CPS 209

Computer Science II
Prof. Alex Ufkes

Topic 3: More Classes & Objects in Java

 Notice!

Obligatory copyright notice in the age of digital

delivery and online classrooms:

The copyright to this original work is held by Alex Ufkes. Students

registered in course C/CPS 209 can use this material for the purposes
of this course but no other use is permitted, and there can be no sale
or transfer or use of the work for any other purpose without explicit
permission of Alex Ufkes.

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 2

 Course Administration

• Nothing big to announce

• Work on lab problems
• Project #1 description
coming “soon”

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 3

 Any Questions?

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 4

 Let’s Get Started!

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 5

 Previously

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 6

 Previously

Arrays.equals()

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© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 8
 Previously

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 9

 Previously

Now we need a Person object

to create an Account.

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 10

 Today:

Continuing Classes and Objects in Java:

• Static members
• More useful built-in Java classes
o Scanner, BigInteger, ArrayList,
primitive wrappers and their uses
• Static factory methods
• Nested and local classes

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 Static Members

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 Meaning what, exactly?

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 • This is an instance variable of Counter
• Each Counter object has a separate copy

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 Separate Copy?

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 • Static variables are shared
between all instances!
• If one object modifies it,
that change is reflected in
all other instances.

• Each time we create a new Person,

we increment num_people.
• After five Person objects are created,
num_people will equal 5.

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© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 17
 Implications

We need not create an object to access static variables!

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 Remember Math?

Math is a class! We didn’t create an instance of Math.

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 Everything in Math is Static

• cos(), sin(), sqrt() are all

static methods.
• We don’t have to create a
Math object to use them
• Can we create a Math
object…?

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 Math Objects?

• Apparently not. Who can guess why?

• Math’s constructor is private

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 https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/lang/Math.html
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 Arrays Class

import java.util.Arrays;

Look familiar?
• Like Math, methods in the
Arrays class are all static.
• String methods belong to
String objects
• Arrays methods belong to
the Arrays class

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 Arrays Class

Same as Math, private constructor.

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 24

 https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/util/Arrays.html

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 We have non-static methods:
• We say: str.<method>()
• Not: String.<method>(str)

Still have some

static methods

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 Arrays VS Strings

Speaking of arrays and strings, what can we say about this?

For strings, length() is a method. For arrays, length is a value (variable)!

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 str.length() VS arr.length

String length()

What is arr.length? It’s clearly public, some sort of integer would make sense.

It is an int:
• It is declared final, which means it cannot
be mutated once assigned.
• It also means the maximum size for an array
in Java is 2,147,483,647 elements!
• 2,147,483,647 ints @ 4 bytes per int =>8Gb

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 final Variables

Once assigned a value, they cannot be mutated:

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 final Variables

Once assigned a value, they cannot be mutated:

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 Remember System.out.println?

• “System is a class, out is a static instance

of another class, println is a method.”
• “There’s so much in a simple print
statement for us to unpack.”
• This makes a bit more sense now, even if
it doesn’t yet make total sense.
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 For that matter, remember main()?

• We don’t need an instance of

HelloWorld to execute main!
• This is why it must be static. We can’t
create a HelloWorld object until our
program is executing to begin with.

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 • We don’t *need* to know what arr.length is to use it.
• We don’t *need* to know what Math.PI is to use it.
• However, it gives us a sense of confidence to know that Java is
bound by its own rules, and that those rules can be understood.
• Digging into the nuts and bolts of a language isn’t just idle curiosity
• It’s the difference between knowing how to use a tool and
knowing how that tool works.

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 Built-in Java Classes and Methods

Now that we understand the basics of Classes in Java:

Syntax, constructors, instance variables/methods, static variables/methods,
access specifiers, constructor/method overloading, and so on.

We can now explore several more useful built-in Classes

• Scanner for user input, BigInteger for handling big integers
• ArrayLists and primitive wrappers to make up for the shortcomings of
regular arrays and get us closer to Python-style lists
• And more!

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© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 35
 User Input with Scanner

Quick intro to Scanner:

Requires an import

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 Constructor argument:
• Tells the Scanner where
to read input from.
Data type: Identifier: • System.in refers to the
Scanner class Can be anything legal keyboard, by default.
• Can also be a String, file,
input stream, etc.

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 Grab the next integer
from System.in

Declare an
integer Using the Scanner we declared….

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 Huh?

• nextLine() read “\n” from

the buffer after 87.9 was
entered.
• next() read the string Hello.

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 Huh?

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 Scanning Strings

Works the same, but we’re reading from a string instead of the keyboard:

• Of course, we must know which type we’re reading.

• Alternatively, we can validate using hasNextInt(), and so on.
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 System.in is an
InputStream

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 https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/util/Scanner.html

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 Array wrapper with added functionality!

Operations on ArrayLists more closely

resemble Python Lists.

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 ArrayList Class

ArrayList<Type> variableName

Type of an ArrayList must be an object

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 ArrayList
is a class:

Just like Scanner,

String, etc.
Values/properties

Methods

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 Create and Add Elements

Follows typical object

declaration syntax.

• Add as many elements as we want.

• Items appended to end of list,
ArrayList grows as needed.
• Very powerful, the programmer is
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 Retrieve Elements

Use add() method,

provide a String argument

• To retrieve an individual element,

use the get() method.
• Argument to get() is an index.
• Remember: zero-indexed!

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 Print all Elements

Use size() method to

get number of elements

get(i) grabs one element at a time in the loop

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 Modify Elements

• Use the set() method.

• Takes two arguments:
index and new value.

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 Insert Elements

We’ve seen how to use add() to insert items at the end of the list.

add() can also be used to insert items in the middle of the list.
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 Insert Elements

If we provide add with 2 arguments, an index

and a value, we insert an item at that index.

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 Remove Elements

remove() method accepts one

argument, the index to be removed.

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 Why ArrayLists?

Everything we can do with an ArrayList can be

done with a standard array.

The difference is that ArrayList provides methods to achieve all

these operations for us. Already built in.

With standard arrays, we must code all the functionality

ourselves for inserting and removing elements.

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 ArrayList Limitations

Recall: Type of an ArrayList must be a Class.

ArrayLists hold objects.
The examples we’ve seen so far have been using an
ArrayList of Strings, which are objects.
What if we want an array list of integers? Floats?
Booleans? These are not objects.

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 What about primitive types?

• It turns out that for every primitive type,

Java provides an equivalent object type.
• The primitive value is boxed in an object.
• These objects are known as wrappers
• Each primitive type has an object wrapper

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 Boxing & Unboxing

• Double d1 can be declared using

standard primitive declaration syntax
• This is a shortcut afforded to us by Java.
• Called auto-boxing
• We can also declare a Double using the
standard object declaration syntax.
• Literal or variable passed to constructor
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 Boxing & Unboxing

Auto-boxing

Auto-unbox to perform addition

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 Boxing & Unboxing

Auto-boxing

Auto-unbox to perform addition

Auto-box result of addition to

store back in object d1.
• Wrapper objects can be used like their wrapped primitives
• They also provide advantages due to being objects, such
as being members of ArrayLists
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 for-each Loop + ArrayList

Works the same way:

• Type of e can now be
Integer or int
• Autoboxing/unboxing
works here also

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 https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/util/ArrayList.html

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 Integer
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 BigInteger

Grows arbitrarily large like a Python integer:

• We must provide a String

to the constructor.
• Who can guess why?
• Integer literals in Java are
still bound by their type!
• BigIntegers are internally
represented as Strings
• BigInteger arithmetic is
done via method calls.

(import java.math.*; to use)

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 BigInteger

Grows arbitrarily large like a Python integer:

(import java.math.*; to use)

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 BigInteger

Convert back to integer?

This result can be

represented by an int.

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 BigInteger

Convert back to integer?

• Use Scanner to read

from a string!
• nextInt() works
just the same.

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 BigInteger

How about this?

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 BigInteger

How about this?

What we have here is a failure to parse.

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 BigInteger

Same idea:

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 Object Factories

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 Object Factories

• If a class has a private constructor, no objects

of that class can be created outside that class.
• However, we can still create and return objects
from within that class.
• How? By using a static factory method.

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 Static Factory Method

• Constructor is private!
• It can still be invoked by factory
method create()
• For this to work, create() must
be static. Why?
• If it’s not, we need to create an
object to invoke it.
• If constructor is private, we can’t
create a Card object.

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 Invoke static factory method
Card.create() to instantiate
a Card object.

Invoking Card constructor

using new keyword fails.

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 Static Factory Method

• This is very useful! We can control very precisely the

conditions for creating a new object.
• Input arguments don’t make sense? Return null.
• You’ve created too many objects? Return null.
• You already created an object with those parameters?
Return a reference to that previous object.
• Consider Card. If we’re dealing with one deck, we may
not want to allow duplicates to be instantiated.
• Let’s try it out!

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 • Test if rank is between 2 and 14. If not,
return null without creating the card.
• Test if suit is one of the four valid suits.
o Note this neat trick for doing so.
o indexOf() returns -1 if not found.
• If rank and suit are valid, create and
return a new Card object.

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 Let’s also create a simple
toString() method to
test it out.

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 Limit the number of Card objects:

• Static variable belongs to the class.

• Return null once we’ve created 5 cards
• Every time we create a new Card,
increment nCards.

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 Limit the number of Card objects:

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 Nested & Local Classes

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 A Class Within a Class

Just like nested loops

Consider: Class B is defined inside Class A (B is nested in A)

• B objects can be created inside the instance methods of A
• B objects cannot exist on their own without Class A
• We can’t have a B object without first having an A object
• This is different from inheritance! (Next class)

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 • We have a full class definition encapsulated
in another class definition.
• PointList is the outer class, Point is the inner.
• Point doesn’t exist outside of PointList.

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© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 85
 Consider: Class B is defined inside Class A (B is nested in A)
• B objects can only be created inside the instance methods of A
• B objects cannot exist on their own without Class A
• We can’t have a B object without first having an A object
• Unless the nested class is declared as public.

This works because Point

is declared as public
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© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 87
 Static variable to count the number of points created.

• In Point constructor, increment nPts.

• Notice, Point is accessing a class
(static) variable of PointList.

Nested Classes:
Accessing Fields?
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© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 89
 Private? Point can access
private members of PointList

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 Nested Classes: Shadowing

• We’ve seen that local variables (in a method) can shadow class
instance variables.

• Use this to specify

instance variables
• Without this, we
refer to local variables.

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 Nested Classes: Shadowing

What happens if an inner class member shadows an outer class member?

Can we access x and y in

PointList from Point?

this.x, this.y refer

to x and y in Point

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 Nested Classes: Shadowing

• If we’re inside Point, this refers to

the Point object we’re currently in.
• Recall: We can’t have a Point object
without a PointList object.
• To access the PointList object that
the current Point object is in, we
use PointList.this

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 The Rabbit Hole Goes Ever Deeper

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 Local class Point

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 • Local classes are only visible inside
the method in which they’re defined.
• In this case, the main() method.
• Notice, we need not specify the class
as public.
• Its scope is already limited to the
method it’s defined in.

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 • Scope rules for local classes are
similar to nested classes.
• A local class can access all the
methods and instance variables
of its encompassing class.

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 Use the same syntax as
with nested classes.

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 Local Classes: Local Variables

• Nested classes can access

local variables of its
encompassing method….
• But only under specific
conditions.
• The variable must be final,
or effectively final.

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 Local Classes: Local Variables

Effectively final
• The variable is not explicitly
declared final, but never
actually changes.
• We can access it in our nested
class, but we can’t modify it.

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 Local Classes: Local Variables

Effectively final
• The variable is not explicitly
declared final, but never
actually changes.
• We can access it in our nested
class, but we can’t modify it.
• The encompassing method
cannot modify it either.
• Test: Could the variable be
declared final without compile
errors?
• If so, it is effectively final
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 Zero-One-Infinity

A rule of thumb that states:

• Arbitrary limits on the the number of instances of a particular entity
should not be allowed.
• Something is forbidden, allowed once, or allowed any number of times.
• A class may have one superclass, but any number of subclasses.
• It would make no sense to limit subclasses to seven, for example.
• Loops can have any number of nested layers, arrays can have any
arbitrary number of dimensions, etc.

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 Zero-One-Infinity

• Nested classes adhere to this principle as well.

• We can nest classes within classes within classes.
• All the rules we’ve seen remain the same, just
extrapolated to multiple layers.
In practice, in general:
• Arrays > 3 dimensions? Rethink your code.
• Loops > 3 layers? Rethink your code.
• Nested classes > 2 layers? Rethink your code.

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 104

 Summary:

Continuing Classes and Objects in Java:

• Static members, explaining main()
• Useful built-in Java classes
o Scanner, BigInteger, ArrayList,
primitive wrappers and their uses
• Static factory methods
• Nested and local classes

© Alex Ufkes, 2020, 2025 105

 Next Class:

Inheritance
&
Polymorphism

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