CS 102: Programming1

Lecture 5 – Java Flow Control

Dr. Mona Alnaggar
Fall 2024
outlines
Flow Control in Java
• if...else Statement
• Ternary Operator
• Switch Statement
Shorthand Operators
Flow of Control
• Unless specified otherwise, the order of statement execution
through a method is linear: one statement after another in sequence
• Some programming statements allow us to:
• decide whether or not to execute a particular statement
• execute a statement over and over, repetitively

• These decisions are based on boolean expressions (or conditions)

that evaluate to true or false
• The order of statement execution is called the flow of control

3
 4

Control Structures

• Sequential execution
– Program statements execute one after the other
• Transfer of control
– Three control structures can specify order of statements
• Sequence structure (default)
• Selection structure
• Repetition structure
• Activity diagram
– Models the workflow (flowchart)
• Action-state symbols
• Transition arrows
 5

Control Structures cont.

• Java has a sequence structure “built-in”

• Java provides three selection structures
– if
– if…else
– if…else if …
– switch

• Java provides three repetition structures

– while
– do…while
– for

• Each of these words is a Java keyword

Conditional Statements
• A conditional statement lets us choose which statement will be executed next.

• Therefore, they are sometimes called selection statements

• Conditional statements give us the power to make basic decisions

• The if statement has the following syntax: The condition must be a

boolean expression. It must
if is a Java
evaluate to either true or false.
reserved word

if ( condition )
statement;

If the condition is true, the statement is executed.

If it is false, the statement is skipped.
if Single-Selection Statement
• Single-entry/single-exit control structure condition
evaluated

• Perform action only when condition is true

true
• Action/decision programming model false
statement
if (studentGrade >= 60)
{
System.out.println (“Passed”);
}

[grade >= 60]

print “Passed”

[grade < 60]

Fig if single-selections statement activity diagram.

8
Boolean Expressions
• A condition often uses one of Java's equality operators or relational
operators, which all return boolean results:
== equal to
!= not equal to
< less than
> greater than
<= less than or equal to
>= greater than or equal to

• Note the difference between the equality operator (==) and the
assignment operator (=)
The if Statement
• An example of an if statement:
if (sum > MAX)
delta = sum - MAX;
System.out.println ("The sum is " + sum);

• First the condition is evaluated -- the value of sum is either greater than
the value of MAX, or it is not

• If the condition is true, the assignment statement is executed -- if it

isn’t, it is skipped.
• Either way, the call to println is executed next

5-10
 Logical Operators
• Boolean expressions can also use the following logical operators:
! Logical NOT
&& Logical AND
|| Logical OR

• They all take boolean operands and produce boolean results

• Logical NOT is a unary operator (it operates on one operand)
• Logical AND and logical OR are binary operators (each operates on
two operands)
Logical Operators
• Expressions that use logical operators can form
complex conditions
if (count != 0 && total/count > MAX)
System.out.println ("Testing…");

• All logical operators have lower precedence than

the relational operators

• Logical NOT has higher precedence than logical

AND and logical OR

5-12
if…else Selection Statement
• Perform action only when condition is true
• Perform different specified action when condition is false
• Conditional operator (?:)
• Nested if…else selection structures

if (studentGrade >= 60)

{
System.out.println (“Passed”);
} [grade < 60] [grade >= 60]
else print “Failed” print “Passed”

{
System.out.println (“Failed”);
}
if…else double-selections statement activity diagram.
13
 The if-else Statement condition
evaluated
• An else clause can be added to an if statement to
make an if-else statement true false
if ( condition )
statement1; statement1 statement2

else
statement2;

• If the condition is true, statement1 is executed; if the condition is

false, statement2 is executed

• One or the other will be executed, but not both

Block Statements
• In an if-else statement, the if portion, or the else portion,
or both, could be block statements

if (total > MAX)

{
System.out.println ("Error!!");
errorCount++;
}
else
{
System.out.println ("Total: " + total);
current = total*2;
}
The Conditional (Ternary )Operator
• Java has a conditional operator that uses a boolean condition to
determine which of two expressions is evaluated
• Its syntax is:
condition ? expression1 : expression2
• If the condition is true, expression1 is evaluated; if it is
false, expression2 is evaluated
• The value of the entire conditional operator is the value of the
selected expression
The Conditional (Ternary ) Operator cont.
• The conditional operator is similar to an if-else statement,
except that it is an expression that returns a value
• For example:
larger = ((num1 > num2) ? num1 : num2);

• If num1 is greater than num2, then num1 is assigned to larger;

otherwise, num2 is assigned to larger
• The conditional operator is ternary because it requires three
operands
 Example of Conditional (Ternary ) Operator
• Example: System.out.println ("Your change is " + count +
((count == 1) ? "Dime" : "Dimes"));
• If count equals 1, then "Dime" is printed

• If count is anything other than 1, then "Dimes" is printed

• Example:
System.out.println (studentGrade >= 60 ? “Passed”: “Failed”);

• If studentGrade is greater than or equal 60 , then “Passed" is printed

• If studentGrade is not greater than nor equal 60, then “Failed" is printed

5-19
 Nested If statements
• Since an “If” statement is a statement, it can appear inside
another if statement.

if (condition1)
if (condition2)
statement;

• It can also appear in an “else” clause

if (condition1)
statement1;
else if (condition2)
statement2;
else
statement3;
The else if Statement
Use the else if statement to specify a new condition if the first condition is false.

if (condition1){
// block of code to be executed if condition1 is true
}
else if (condition2){
// block of code to be executed if the condition1 is false and condition2 is true
}
else {
// block of code to be executed if the condition1 is false and condition2 is false
}

Example : int time = 22;

if (time < 10) {
System.out.println("Good morning.");
} else if (time < 18) {
System.out.println("Good day.");
}
else {
System.out.println("Good evening.");
} // Outputs "Good evening."
Another Selection Statement
• The if and the if-else statements are selection statements,
allowing us to select which statement to perform next based on some
Boolean condition

• Another selection construct, called the switch statement, provides

another way to choose the next action

• The switch statement evaluates an expression, then attempts to

match the result to one of a series of values.

• Execution transfers to statement list associated with the first value that
matches
 The switch statement provides another way
to decide which statement to execute next.

The switch statement evaluates an

expression, then attempts to match the
The switch result to one of several possible cases.

Statement Each case contains a value and a list of

statements.

The flow of control transfers to statement

associated with the first case value that
matches.
The switch Statement
• The general syntax of a switch statement is:
switch switch ( expression )
and {
case case value1 :
are statement-list1
reserved case value2 :
words statement-list2
case value3 :
statement-list3 If expression
case ... matches value2,
control jumps
} to here

5-25
The switch Statement
• Often a break statement is used as the last statement in each
case's statement list.
• A break statement causes control to transfer to the end of the
switch statement.
• If a break statement is not used, the flow of control will continue
into the next case.
• Sometimes this may be appropriate, but often we want to execute
only the statements associated with one case.
 The switch Statement
• An example of a switch statement:
switch (option)
{
case 'A':
aCount++;
break;
case 'B':
bCount++;
break;
case 'C':
cCount++;
break;
default:
System.out.println(“default.. ");
}
5-27
The switch Statement
• A switch statement can have an optional default case.
• The default case has no associated value and simply uses the
reserved word default.
• If the default case is present, control will transfer to it if no other
case value matches.
• If there is no default case, and no other value matches, control
falls through to the statement after the switch.

5-28
The switch Statement
• The expression of a switch statement must result in an integral
type, meaning an integer (byte, short, int, long) or a char
• It cannot be a boolean value or a floating-point value (float or
double)
• The implicit boolean condition in a switch statement is equality
• You cannot perform relational checks with a switch statement

5-29
Example: int day = 4;
switch (day) {
case 1:
System.out.println("Monday");
break;
case 2:
System.out.println("Tuesday");
break;
case 3:
System.out.println("Wednesday");
break;
case 4:
System.out.println("Thursday");
break;
case 5:
System.out.println("Friday");
break;
case 6:
System.out.println("Saturday");
break;
case 7:
System.out.println("Sunday");
break;
default:
System.out.println("Looking forward to the Weekend");
} // Outputs "Thursday" (day 4)
Shorthand Operators
Shorthand Operators
• Many operations are very commonly used
x = x + 1;
sum = sum + x;

• Java has shorthand notations for these

• increment and decrement operators
• assignment operators
The Increment and Decrement Operators
• The increment operator (++) adds one to its integer or floating-
point operand
• The decrement operator (--) subtracts one
• The statement
count++;
is essentially equivalent to

count = count + 1;
The Increment and Decrement Operators
• The increment and decrement operators can be applied in prefix
(before the variable) or postfix (after the variable) form
• When used alone in a statement, the prefix and postfix forms are
basically equivalent. That is,
count++; //postfix
is equivalent to
++count; //prefix
The Increment and Decrement Operators
• When used in a larger expression, the prefix and postfix forms
have a different effect.
• In both cases the variable is incremented (decremented).
• But the value used in the larger expression depends on the form
Expressions Operation Value Of expression
count++ add 1 old value
++count add 1 new value
count-- subtract 1 old value
--count subtract 1 new value
The Increment and Decrement Operators
• If count currently contains 45, then
total = count++;

assigns 45 to total and 46 to count

• If count currently contains 45, then

total = ++count;

assigns the value 46 to both total and count

The Increment and Decrement Operators
• If sum contains 25, what does this statement
print?
System.out.println (sum++ + " " +
++sum + " " +
sum + " " +
sum--);

• Prints the following result:

25 27 27 27
• sum contains 26 after the line is complete
 Thanks!
Do you have any questions?