 <p>Literal bytes, shorts, integers and longs starting with <code>0</code> are interpreted as being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octal" rel="nofollow">octal</a></p> <blockquote> <p>The integral types (byte, short, int, and long) can be expressed using decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number systems. Decimal is the number system you already use every day; it's based on 10 digits, numbered 0 through 9. The octal number system is base 8, consisting of the digits 0 through 7. The hexadecimal system is base 16, whose digits are the numbers 0 through 9 and the letters A through F. For general-purpose programming, the decimal system is likely to be the only number system you'll ever use. However, if you need octal or hexadecimal, the following example shows the correct syntax. The prefix 0 indicates octal, whereas 0x indicates hexadecimal.</p> </blockquote> <p>from <a href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/datatypes.html" rel="nofollow">Primitive Data Types</a></p>