Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An identifier is the name of an element in the code. There are certain standard naming conventions to follow when selecting names for elements. Identifiers in Java are case-sensitive. An identifier can contain: Any Unicode character that is a letter (including numeric letters like Roman numerals) or digit. Currency sign (such as ¥).
A global identifier is declared outside of functions and is available throughout the program. A local identifier is declared within a specific function and only available within that function. [1] For implementations of programming languages that are using a compiler, identifiers are often only compile time entities.
A snippet of Java code with keywords highlighted in blue and bold font. In the Java programming language, a keyword is any one of 68 reserved words [1] that have a predefined meaning in the language. Because of this, programmers cannot use keywords in some contexts, such as names for variables, methods, classes, or as any other identifier. [2]
longer identifiers may be disfavored because of visual clutter; It is an open research issue whether some programmers prefer shorter identifiers because they are easier to type, or think up, than longer identifiers, or because in many situations a longer identifier simply clutters the visible code and provides no perceived additional benefit.
Code from other packages is accessed by prefixing the package name before the appropriate identifier, for example class String in package java.lang can be referred to as java.lang.String (this is known as the fully qualified class name). Like C++, Java offers a construct that makes it unnecessary to type the package name (import).
An identifier I' (for variable X') masks an identifier I (for variable X) when two conditions are met I' has the same name as I; I' is defined in a scope which is a subset of the scope of I; The outer variable X is said to be shadowed by the inner variable X'. For example, the parameter "foo" shadows the local variable "foo" in this common pattern:
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
All mangled symbols begin with _Z (note that an identifier beginning with an underscore followed by a capital letter is a reserved identifier in C, so conflict with user identifiers is avoided); for nested names (including both namespaces and classes), this is followed by N, then a series of <length, id> pairs (the length being the length of ...