Variables

In computer science, we think of a variable as a storage location that holds a data value. In Java, a variable is introduced by declaring it to have a specific type. For example, consider the following statement:

String lastName;

It declares the variable lastName to have type String.

We can also initialize a variable with an explicit value when it is declared, like this:

double temperature = 98.6;

Here, we would think of a storage location named temperature that contains the value 98.6 and has type double.

Structured variables can also be declared and initialized in the same statement:

int[] a = {88, 11, 44, 77, 22};

This declares the variable a to have type int[] (array of ints) and contain the five elements specified.