name3 = value3;
Shorthand for creating and initializing multiple variables

Examples:

Statement Note 
int a = 5, b = 10, c = a + b;
 a equals 5, b equals 10, c equals 15
undefined
2
Task
New Java Syntax, level 2, lesson 5
Locked
Kiss my shiny metal rear actuator
For human students, the first program displays the phrase "Hello World!" Do you know what brutal robot programmers write? Just don't tell anyone: "Kiss my shiny metal rear actuator!" In this task, see what a real coding robot feels like by writing a program that will display this phrase on the scree
Open