Car Purchase Program

The above expression evaluates to true because at least one operand was true. In fact, as soon as the first true is detected, you know that the entire expression must be true, because true OR anything is true.

34 > 2   ||   5 == 7
------        -----
 true         does not matter
   --------------
       true

As an optimization, Java evaluates an expression only as far as needed to determine its value. When program runs, as soon as 34 > 2 is found to be true, the entire expression is known to be true, and evaluation goes no further. This type of optimization is called short-circuit evaluation. (Just as it is with AND.)

Here is a full Java program that implements the car purchase decision.

// Sports Car Purchase
//
// You need $25000 in cash or credit
//
import java.util.Scanner;

class HotWheels
{
  public static void main (String[] args) 
  { 
    Scanner scan = new Scanner( System.in ); 
    int cash, credit ; 

    // get the cash
    System.out.print("How much cash? ");
    cash = scan.nextInt() ; 

    // get the credit line
    System.out.print("How much credit? ");
    credit = scan.nextInt() ; 

    // check that at least one qualification is met
    if ( cash >= 25000  ||  credit >= 25000 )
      System.out.println("Enough to buy this car!" );
    else
      System.out.println("What about a Yugo?" );

  }
}

Compile and run the program with various values of cash and credit to check that you understand how OR works.