Doubt in assignment

[saran bala]

public class Test9{
public static void main(String a[]){
final byte b = 1;
char c = 2;
short s = 3;
c = b; // 1
}
}
In this code,if byte is declared as final,while assigning byte to char,there is no problem in compilation.But if byte is not final,then compilation fails at lime marked 1.Why is it so?

[Doug Slattery]

Hi Saran,

Originally posted by saran bala:

In this code,if byte is declared as final,while assigning byte to char,there is no problem in compilation.But if byte is not final,then compilation fails at lime marked 1.Why is it so?

By declaring a variable final means it gets special treatment at compile time. To add to the confusion, it also gets treated differently as a local variable as opposed to an instance variable.

Try fiddling around with the following snippet to see how it works:

  public class Misc
{
final static int i = 127;
static byte b = 127;
final static short s = 3;

public static void main(String a[])
{
        // final int i = 127;
                // final short s = 3;
char c = 2;
final long l = 127;
c = (char)b; // 1
b = (byte)s;
// b = s;
b = i;
}
}  

Aloha,
Doug

-- Nothing is impossible if I'mPossible