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Does the automatic creation of the $3, $4, etc variable only happen in jshell?

Does the automatic creation of the $3, $4, etc variable only happen in jshell, or does it happen in other environments as well?

1 Answer

Tonnie Fanadez
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Tonnie Fanadez
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william coleman

I haven't seen this in other environments apart from JShell itself.

In JShell $1,$2, $3, $4,$5, $100 etc. are called Positional Parameters. A positional parameter is a parameter denoted by one or more digits, other than the single digit 0.

Once Jshell has allocated a variable with a preceding dollar symbol followed by a digit, it means that you can use the value of this variable on Jshell by typing out the positional parameter.

For Example

If you type Integer.parseInt("17") JShell prints out $5==> 17

You can then use the created value by just typing "$5"

jshell> Integer.parseInt("17")
$5 ==> 17     
// JShell creates a variable with a positional parameter denoted as $5 with a value of 17

jshell> int number = 3;
number ==> 3

jshell> number + $5   //---->>> You can use the Jshell value by just typing $5
$7 ==> 20

jshell>

Thanks, Tonnie!