Types of Variables

Types of Variables
· Based on the type of value represented by the variable all variables are divided into 2
types. They are:
1) Primitive variables
2) Reference variables
Primitive variables: Primitive variables can be used to represent primitive values.
Example: int x=10;
Reference variables: Reference variables can be used to refer objects.
Example: Student s=new Student();
Diagram:

· Based on the purpose and position of declaration all variables are divided into the
following 3 types.
1) Instance variables
2) Static variables
3) Local variables

Instance variables:
· If the value of a variable is varied from object to object such type of variables is called
instance variables.
· For every object, a separate copy of instance variables will be created.
· Instance variables will be created at the time of object creation and destroyed at the
time of object destruction hence the scope of instance variables is exactly the same as
the scope of objects.
· Instance variables will be stored on the heap as the part of object.
· Instance variables should be declared within the class directly but outside of any
method or block or constructor.
· Instance variables can be accessed directly from the Instance area. But cannot be accessed
directly from the static area.

· But by using object reference we can access instance variables from the static area.
Example:
          class Test
              {
                  int i=10;
                  public static void main(String[] args)
                      {
                          //System.out.println(i);//C.E:non-static variable i cannot be referenced from a
                          static context(invalid)
                          Test t=new Test();
                          System.out.println(t.i);//10(valid)
                          t.methodOne();
                      }
                public void methodOne()
                   {
                         System.out.println(i);//10(valid)
                   }
           }
· For the instance variables it is not required to perform initialization JVM will always
provide default values.
Example:
       class Test
            {
                 boolean b;
                 public static void main(String[] args)
                     {

                          Test t=new Test();
                          System.out.println(t.b);//false
                     }

             }
· Instance variables also known as object level variables or attributes.
Static variables:
· If the value of a variable is not varied from object to object such type of variables is not
recommended to declare as instance variables. We have to declare such types of
variables at the class level by using a static modifier.
· In the case of instance variables for every object a separate copy will be created but in
the case of static variables for the entire class, only one copy will be created and shared by
every object of that class.
· Static variables will be created at the time of class loading and destroyed at the time of
class unloading hence the scope of the static variable is exactly the same as the scope of the
.class file.
· Static variables will be stored in the method area. Static variables should be declared within
the class directly but outside of any method or block or constructor.
· Static variables can be accessed from both instance and static areas directly.
· We can access static variables either by class name or by object reference but the usage of
the class name is recommended.
· But within the same class, it is not required to use the class names we can access directly.
                    1) Start JVM.
                    2) Create and start the Main Thread by JVM.
                    3) Locate(find) Test.class by main Thread.
                    4) Load Test.class by main Thread.
                    5) Execution of main() method.
                    6) Unload Test.class
                    7) Terminate main Thread.
                    8) Shutdown JVM.
Example:
                 class Test
                     {
                           static int i=10;
                           public static void main(String[] args)
                                  {
                                        Test t=new Test();
                                        System.out.println(t.i);//10
                                        System.out.println(Test.i);//10
                                        System.out.println(i);//10
                                 }
                    }
· For the static variables it is not required to perform initialization explicitly, JVM will
always provide default values.
Example:
               class Test
                    {
                           static String s;
                           public static void main(String[] args)
                               {
                                        System.out.println(s);//null
                               }
                      }
Example:
                   class Test
                        {
                             int x=10;
                             static int y=20;
                             public static void main(String[] args)
                                {
                                       Test t1=new Test();
                                        t1.x=888;
                                        t1.y=999;
                                        Test t2=new Test();
                                        System.out.println(t2.x+"----"+t2.y);//10----999
                                }
                       }
Diagram:

· Static variables also known as class level variables or fields.
Local variables:
· Some time to meet the temporary requirements of the programmer we can declare
variables inside a method or block or constructors such type of variables is called local
variables or automatic variables or temporary variables or stack variables.
· The local variables will be created as part of the block execution in which it is declared
and destroyed once that block execution completes. Hence the scope of the local
variables is exactly the same as the scope of the block in which we declared.
Example 1:
    class Test
      {
          public static void main(String[] args)
             {
                 int i=0;
                 for(int j=0;j<3;j++)
                   {
                       i=i+j;
                   }
            }
      }
Example 2:
class Test
   {
          public static void main(String[] args)
             {
                 try
                  {
                    int i=Integer.parseInt("ten");
                  }
         catch(NullPointerException e)
               {
           

             }
           }
    }
· The local variables will be stored on the stack.
· For the local variables JVM won’t provide any default values compulsory we should
perform initialization explicitly before using that variable.
Example:

Example:
      class Test
           {
                 public static void main(String[] args)
                      {
                             int x;
                             if(args.length>0)
                                {
                                   x=10;
                                }
                              System.out.println(x);//C.E:variable x might not have been initialized
                     }
           }
Example:
       class Test
             {
                 public static void main(String[] args)
                       {
                             int x;
                             if(args.length>0)
                                {
                                      x=10;
                                 }
                             else
                                {
                                     x=20;
                                 }
                         System.out.println(x);
                      }
              }
Output:
java Test x
10
java Test x y
10
java Test
20
· It is never recommended to perform initialization for the local variables inside logical
blocks because there is no guarantee of executing that block always at runtime.
· It is highly recommended to perform initialization for the local variables at the time of
declaration at least with default values.
Note: The only applicable modifier for local variables is the final. If we are using any other
modifier we will get a compile-time error.
Example:
         class Test
               {
                      public static void main(String[] args)
                            {
                                public int x=10;
                                private int x=10;
                                protected int x=10; C.E: illegal start of expression
                                static int x=10;
                                volatile int x=10;
                                transient int x=10;
                                final int x=10;//(valid)
                            }
                }
Conclusions:
1) For the static and instance variables it is not required to perform initialization explicitly
JVM will provide default values. But for the local variables, JVM won’t provide any
default values compulsory we should perform initialization explicitly before using that
variable.
2) For every object, a separate copy of instance variable will be created whereas for entire
class a single copy of the static variable will be created. For every Thread a separate copy of
the local variable will be created.
3) Instance and static variables can be accessed by multiple threads simultaneously and
hence these are not Thread-safe but local variables can be accessed by only one Thread
at a time and hence local variables are Thread-safe.