Arithmetic Operators

Operators

Arithmetic Operators

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An arithmetic operator is a mathematical equation, similar to what we have seen in algebra, that takes integers and calculates them in a certain way. Java contains a set of basic common arithmetic operators that can be used to perform a number of different calculations. Take a look at the five operators we will examine.

ArithmeticOperatorExample.java
package exlcode;

public class ArithmeticOperatorExample {

  public static int exampleVariableOne = 15;
  public static int exampleVariableTwo = 2;
  public static int exampleVariableFive = exampleVariableOne + exampleVariableTwo;
  public static int exampleVariableSix = exampleVariableOne - exampleVariableTwo;
  public static int exampleVariableSeven = exampleVariableOne * exampleVariableTwo;
  public static int exampleVariableEight = exampleVariableOne / exampleVariableTwo;
  public static int exampleVariableNine = exampleVariableOne % exampleVariableTwo;

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(exampleVariableFive);
    System.out.println(exampleVariableSix);
    System.out.println(exampleVariableSeven);
    // This will not print 7.5 because exampleVariableEight is an integer
    System.out.println(exampleVariableEight);
    System.out.println(exampleVariableNine);
  }
}

Just as we learned in math class, Java honors the order in which mathematical operations should be performed. Division, multiplication, modulus (%), followed by any addition and subtraction. A minor difference between math principles and Java is if we are dividing two integers, the Java answer will also be an integer, not a number with a decimal point, following the same rule of truncation we discussed earlier. Let's look at an example: the Java result for 15/2 will be 7, not 7.5.

One new operator to you may be the modulus operator, whose function returns the remainder of dividing the first number by the second number.

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Application Question

Given the fact that variable flightTime is larger that 60, which of the following can be used to replace /* missing code */ so that the flightTime can be displayed in hours and minutes?

public class TestClass()
{
  int flightTime = 130;
  int minutes = 0;
  int hours = 0;

  public static void main (String[] args)
  {
    /* missing code */
    System.out.println("The flightTime is " + hours + " hours and " + minutes + " minutes long.");
  }
}