Java Introduction To Long Class

The Java Long class is a wrapper class that provides an object representation of the primitive data type long. It allows you to perform various operations on long values by treating them as objects.

The Long class provides a set of methods that enable you to perform common operations on long values, such as converting strings to longs, performing arithmetic operations, comparing values, and more. Here are some basic use cases of the Long class:

Converting between long and String: The Long class provides the parseLong() method, which converts a String representation of a number into a long value. For example:

   String numberString = "123456789";
   long number = Long.parseLong(numberString);

Converting long to String: You can use the toString() method of the Long class to convert a long value to its String representation. For example:

   long number = 123456789;
   String numberString = Long.toString(number);

Arithmetic operations: The Long class can performing arithmetic operations exactly like long, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These arithmetic operations return Long objects. For example:

   long a = 10;
   long b = 5;
   Long sum = Long.valueOf(a) + Long.valueOf(b);

Comparing values: The Long class provides methods to compare long values. For example, you can use the compareTo() method to compare two Long objects or the equals() method to check for equality. Here’s an example:

   Long x = 100L;
   Long y = 50L;
   int result = x.compareTo(y);

Long constants: The Long class defines constants like MIN_VALUE and MAX_VALUE, which represent the minimum and maximum values that can be stored in a long variable.

    Long maxValue = Long.MAX_VALUE; // 9223372036854775807
    Long minValue = Long.MIN_VALUE; // -9223372036854775808

Boxing and unboxing: The Long class allows you to convert between long and Long objects through a process called boxing and unboxing. Boxing is the conversion of a primitive long value to a Long object, and unboxing is the reverse process of extracting the long value from a Long object.

Boxing:

long primitiveLong = 123456789L;
Long boxedLong = primitiveLong; // Boxing: converting long to Long

Unboxing:

Long boxedLong = 987654321L;
long primitiveLong = boxedLong; // Unboxing: extracting long from Long

It’s important to note that using the Long class incurs a small performance overhead compared to working directly with primitive long values. However, the Long class is useful in scenarios where you need to take advantage of its methods or when you require a long value to be treated as an object, such as when working with collections or using Java libraries that expect object-based representations.

Overall, the Long class provides a range of utility methods that make it easier to work with long values in various scenarios, offering additional functionality beyond what is available with the primitive long type alone.

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