Introduction

Business applications have lots of special-case conditions. Such conditions may include finding changes in allocation rules starting at a particular year, or handling different types of employees differently based on their designation. To code for such special cases, you will require conditional logic. You basically tell the computer to perform a set of actions when a particular condition is met.

Before we delve into advanced Java topics, you need to know the basics of Java syntax. While some of this material might seem simple, you'll find you need to use the techniques and syntax shown in this chapter repeatedly in your applications.

As you've seen in Chapter 1, Getting Started, Java's syntax borrows heavily from C and C++. That's true for conditional statements that control the flow of your programs as well. Java, like most computer languages, allows you to do this. This chapter covers the basic syntax of the Java language, especially ways in which you can control the flow of your applications.

This chapter, and the next one on object-oriented programming, will give you a good working knowledge of how Java programs work. You'll be able to take on more advanced APIs and topics. Work your way through this basic material, and you will be ready to move on to the more complex code to come.