Statements and Expressions

Computer programs are a set of instructions that tell the computer what to do. Each instruction is called a statement. The following example from a Java program is a statement:

int highScore = 450000;

You can use brackets to group a set of statements together in a Java program. These groupings are called block statements. Consider the following portion of a program:

1: public static void main(String[] args) {
2:    int a = 3;
3:    int b = 4;
4:    int c = 8 * 5;
5: }

Lines 2–4 of this example are a block statement. The opening bracket on Line 1 denotes the beginning of the block, and the closing bracket on Line 5 denotes the end of the block.

Some statements are called expressions because they involve a mathematical expression and produce a result. Line 4 in the preceding example is an expression because it sets the value of the c variable equal to 8 multiplied by 5. You work with expressions during this hour.