The JavaServer Pages Expression Language

Summary

In this chapter, you’ve looked at the JSP EL. This EL is largely intended to replace scriptlets and to be used in combination with custom tags.

You’ve examined the following topics in this chapter:

• The reasons that the EL has come about, including a look at its history

• The syntax and usage of the EL, including reserved words, disabling scriptlets in a page, and disabling the evaluation of the EL on a page or set of pages

• The operators within the EL, including arithmetic operators, comparison operators, logical operators, and other operators

• The use of JavaBeans with the EL

• The implicit objects within the EL

• The declaration and use of functions in the EL, including reasons for using functions over tags and vice versa

In the next chapter, you’ll learn about the JSTL and the tags contained within it.