What is dot operator in Java?

This article will help you understand what a dot operator in Java Programming language is. Before jumping into Dot Operator, let us revise about Operators.

OPERATORS

In computer programming we often need to perform some arithmetical or logical operations. In such circumstances, we need operators to perform these tasks. Thus, an Operator is basically a symbol or token, which performs arithmetical or logical operations and gives us meaningful result. The values involved in the operation are called Operands.

Here is a basic Pictorial representation of Operators.

Now, let us discuss the types of Operators available.

TYPES OF OPERATORS

There are three types of Operators in Java which are −

• Arithmetical Operators

• Relational Operators

• Logical Operators

Except for these operators, there are some other operators available in Java such as Dot Operator, Scope Resolution operator, instanceOf operator, etc.

Dot Operator

Dot operator is a syntactic element, i.e. it denotes the separation between class and package, method and class, variable and reference variable. It can also be called as separator operator. It is mainly used for separating a variable and method from a reference variable, for accessing class and sub-packages from a package, for accessing any member of class or package.

Example

public class DotExample {  // class declaration
   void calculate() {  // function to calculate area of circle
      double pi = 3.14; // initializing value of pi in variable pi
      int radius = 5; // initializing value of radius in variable radius
      int area = ((int)pi) * radius * radius; // calculating area of circle
      System.out.println("Area of circle is"  + area + "square unit"); // Displaying area of circle
   }
   public static void main(String args[]) {  // main function declaration 
      DotExample obj = new DotExample(); // object of class DotExample created
      obj.calculate(); // function calling using object of class DotExample, see dot operator is separating the object from the class function
   }
}

Output

Area of circle is 75 square unit