Sams Teach Yourself Java™ in 24 Hours (Covering Java 7 and Android)

ptg7068951

Q&A 105

Q&A

Q. The term initializationhas been used in several places. What does it

mean?

A. It means to give something an initial value and set it up. When you cre-

ate a variable and assign a starting value to it,you are initializing the

variable.

Q. If a loop never ends,how does the program stop running?

A. Usually in a program where a loop does not end,something else in the

program is set up to stop execution in some way. For example,a loop in

a game program could continue indefinitely while the player still has lives

left.

One bug that crops up often as you work on programs is an infinite loop,

a loop that never stops because of a programming mistake. If one of the

Java programs you run becomes stuck in an infinite loop,press the red

alert icon to the left of the Output pane.

Q. How can I buy stock in the Green Bay Packers?

A. Unless the publicly owned NFL team decides to hold another stock sale,

the only way to become a stockholder is to inherit shares in a will.

The Packers have sold stock in 1923,1935,1950,and 1997.

Approximately 112,000 people own 4.7 million shares in the team,despite

the fact that they have very limited rights associated with the stock.

Holders don’t earn a dividend and can’t profit from their shares. They

only can sell them back to the team and lose money in the deal. No indi-

vidual can own more than 200,000 shares.

They do receive exclusive team merchandise offers and can attend an annu-

al meeting to elect the seven-member board that manages the team.

In the 1923 stock sale that formed the franchise,1,000 fans bought

shares for $5 each. The 1997 sale raised $24 million for the Lambeau

Field renovation.

More information on the stock can be found on the Web at

http://www.packers.com/community/shareholders.html.

Workshop

The following questions test your knowledge of loops. In the spirit of the sub-
ject matter,repeat each of these until you get them right.