More About Objects and

Methods
Chapter 6

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Objectives
• Define and use constructors
• Write and use static variables and methods

• Use methods from class Math

• Use predefined wrapper classes
• Use stubs, drivers to test classes and programs

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Objectives
• Write and use overloaded methods
• Define and use enumeration methods

• Define and use packages and import statements

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Defining Constructors
• A special method called when instance of an object created with new
• Create objects
• Initialize values of instance variables
• Can have parameters
• To specify initial values if desired
• May have multiple definitions
• Each with different numbers or types of parameters

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Defining Constructors

• Example class to represent pets

• Figure 6.1 Class Diagram for Class Pet

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Defining Constructors
• class Pet
• Note different constructors
• Default
• With 3 parameters
• With String parameter
• With double parameter
• class PetDemo

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Defining Constructors

Sample
screen
output

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Calling Methods from Other Constructors
• Constructor can call other class methods

• View sample code, listing 6.3

class Pet2
• Note method setPet
• Keeps from repeating code

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Calling Constructor from Other Constructors

• From listing 6.3 we have the initial constructor and method set
• In the other constructors use the this reference to call initial
constructor
• Use this(<other constructor’s params>) instead of
ClassName(<other constructor’s params>)
• class Pet3
• Note calls to initial constructor

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Defining Constructors

• Constructor without parameters is the default constructor

• Java will define this automatically if the class designer does not define any
constructors
• If you do define a constructor, Java will not automatically define a default
constructor
• Usually default constructors not included in class diagram

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Defining Constructors
• Figure 6.2 A constructor
returning a reference

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Static Variables
• Static variables are shared by all objects of a class
• Variables declared static final are considered constants – value cannot
be changed
• Variables declared static (without final) can be changed
• Only one instance of the variable exists
• It can be accessed by all instances of the class
• Static variables also called class variables
• Contrast with instance/member variables
• Do not confuse class variables with variables of a class type
• Both static variables and instance variables are sometimes called fields
or data members

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Static Methods

• Some methods may have no relation to any type of object

• Example
• Compute max of two integers
• Convert character from upper to lower case
• Static method declared in a class
• Can be invoked without using an object
• Instead use the class name (unnecessary if used in same class defined)
• Make a method static if the logic
• Does not use instance variables
• Or, a more specific version of the above, it just takes parameters an just returns a result
• Example 1: a method that takes two parameters and returns the distance between them
• Example 2: a utility method such as print() or println() such as used in class to avoid typing
“System.out” every time for print-heavy programs

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Static Methods

• View sample class, listing 6.5

class DimensionConverter
• View demonstration program, listing 6.6
class DimensionConverterDemo

Sample
screen
output

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Tasks of main in Subtasks
• Program may have
• Complicated logic
• Repetitive code
• Create static methods to accomplish subtasks
• Must be static or will require an instance of the class to call – often does
not make sense to create an instance of a class just to call a utility
method or subtask

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Adding Method main to a Class

• Method main used so far in its own class within a

separate file
• Often useful to include method main within class
definition
• To create objects in other classes
• To be run as a program
• Note example code, listing 6.11
a redefined class Species
• When used as ordinary class, method main ignored

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 The Math Class
• Provides many standard mathematical methods
• Automatically provided, no import needed
• Example methods, figure 6.3a

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
The Math Class

• Example methods, figure 6.3b

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Random Numbers

• Math.random()returns a random double that is greater than or

equal to zero and less than 1
• Java also has a Random class to generate random numbers
• Can scale using addition and multiplication; the following simulates
rolling a six sided die
int die = (int) (6.0 * Math.random()) + 1;

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Wrapper Classes

• Recall that arguments of primitive type treated differently from those

of a class type
• May need to treat primitive value as an object occasionally
• Java provides wrapper classes for each primitive type
• Methods provided to act on values (generally useful)

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Wrapper Classes
• Allow programmer to have an object that corresponds to value of
primitive type
• Contain useful predefined constants and methods
• Double.MAX_VALUE
• Wrapper classes have no default constructor
• Programmer must specify an initializing value when creating new object
• Wrapper classes have no set methods – they are immutable, like
Strings

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Wrapper Classes
• Figure 6.4a Static methods in class Character

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Wrapper Classes
• Figure 6.4b Static methods in class Character

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Writing Methods: Outline

• Case Study: Formatting Output

• Decomposition
• Addressing Compiler Concerns
• Testing Methods

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Formatting Output
Algorithm to display a double amount as dollars and cents (corrected)
0. get total number of cents (rounded)
1. dollars = the number of whole dollars in total cents
amount.
2. cents = the number of remaining cents in amount.
Round if there are more than two digits after the decimal
point.
3. Display a dollar sign, dollars, and a decimal point.
4. Display cents as a two-digit integer.

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Formatting Output

Sample
screen
output

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Decomposition

• Recall pseudocode from previous slide

• With this pseudocode we decompose the task into subtasks
• Then solve each subtask
• Combine code of subtasks
• Place in a method

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Addressing Compiler Concerns

• Compiler ensures necessary tasks are done

• Initialize variables
• Include return statement
• Rule of thumb: believe the compiler
• Change the code as requested by compiler
• It is most likely correct

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Testing Methods

• To test a method use a driver program (or use unit tests…)

• Every method in a class should be tested – not just that a method
was called but that all code paths tested too… still not perfect
• Bottom-up testing
• Test lowest levels first
• Failed tests at lower levels generally suggest to work on the lower level
before the higher level
• Can do Top-Down also by using a stub – simplified version of a
method for testing purposes – for the lower levels. Examples:
• Stub for Database/Network: may just return answers without querying
database or making internet connection
• Stub for video camera input: may just read a given video

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Overloading: Outline

• Overloading Basics
• Overloading and Automatic Type Conversion
• Overloading and the Return Type

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Overloading Basics

• When two or more methods have same name within the same class
• Java distinguishes the methods by number and types of parameters
• If it cannot match a call with a definition, it attempts to do type conversions
• return type is not considered
• A method's name and number and type of parameters is called the
signature

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Overloading Basics

• View example program, listing 6.15

class Overload
• Note overloaded method getAverage

Sample
screen
output

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Overloading and Type Conversion
• Overloading and automatic type conversion can
conflict
• Recall definition of Pet class of listing 6.1
• If we pass an integer to the constructor we get the
constructor for age, even if we intended the constructor
for weight
• Remember the compiler attempts to overload
before it does type conversion
• Use descriptive method names, avoid overloading

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Overloading and Return Type

• You must not overload a method where the only difference is the
type of value returned -- ambiguous

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Information Hiding Revisited

Privacy Leaks
• Instance variable of a class type contain address
where that object is stored
• Assignment of class variables results in two
variables pointing to same object
• Use of method to change either variable, changes the
actual object itself
• View insecure class, listing 6.18
class petPair

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Information Hiding Revisited
• View sample
program,
Sample
listing 6.19
screen
class Hacker output

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Enumeration as a Class
• Consider defining an enumeration for
suits of cards
enum Suit {CLUBS, DIAMONDS, HEARTS, SPADES}
• Compiler creates a class with methods
• equals
• compareTo
• ordinal
• toString
• valueOf

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Enumeration as a Class

• View enhanced enumeration, listing 6.20

enum Suit
• Note
• Instance variables
• Additional methods
• Constructor

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Packages: Outline

• Packages and Importing

• Package Names and Directories
• Name Clashes

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Packages and Importing

• A package is a collection of classes grouped

together into a folder
• Name of folder is name of package
• Each class
• Placed in a separate file
• Has this line at the beginning of the file
package Package_Name;
• Classes use packages by use of import statement

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Package Names and Directories

• Package name tells compiler path name for directory containing

classes of package
• Search for package begins in class path base directory
• Package name uses dots in place of / or \
• Name of package uses relative path name starting from any directory
in class path

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
 Package Names and Directories

• Figure 6.5 A package name

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved
Name Clashes

• Packages help in dealing with name clashes

• When two classes have same name
• Different programmers may give same name to two classes
• Ambiguity resolved by using the package name

JAVA: An Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming, 7th Ed. By Walter Savitch
ISBN 0133862119 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All Rights Reserved