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Chapter 5 Introducing Classes

The document discusses classes in Java, including how to declare a class, define methods and instance variables within a class, create objects of a class using the new operator, call methods on objects, add parameters to methods, and use constructors to initialize objects.

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38 views12 pages

Chapter 5 Introducing Classes

The document discusses classes in Java, including how to declare a class, define methods and instance variables within a class, create objects of a class using the new operator, call methods on objects, add parameters to methods, and use constructors to initialize objects.

Uploaded by

J A Y T R O N
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INTRODUCING CLASSES

OBJECTIVES
How to declare a class and use it to create an object.
How to implement a class’s behaviors as methods.
How to implement a class’s attributes as instance variables and
properties.
How to call an object’s methods to make them perform their tasks.
How to use a constructor to initialize an object’s data.
INTRODUCTION
Object-oriented programming in Java is based on classes. Any concept you wish to
implement in a Java program must be encapsulated within a class.
A class defines a new data type.
Once defined, this new type can be used to create objects of that type.
Thus, a class is a template for an object, and an object is an instance of a class.
CLASS FUNDAMENTALS
The data, or variables, defined within a class are called instance variables.
The code is contained within methods.
Collectively, the methods and variables defined within a class are called members of
the class.
Variables defined within a class are called instance variables because each instance
of the class (that is, each object of the class) contains its own copy of these variables.
DECLARING A CLASS WITH A METHOD
Every class declaration contains keyword class followed immediately by
the class’s name.
Every class’s body is enclosed in a pair of left and right braces

public class AreaOfCircle {


//display a message to the user
public void displayMesg(){
System.out.println("This application calculates the area
of a circle.");
}
}
DECLARING OBJECTS
As just explained, when you create a class, you are creating a new
data type.
You can use this type to declare objects of that type.
First, you must declare a variable of the class type.
Second, you must acquire an actual, physical copy of the object
and assign it to that variable.
You can do this using the new operator.
Then new operator dynamically allocates (that is, allocates at run
time) memory for an object and returns a reference to it.
DECLARING OBJECTS
AreaOfCircle areaOfCircle1 = new AreaOfCircle();

A class that contains method main begins the execution of a Java


application.
To access the members of the object created, you will use the dot
(.) operator.
CALLING A METHOD OF OBJECTS

public static void main(String[] args) {


AreaOfCircle areaOfCircle1 = new AreaOfCircle();
areaOfCircle1.displayMesg();
}
DECLARING A METHOD WITH A PARAMETER
A parameter represents additional information the method needs to
perform its task.
Parameters are defined in a comma-separated parameter list, which is
located inside the parentheses that follow the method name.
Each parameter must specify a type and a variable name.
The parameter list may contain any number of parameters, including
none at all.
Empty parentheses following the method name indicate that a method
does not require any parameters.
DECLARING A METHOD WITH A PARAMETER
Argument to a Method
A method call supplies values—called arguments—for each of the method’s
parameters.

public void displayName(String userName){


System.out.println("Your name is: " + userName);
}
INITIALIZING OBJECTS WITH CONSTRUCTORS
A constructor is used to initialize an object of a class when the
object is created.
In fact, Java requires a constructor call for every object that’s
created.
Keyword new requests memory from the system to store an object,
then calls the corresponding class’s constructor to initialize the
object.
A constructor must have the same name as the class.
INITIALIZING OBJECTS WITH CONSTRUCTORS
public class NameApp {
String userName;
public NameApp (String name){
userName = name;
}//end of constructor

public void displayName(String Name){


System.out.println("Your name is: " + Name);
}

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