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Lecture 5 access control and static keyword

The lecture covers garbage collection in Java, explaining how it automatically manages memory by reclaiming objects that are no longer referenced. It also discusses access specifiers, detailing how they control visibility and access levels for classes and their members, emphasizing the importance of encapsulation. Finally, the static keyword is introduced, highlighting its role in memory management and how it allows variables and methods to be shared across instances of a class.

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5 views

Lecture 5 access control and static keyword

The lecture covers garbage collection in Java, explaining how it automatically manages memory by reclaiming objects that are no longer referenced. It also discusses access specifiers, detailing how they control visibility and access levels for classes and their members, emphasizing the importance of encapsulation. Finally, the static keyword is introduced, highlighting its role in memory management and how it allows variables and methods to be shared across instances of a class.

Uploaded by

totiya3351
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Access Control and Static Keyword

Lecture 5
Prof. Anita Agrawal
27-01-25
In today’s session…
 Garbage collection

 Access Specifiers

 Static keyword

2 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Garbage Collection
 In Java, objects are dynamically operated by
the new operator
 How are objects destroyed and memory is
released for future reallocation?
In some languages, dynamically allocated objects

are manually released
Java handles deallocation automatically using
Garbage Collection

3 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


When no reference to an object exists
 Java assumes that the object is no longer needed
 The memory occupied by object can be
reclaimed
 No explicit need to destroy objects
 Garbage collection occurs sporadically during
program execution.
 System.gc();

4 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Access Specifiers ……revisited

5 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Controlling access to members of class
 Access level modifiers determine whether other
classes can use a particular field or invoke a particular
method.

 Two levels of access control:


 At the top level—public, or package-private (no
explicit modifier).

 At the member level—public, private, protected, or


package-private (no explicit modifier).

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 Class modifiers:
 Public: The class is visible to all classes
everywhere

 Package-Private: (default): visible only


within its own package

7 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


 Class Member modifiers:
 Public: The member is visible everywhere

 Package Private: The member is visible only


within the package in which it has been
defined

8 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


 Protected: The member can only be accessed
within its own package (as with package-
private) and, in addition, by a subclass of its
class in another package

 Private: The member can only be accessed in


its own class.

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Summary of the access members

Table illustrating the access control modifiers


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Access levels, why???
 Access levels affect you in two ways.
 First, when you use classes that come from another
source, such as the classes in the Java platform,
access levels determine which members of those
classes your own classes can use.

 Second, when you write a class, you need to decide


what access level every member variable and every
method in your class should have.

11 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Tips on choosing access level
 If other programmers use your class, you want to ensure
that errors from misuse should not happen. Access levels
can help you do this.

 Use the most restrictive access level that makes sense


for a particular member. Use private unless you have a
good reason not to.

 Avoid public fields except for constants. Public fields


tend to link you to a particular implementation and
limit your flexibility in changing your code.

12 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Encapsulation
➢ Access Control is an important aspect of
Encapsulation

➢ It is the mechanism that binds together code and


the data it manipulates

13 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Static modifier
 When a number of objects are created from the
same class, they each have their own distinct copies
of instance variables.

 Each object will have its own values for these


variables, stored in different memory locations.

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 Sometimes, we want to have variables that are
common to all objects.
 Use static modifier

 Static variables are associated with the class, rather


than with any object.

 Every instance of the class shares the class variable,


which is in one fixed location in memory.

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 When a member is declared static, it can be accessed
before any objects of its class are created and without
reference to any object

16 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Static keyword

 The static keyword is used mainly for memory


management.

 It is applicable to
 blocks
 variables
 nested classes
 methods

17 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Static Keyword-Variables
 It precedes variable declaration with the keyword static.

 Ways of initialization:
 Directly: modifier(if any) static var_type var_name;
Example: public static int x =2;
or……….
 Declare a static block
Example: static int x;
static {
x = 2;
}
staticcar.java
18 Anita Agrawal CS F213
Observations for static

 Any object can change the value of the class variable, but
class variables can also be manipulated without creating
an instance of the class.

 Static block executes exactly once.

19 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Static Methods
 Methods can also be declared as static.
 Restrictions
 They can access only static data of their class
 They can directly call only other static methods of
their class
 They can’t refer to this or super(Inheritance)
 We can call a non-static method to display a
static variable.

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 We can call a non-static method to display a static
variable

 We cannot call a static method to display a non-static


variable

21 Anita Agrawal CS F213 1/29/2025 9:02 AM


Any Questions?

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