Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
Module 2
Introducing Classes: Class Fundamentals, Declaring Objects, Assigning Object Reference Variables,
Introducing Methods, Constructors, The this Keyword, Garbage Collection. Methods and Classes:
Overloading Methods, Objects as Parameters, Argument Passing, Returning Objects, Recursion, Access
Control, Understanding static, Introducing final, Introducing Nested and Inner Classes.
INTRODUCING CLASSES
The class is at the core of Java. It is the logical construct upon which the entire Java language is built
because it defines the shape and nature of an object. As such, the class forms the basis for object-
oriented programming in Java.
Class Fundamentals
Perhaps the most important thing to understand about a class is that it 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. Because an object is an instance of a class, you will often see the
two words object and instance used interchangeably.
The General Form of a Class
A class is declared by use of the class keyword.
A simplified general form of a class definition is shown here:
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.
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Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
You should call the file that contains this program BoxDemo.java, because the main( ) method is in the
class called BoxDemo, not the class called Box. When you compile this program, you will find that two
.class files have been created, one for Box and one for BoxDemo. The Java compiler automatically puts
each class into its own .class file. It is not necessary for both the Box and the BoxDemo class to actually
be in the same source file. You could put each class in its own file, called Box.java and BoxDemo.java,
respectively. To run this program, you must execute BoxDemo.class. When you do, you will see the
following output:
Volume is 3000.0
Declaring Objects
When you create a class, you are creating a new data type. You can use this type to declare objects of
that type. However, obtaining objects of a class is a two-step process. First, you must declare a variable
of the class type. This variable does not define an object. Instead, it is simply a variable that can refer
to an object. 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. The new operator dynamically allocates (that is,
allocates at run time) memory for an object and returns a reference to it. This reference is, more or less,
the address in memory of the object allocated by new. This reference is then stored in the variable.
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A Closer Look at new
As just explained, the new operator dynamically allocates memory for an object. It has this general
form:
class-var = new classname ( );
Here, class-var is a variable of the class type being created. The classname is the name of the class that
is being instantiated. The class name followed by parentheses specifies the constructor for the class. A
constructor defines what occurs when an object of a class is created.
Introducing Methods
classes usually consist of two things: instance variables and methods.
This is the general form of a method:
type name(parameter-list)
{
// body of method
}
Here, type specifies the type of data returned by the method. This can be any valid type, including class
types that you create. If the method does not return a value, its return type must be void. The name of
the method is specified by name. This can be any legal identifier other than those already used by other
items within the current scope. The parameter-list is a sequence of type and identifier pairs separated
by commas. Parameters are essentially variables that receive the value of the arguments passed to the
method when it is called. If the method has no parameters, then the parameter list will be empty.
Methods that have a return type other than void return a value to the calling routine using the following
form of the return statement:
return value;
Here, value is the value returned
Adding a Method to the Box Class
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Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
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Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
Returning a Value
There are two important things to understand about returning values:
• The type of data returned by a method must be compatible with the return type specified by the method.
For example, if the return type of some method is boolean, you could not return an integer. • The
variable receiving the value returned by a method (such as vol, in this case) must also be compatible
with the return type specified for the method.
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Constructors
A constructor initializes an object immediately upon creation. It has the same name as the class in which
it resides and is syntactically similar to a method. Once defined, the constructor is automatically called
when the object is created, before the new operator completes.
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Parameterized Constructors
While the Box( ) constructor in the preceding example does initialize a Box object, it is not very
useful—all boxes have the same dimensions. What is needed is a way to construct Box objects of
various dimensions. The easy solution is to add parameters to the constructor.
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The this Keyword
Sometimes a method will need to refer to the object that invoked it. To allow this, Java defines the this
keyword. this can be used inside any method to refer to the current object. That is, this is always a
reference to the object on which the method was invoked. You can use this anywhere a reference to an
object of the current class’ type is permitted. To better understand what this refers to, consider the
following version of Box( ):
Garbage Collection
Java handles deallocation for you automatically. The technique that accomplishes this is called garbage
collection. It works like this: when no references to an object exist, that object is assumed to be no
longer needed, and the memory occupied by the object can be reclaimed.
The finalize( ) Method
if an object is holding some non-Java resource such as a file handle or character font, then you might
want to make sure these resources are freed before an object is destroyed. To handle such situations,
Java provides a mechanism called finalization. By using finalization, you can define specific actions
that will occur when an object is just about to be reclaimed by the garbage collector.
To add a finalizer to a class, you simply define the finalize( ) method. The Java run time calls that
method whenever it is about to recycle an object of that class. Inside the finalize( ) method, you will
specify those actions that must be performed before an object is destroyed.
Overloading Methods
In Java, it is possible to define two or more methods within the same class that share the same name, as
long as their parameter declarations are different. When this is the case, the methods are said to be
overloaded, and the process is referred to as method overloading. Method overloading is one of the
ways that Java supports polymorphism.
When an overloaded method is invoked, Java uses the type and/or number of arguments as its guide to
determine which version of the overloaded method to actually call. Thus, overloaded methods must
differ in the type and/or number of their parameters.
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Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
Overloading Constructors
In addition to overloading normal methods, you can also overload constructor methods. In fact, for most
real-world classes that you create, overloaded constructors will be the norm, not the exception.
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Using Objects as Parameters
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Closer Look at Argument Passing
In general, there are two ways that a computer language can pass an argument to a subroutine. The first
way is call-by-value. This approach copies the value of an argument into the formal parameter of the
subroutine. Therefore, changes made to the parameter of the subroutine have no effect on the argument.
The second way an argument can be passed is call-by-reference. In this approach, a reference to an
argument (not the value of the argument) is passed to the parameter. Inside the subroutine, this reference
is used to access the actual argument specified in the call. This means that changes made to the
parameter will affect the argument used to call the subroutine.
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Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
Recursion
Java supports recursion. Recursion is the process of defining something in terms of itself. As it relates
to Java programming, recursion is the attribute that allows a method to call itself. A method that calls
itself is said to be recursive.
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Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
INTRODUCING ACCESS CONTROL
How a member can be accessed is determined by the access modifier attached to its declaration. Java
supplies a rich set of access modifiers. Some aspects of access control are related mostly to inheritance
or packages. (A package is, essentially, a grouping of classes.)
Java’s access modifiers are public, private, and protected. Java also defines a default access level.
protected applies only when inheritance is involved.
When a member of a class is modified by public, then that member can be accessed by any other code.
When a member of a class is specified as private, then that member can only be accessed by other
members of its class. Now you can understand why main( ) has always been preceded by the public
modifier. It is called by code that is outside the program—that is, by the Java run-time system. When
no access modifier is used, then by default the member of a class is public within its own package, but
cannot be accessed outside of its package.
UNDERSTANDING STATIC
When a member is declared static, it can be accessed before any objects of its class are created, and
without reference to any object. You can declare both methods and variables to be static. The most
common example of a static member is main( ). main( ) is declared as static because it must be called
before any objects exist.
Methods declared as static have several restrictions:
• They can only directly call other static methods.
• They can only directly access static data.
• They cannot refer to this or super in any way. (The keyword super relates to inheritance and is
described in the next chapter.)
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Object Oriented Programming with JAVA(BCS306A) Module 2
INTRODUCING FINAL
A field can be declared as final. Doing so prevents its contents from being modified, making it,
essentially, a constant. This means that you must initialize a final field when it is declared. You can do
this in one of two ways: First, you can give it a value when it is declared. Second, you can assign it a
value within a constructor.
It is a common coding convention to choose all uppercase identifiers for final fields, as this example
shows. In addition to fields, both method parameters and local variables can be declared final. Declaring
a parameter final prevents it from being changed within the method. Declaring a local variable final
prevents it from being assigned a value more than once
Introducing Nested and Inner Classes
It is possible to define a class within another class; such classes are known as nested classes. The scope
of a nested class is bounded by the scope of its enclosing class. A nested class has access to the members,
including private members, of the class in which it is nested. However, the enclosing class does not
have access to the members of the nested class. A nested class that is declared directly within its
enclosing class scope is a member of its enclosing class. It is also possible to declare a nested class that
is local to a block. There are two types of nested classes: static and non-static. A static nested class is
one that has the static modifier applied. Because it is static, it must access the non-static members of its
enclosing class through an object. That is, it cannot refer to non-static members of its enclosing class
directly. Because of this restriction, static nested classes are seldom used. The most important type of
nested class is the inner class. An inner class is a non-static nested class. It has access to all of the
variables and methods of its outer class and may refer to them directly in the same way that other non-
static members of the outer class do.
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