All of this code is legal, and line 8 creates a new String with a value of "42.5". Lines 9 and 10 convert the String to a double and then back again. Line 11 is fun— Math.ceil()'s argument expression is evaluated first. We invoke the valueOf() method that returns an anonymous Double object (with a value of 42.5). Then the doubleValue() method is called (invoked on the newly created Double object), and returns a double primitive (there and back again), with a value of (you guessed it) 42.5. The ceil() method converts this to 43.0, which is cast to an int and assigned to x.