I have what may be a simple question but I can't seem to find an answer. Can variables be assigned with : (colon) in java. Like in this code below:
for(String token: tokens) {
System.out.println(token);
I saw this on one of the question boards for a different topic.
Thanks for responding.
In this case the operator : is not an assignment; it represents the enhanced for loop added in Java 5. It basically means "for every String in the String array or String Iterable, use the String.
This is called an enhanced for loop. From The Java Tutorials:
class EnhancedForDemo {
public static void main(String[] args){
int[] numbers =
{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10};
for (int item : numbers) {
System.out.println("Count is: " + item);
}
}
}
The output from this program:
Count is: 1
Count is: 2
Count is: 3
Count is: 4
Count is: 5
Count is: 6
Count is: 7
Count is: 8
Count is: 9
Count is: 10
Yes, this is valid, assuming there is a collection of strings named tokens. Although, you're missing the closing }
That's a "for-each" in Java. It reads like "for each token in tokens". The tokens variable is an Iterable collection. The code inside the loop repeats for each element from the collection.
This is a special for loop in Java called for-each. What the statement for(String token: tokens) means is that iterate over the collection tokens & assign the values to the String variable token as you iterate.
The assignment via ':' works only in for each loop and not in any other constructs
