Editing Java syntax (section)

===<code>assert</code> statement===
<code>assert</code> statements have been available since [[J2SE 1.4]]. These types of statements are used to make [[assertion (computing)|assertion]]s in the source code, which can be turned on and off during execution for specific classes or packages. To declare an assertion the <code>assert</code> keyword is used followed by a conditional expression. If it evaluates to <code>false</code> when the statement is executed, an exception is thrown. This statement can include a colon followed by another expression, which will act as the exception's detail message.

<syntaxhighlight lang="java">
// If n equals 0, AssertionError is thrown
assert n != 0;
/* If n equals 0, AssertionError will be thrown
with the message after the colon */
assert n != 0 : "n was equal to zero";
</syntaxhighlight>