Introduction to Java (cont.
Vũ Thị Hồng Nhạn
([email protected])
Dept. of Software Engineering, UET
Vietnam National Univ., Hanoi
Content
Final, static fields/methods
Composition (has-a relationship)
Command input
Input Scanner
File Scanner
Packages in Java
10/9/2024 Introduction to Java (cont.) Page 2
Final fields
A field of a class can be described with the keyword final
A final field is simply a constant variable
i.e., a variable that is only to be set once and is not allowed to change again over
time
A good example of a final field is defining math constant like PI
public class MathLib{
public final double PI=3.14;
}
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Final fields
This basically means that even though the field is public, you are
not allowed to change the value of PI anywhere (inside or outside of
the class)
public static void main(String [] args){
MathLib mathLib= new MathLib();
mathLib.PI=0; // this is not allowed and will show a compiler
error
}
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Static
Object’s lifetime
Objects that are created from a class don’t really last forever
E.g.
Item
String name
double weight
Bag Box
20 20
Typically you’d create an object from a class, fills its fields with some values
and maybe create another object and fill its fields with different values
but then eventually both those object will get destroyed including every single
value stored in those fields
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Object’s lifetime…
Typically, that would happen whenever the scope of that object ends
E.g., inside the method, the variable myItem is an object of the
type class Item
once the method ends, this variable doesn’t exists anymore, including
all the values of all the fields inside it
public void method(){
Item myItem = new Item();
myItem.weight=10;
….
}
myItem ???
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Static field
In some occasions, you might want to store the value of a certain field even
if there are no objects for that class
In that case, you need to add the keyword static when declaring this field
Item
String name
static double weight
Declaring a field as static means that these values are..
no longer within the object itself
BUT within the class instead, meaning that all objects of the class will
share that same exact value
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Static field…
And even if every single object of the class has been destroyed, the value
is still stored within the class
Item
String name
static double weight 20
Bag Box
20 20
If you decide to create a new object of the same class
then, it will end up using the same value that was stored in the class
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Static field…
Notice that
the static here doesn’t mean the value doesn’t change
In fact, that value does change!
it will update it in every single object of that class again
Item
String name
static double weight 10
Bag Box
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Static field…
Now because static fields belong to classes instead of object,
Java allows you to access a static field directly from the class
instead of having to create an object of that class
E.g., access the weight field from the class Item directly and set it
to a value
public void method(){
…
Item.weight=10;
….
}
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Static field…
example
public class Person{
public static int count;
public Person(){ count++;}
}
public class Main{
public static void main(){
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
Person person = new Person();
System.out.println(person.count);
}
}
}
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Static methods
Just like static fields, static methods also belong to the class rather than
the object
It’s ideally used to create a method that doesn’t need to access any fields
in the object
i.e., a method that is a standalone function
A static method takes input argument and returns a result based only on
those input values and nothing else
However, a static method can still access static fields
that’s because static fields also belong to the class and are shared among all
objects of that class
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Static methods…
Example
public class Calculator{
public static int add(int a, int b){return a+b;}
public static int substract(int a, int b){return a –b;}
}
Since both add and subtract don’t need any object-specific values,
they can be declared static as seen above
and hence you can call them directly using the class name
Calculator without the need to create an object variable at all
Calculator.add(3,3);
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Static methods
When should/shouldn’t we declare fields/methods to be static
Most of the time, you won’t declare them as static
But if you end up creating a class that provides some sort of
functionality rather than having a state of its own, then it’s a perfect
case to use static for almost all of its methods and fields
E.g., the Math class has a bunch of static methods like random()
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Composition in Java
Refers to a design principle where one class contains a reference to another class, establishing
a "has-a" relationship
In composition, a class can be composed of one or more objects of other classes
If the containing object is destroyed, the composed objects usually are as well
Reference variable must be created by statement new or refers to another
existing object
class Person{
private String name;
private MyDate birthday = new MyDate(1,1,2000);
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get/set non-primitive field
class Person{
….
public MyDate getBirthday(){
return birthday;
}
}
Person p=new Person();
MyDate d= p.getBirthday();
d.setYear(1990);
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Runtime input
A useful application should be as interactive and fun as possible
i.e., allow the user to provide information at runtime
E.g., for a contact manager application, it has some useful methods, but to
use them we have to write all the code in the main method including all your
friends’ contact details
This way, users have to write code and recompile it every time they want to
make a change!
Java allow us to accept input from the user while the program is running
i.e., write the main method in a way that ask the user to input their friends’ names,
phone numbers… then pass that information on to be stored.
There are 4 different ways a java program can read input from the user
Command line arguments
Runtime input
Files
Graphical User Interface (wont be covered in this course)
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Command input
CmdLineParas.java
public class CmdLineParas{
public static void main(String[] args){
for(int i=0; i<args.length; i++)
System.out.println(args[i]);
}
}
Example
#java CmdLineParas Hello 2019
Hello
2019
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Input scanner
You can ask the user to type in a message and then the java program can
read it into a variable and use it
To do so, we use the java class called Scanner which is included in the
java.util library
by typing this at the top of the file: import java.util.Scanner;
A Scanner allows the program to read any data type from a particular input,
if we create the scanner object like this
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in)
This command can be used to read a String, an integer, or an entire line
The method nextLine() of the scanner object returns a String
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Input scanner …
E.g.,
System.out.println("Enter your address:");
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in)
String address = scanner.nextLine();
System.out.println("You live at:" + address);
If you want to read a number into an integer variable instead of the entire
line, then use the method nextInt()
System.out.println("How old are you:");
Scanner scanner= new Scanner(System.in);
int age = scanner.nextInt();
if(age>40)
System.out.println(“Oh you’re not young!");
else
System.out.println("You're still young ^^*");
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File scanner
Another way of accepting runtime input is through files
Files can be plain text files
To read a text file in java, you can also use the Scanner class,
but instead of reading the command line inputs by passing System.in as the
argument,
you pass a File object which you can create by typing in the file name
File file = new File(“test.txt”);
Scanner fileScanner= new Scanner(file);
Then, you can read lines the same way we did before (use nextLine())
To check if the file still has more lines, you can use hasNextLine
method in case you want to load the entire file
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Packages
Packages in Java
Provides a mechanism to encapsulate a group of classes, sub-packages and
interfaces
We’d better put related classes into packages
Can reuse existing classes from the packages as many times as we need in
our program by importing a class from existing packages
Package names and directory structure are closely related
E.g.:, university.college.faculty then there are thee directories university,
college, faculty
Subpackages are not imported by default
they have to be imported explicitly
E.g.: import java.util.*; //import all classes from util package
util is a subpackage created inside java package
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Types of packages
Built-in packages consist of a large Packages
number of classes that are a part of
Java API User Built-in
Some common built-in packages defined packages
packages
java.lang contain classes for defining primitive data types & math operations
(this package imported automatically)
java.io support input/output operations
java.util classes for implementing data structures like Linked List,
Dictionary…,Date/Time operations
java.awt classes for implementing the components for GUI like buttons, menu…
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Types of packages…
User-defined packages
First, create a directory myPackage
Then create the MyClass inside the directory with the first statement
being the package names
package myPackage ;
public class MyClass{
public void getMessage(String s){
System.out.println(s);
}
}
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Types of packages…
Now, we can use MyClass class in our program
Import myPackage.MyClass;
public class PrintName{
Public static void main(String[] args ){
String msg = “Test the newly built package”
MyClass obj= new MyClass();
obj.getMessage(msg);
}
}
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Handling name conflicts
When a class name exists in more than one package, we need to use specific
import statement
E.g.,
import java.util.*;
import java.sql.*;
If we declare: Date today; //error! Because Date exists in both packages
Need to correct, e.g.,
import java.util.Date;
import.sql.*;
We can use both and use in declare statement
java.util.Date today=new java.util.Date();
java.sql.Date tomorrow java.sql.Date();
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