A variable's type determines the values that can be assigned to the variable and the operations that can be performed it. You should already be familiar with data types in Java through your reading of Variables and Data Types in the previous lesson. A member variable's name can be any legal Java identifier and by convention begins with a lower case letter. You cannot declare more than one member variable with the same name in the same class. However, a member variable and a method can have the same name.
Italic items are to be replaced by keywords or names.
You control access to methods using the same specifiers, so Controlling Access to Members of a Class covers how you can control access to both member variables and methods. You also use static to declare class methods. Instance and Class Members talks about declaring instance and class variables and writing instance and class methods. Declaring Constants To create a constant member variable in Java use the keyword final in your variable declaration. By convention, names of constant values are spelled in uppercase letters.