Classes and Objects

With the knowledge you now have of the basics of the Java programming language, you can learn to write your own classes. In this lesson, you will find information about defining your own classes, including declaring member variables, methods, and constructors.

You will learn to use your classes to create objects, and how to use the objects you create.

This lesson also covers nesting classes within other classes, and enumerations

Classes

The introduction to object-oriented concepts in the lesson titled Object-oriented Programming Concepts used a bicycle class as an example, with racing bikes, mountain bikes, and tandem bikes as subclasses. Here is sample code for a possible implementation of a Bicycle class, to give you an overview of a class declaration. Subsequent sections of this lesson will back up and explain class declarations step by step. For the moment, don't concern yourself with the details.

public class Bicycle {

// the Bicycle class has
// three fields
public int cadence;
public int gear;
public int speed;

// the Bicycle class has
// one constructor
public Bicycle(int startCadence, int startSpeed, int startGear) {
gear = startGear;
cadence = startCadence;
speed = startSpeed;
}

// the Bicycle class has
// four methods
public void setCadence(int newValue) {
cadence = newValue;
}

public void setGear(int newValue) {
gear = newValue;
}

public void applyBrake(int decrement) {
speed -= decrement;
}

public void speedUp(int increment) {
speed += increment;
}

}

A class declaration for a MountainBike class that is a subclass of Bicycle might look like this:

public class MountainBike extends Bicycle {

// the MountainBike subclass has
// one field
public int seatHeight;

// the MountainBike subclass has
// one constructor
public MountainBike(int startHeight, int startCadence,
int startSpeed, int startGear) {
super(startCadence, startSpeed, startGear);
seatHeight = startHeight;
}

// the MountainBike subclass has
// one method
public void setHeight(int newValue) {
seatHeight = newValue;
}

}

MountainBike inherits all the fields and methods of Bicycle and adds the field seatHeight and a method to set it (mountain bikes have seats that can be moved up and down as the terrain demands).

Declaring Classes

You've seen classes defined in the following way:

class MyClass {
// field, constructor, and
// method declarations
}

This is a class declaration. The class body (the area between the braces) contains all the code that provides for the life cycle of the objects created from the class: constructors for initializing new objects, declarations for the fields that provide the state of the class and its objects, and methods to implement the behavior of the class and its objects.

The preceding class declaration is a minimal one. It contains only those components of a class declaration that are required. You can provide more information about the class, such as the name of its superclass, whether it implements any interfaces, and so on, at the start of the class declaration. For example,

class MyClass extends MySuperClass implements YourInterface {
// field, constructor, and
// method declarations
}

means that MyClass is a subclass of MySuperClass and that it implements the YourInterface interface.

You can also add modifiers like public or private at the very beginning—so you can see that the opening line of a class declaration can become quite complicated. The modifiers public and private, which determine what other classes can access MyClass, are discussed later in this lesson. The lesson on interfaces and inheritance will explain how and why you would use the extends and implements keywords in a class declaration. For the moment you do not need to worry about these extra complications.

In general, class declarations can include these components, in order:

1. Modifiers such as public, private, and a number of others that you will encounter later.
2. The class name, with the initial letter capitalized by convention.
3. The name of the class's parent (superclass), if any, preceded by the keyword extends. A class can only extend (subclass) one parent.
4. A comma-separated list of interfaces implemented by the class, if any, preceded by the keyword implements. A class can implement more than one interface.
5. The class body, surrounded by braces, {}.

Declaring Member Variables

There are several kinds of variables:

◉ Member variables in a class—these are called fields.
◉ Variables in a method or block of code—these are called local variables.
◉ Variables in method declarations—these are called parameters.

The Bicycle class uses the following lines of code to define its fields:

public int cadence;
public int gear;
public int speed;

Field declarations are composed of three components, in order:

1. Zero or more modifiers, such as public or private.
2. The field's type.
3. The field's name.

The fields of Bicycle are named cadence, gear, and speed and are all of data type integer (int). The public keyword identifies these fields as public members, accessible by any object that can access the class.

Access Modifiers

The first (left-most) modifier used lets you control what other classes have access to a member field. For the moment, consider only public and private. Other access modifiers will be discussed later.

◉ public modifier—the field is accessible from all classes.
◉ private modifier—the field is accessible only within its own class.

In the spirit of encapsulation, it is common to make fields private. This means that they can only be directly accessed from the Bicycle class. We still need access to these values, however. This can be done indirectly by adding public methods that obtain the field values for us:

public class Bicycle {

private int cadence;
private int gear;
private int speed;

public Bicycle(int startCadence, int startSpeed, int startGear) {
gear = startGear;
cadence = startCadence;
speed = startSpeed;
}

public int getCadence() {
return cadence;
}

public void setCadence(int newValue) {
cadence = newValue;
}

public int getGear() {
return gear;
}

public void setGear(int newValue) {
gear = newValue;
}

public int getSpeed() {
return speed;
}

public void applyBrake(int decrement) {
speed -= decrement;
}

public void speedUp(int increment) {
speed += increment;
}
}

Types

All variables must have a type. You can use primitive types such as int, float, boolean, etc. Or you can use reference types, such as strings, arrays, or objects.

Variable Names

All variables, whether they are fields, local variables, or parameters, follow the same naming rules and conventions that were covered in the Language Basics lesson, Variables—Naming.

In this lesson, be aware that the same naming rules and conventions are used for method and class names, except that

◉ the first letter of a class name should be capitalized, and
◉ the first (or only) word in a method name should be a verb.

Defining Methods

Here is an example of a typical method declaration:

public double calculateAnswer(double wingSpan, int numberOfEngines,
double length, double grossTons) {
//do the calculation here
}

The only required elements of a method declaration are the method's return type, name, a pair of parentheses, (), and a body between braces, {}.

More generally, method declarations have six components, in order:

1. Modifiers—such as public, private, and others you will learn about later.
2. The return type—the data type of the value returned by the method, or void if the method does not return a value.
3. The method name—the rules for field names apply to method names as well, but the convention is a little different.
4. The parameter list in parenthesis—a comma-delimited list of input parameters, preceded by their data types, enclosed by parentheses, (). If there are no parameters, you must use empty parentheses.
5. An exception list—to be discussed later.
6. The method body, enclosed between braces—the method's code, including the declaration of local variables, goes here.

Modifiers, return types, and parameters will be discussed later in this lesson. Exceptions are discussed in a later lesson.

Definition: Two of the components of a method declaration comprise the method signature—the method's name and the parameter types.

The signature of the method declared above is:

calculateAnswer(double, int, double, double)

Naming a Method

Although a method name can be any legal identifier, code conventions restrict method names. By convention, method names should be a verb in lowercase or a multi-word name that begins with a verb in lowercase, followed by adjectives, nouns, etc. In multi-word names, the first letter of each of the second and following words should be capitalized. Here are some examples:

run
runFast
getBackground
getFinalData
compareTo
setX
isEmpty

Typically, a method has a unique name within its class. However, a method might have the same name as other methods due to method overloading.

Overloading Methods

The Java programming language supports overloading methods, and Java can distinguish between methods with different method signatures. This means that methods within a class can have the same name if they have different parameter lists (there are some qualifications to this that will be discussed in the lesson titled "Interfaces and Inheritance").

Suppose that you have a class that can use calligraphy to draw various types of data (strings, integers, and so on) and that contains a method for drawing each data type. It is cumbersome to use a new name for each method—for example, drawString, drawInteger, drawFloat, and so on. In the Java programming language, you can use the same name for all the drawing methods but pass a different argument list to each method. Thus, the data drawing class might declare four methods named draw, each of which has a different parameter list.

public class DataArtist {
...
public void draw(String s) {
...
}
public void draw(int i) {
...
}
public void draw(double f) {
...
}
public void draw(int i, double f) {
...
}
}

Overloaded methods are differentiated by the number and the type of the arguments passed into the method. In the code sample, draw(String s) and draw(int i) are distinct and unique methods because they require different argument types.

You cannot declare more than one method with the same name and the same number and type of arguments, because the compiler cannot tell them apart.

The compiler does not consider return type when differentiating methods, so you cannot declare two methods with the same signature even if they have a different return type.

Note: Overloaded methods should be used sparingly, as they can make code much less readable.

Providing Constructors for Your Classes

A class contains constructors that are invoked to create objects from the class blueprint. Constructor declarations look like method declarations—except that they use the name of the class and have no return type. For example, Bicycle has one constructor:

public Bicycle(int startCadence, int startSpeed, int startGear) {
gear = startGear;
cadence = startCadence;
speed = startSpeed;
}

To create a new Bicycle object called myBike, a constructor is called by the new operator:

Bicycle myBike = new Bicycle(30, 0, 8);
new Bicycle(30, 0, 8) creates space in memory for the object and initializes its fields.

Although Bicycle only has one constructor, it could have others, including a no-argument constructor:

public Bicycle() {
gear = 1;
cadence = 10;
speed = 0;
}

Bicycle yourBike = new Bicycle(); invokes the no-argument constructor to create a new Bicycle object called yourBike.

Both constructors could have been declared in Bicycle because they have different argument lists. As with methods, the Java platform differentiates constructors on the basis of the number of arguments in the list and their types. You cannot write two constructors that have the same number and type of arguments for the same class, because the platform would not be able to tell them apart. Doing so causes a compile-time error.

You don't have to provide any constructors for your class, but you must be careful when doing this. The compiler automatically provides a no-argument, default constructor for any class without constructors. This default constructor will call the no-argument constructor of the superclass. In this situation, the compiler will complain if the superclass doesn't have a no-argument constructor so you must verify that it does. If your class has no explicit superclass, then it has an implicit superclass of Object, which does have a no-argument constructor.

You can use a superclass constructor yourself. The MountainBike class at the beginning of this lesson did just that. This will be discussed later, in the lesson on interfaces and inheritance.

You can use access modifiers in a constructor's declaration to control which other classes can call the constructor.

Note: If another class cannot call a MyClass constructor, it cannot directly create MyClass objects.

Passing Information to a Method or a Constructor

The declaration for a method or a constructor declares the number and the type of the arguments for that method or constructor. For example, the following is a method that computes the monthly payments for a home loan, based on the amount of the loan, the interest rate, the length of the loan (the number of periods), and the future value of the loan:

public double computePayment(
double loanAmt,
double rate,
double futureValue,
int numPeriods) {
double interest = rate / 100.0;
double partial1 = Math.pow((1 + interest),
- numPeriods);
double denominator = (1 - partial1) / interest;
double answer = (-loanAmt / denominator)
- ((futureValue * partial1) / denominator);
return answer;
}

This method has four parameters: the loan amount, the interest rate, the future value and the number of periods. The first three are double-precision floating point numbers, and the fourth is an integer. The parameters are used in the method body and at runtime will take on the values of the arguments that are passed in.

Note: Parameters refers to the list of variables in a method declaration. Arguments are the actual values that are passed in when the method is invoked. When you invoke a method, the arguments used must match the declaration's parameters in type and order.

Parameter Types

You can use any data type for a parameter of a method or a constructor. This includes primitive data types, such as doubles, floats, and integers, as you saw in the computePayment method, and reference data types, such as objects and arrays.

Here's an example of a method that accepts an array as an argument. In this example, the method creates a new Polygon object and initializes it from an array of Point objects (assume that Point is a class that represents an x, y coordinate):

public Polygon polygonFrom(Point[] corners) {
// method body goes here
}

Note: If you want to pass a method into a method, then use a lambda expression or a method reference.

Arbitrary Number of Arguments

You can use a construct called varargs to pass an arbitrary number of values to a method. You use varargs when you don't know how many of a particular type of argument will be passed to the method. It's a shortcut to creating an array manually (the previous method could have used varargs rather than an array).

To use varargs, you follow the type of the last parameter by an ellipsis (three dots, ...), then a space, and the parameter name. The method can then be called with any number of that parameter, including none.

public Polygon polygonFrom(Point... corners) {
int numberOfSides = corners.length;
double squareOfSide1, lengthOfSide1;
squareOfSide1 = (corners[1].x - corners[0].x)
* (corners[1].x - corners[0].x)
+ (corners[1].y - corners[0].y)
* (corners[1].y - corners[0].y);
lengthOfSide1 = Math.sqrt(squareOfSide1);

// more method body code follows that creates and returns a
// polygon connecting the Points
}

You can see that, inside the method, corners is treated like an array. The method can be called either with an array or with a sequence of arguments. The code in the method body will treat the parameter as an array in either case.

You will most commonly see varargs with the printing methods; for example, this printf method:

public PrintStream printf(String format, Object... args)

allows you to print an arbitrary number of objects. It can be called like this:

System.out.printf("%s: %d, %s%n", name, idnum, address);

or like this

System.out.printf("%s: %d, %s, %s, %s%n", name, idnum, address, phone, email);

or with yet a different number of arguments.

Parameter Names

When you declare a parameter to a method or a constructor, you provide a name for that parameter. This name is used within the method body to refer to the passed-in argument.

The name of a parameter must be unique in its scope. It cannot be the same as the name of another parameter for the same method or constructor, and it cannot be the name of a local variable within the method or constructor.

A parameter can have the same name as one of the class's fields. If this is the case, the parameter is said to shadow the field. Shadowing fields can make your code difficult to read and is conventionally used only within constructors and methods that set a particular field. For example, consider the following Circle class and its setOrigin method:

public class Circle {
private int x, y, radius;
public void setOrigin(int x, int y) {
...
}
}

The Circle class has three fields: x, y, and radius. The setOrigin method has two parameters, each of which has the same name as one of the fields. Each method parameter shadows the field that shares its name. So using the simple names x or y within the body of the method refers to the parameter, not to the field. To access the field, you must use a qualified name. This will be discussed later in this lesson in the section titled "Using the this Keyword."

Passing Primitive Data Type Arguments

Primitive arguments, such as an int or a double, are passed into methods by value. This means that any changes to the values of the parameters exist only within the scope of the method. When the method returns, the parameters are gone and any changes to them are lost. Here is an example:

public class PassPrimitiveByValue {

public static void main(String[] args) {

int x = 3;

// invoke passMethod() with
// x as argument
passMethod(x);

// print x to see if its
// value has changed
System.out.println("After invoking passMethod, x = " + x);

}

// change parameter in passMethod()
public static void passMethod(int p) {
p = 10;
}
}

When you run this program, the output is:

After invoking passMethod, x = 3

Passing Reference Data Type Arguments

Reference data type parameters, such as objects, are also passed into methods by value. This means that when the method returns, the passed-in reference still references the same object as before. However, the values of the object's fields can be changed in the method, if they have the proper access level.

For example, consider a method in an arbitrary class that moves Circle objects:

public void moveCircle(Circle circle, int deltaX, int deltaY) {
// code to move origin of circle to x+deltaX, y+deltaY
circle.setX(circle.getX() + deltaX);
circle.setY(circle.getY() + deltaY);

// code to assign a new reference to circle
circle = new Circle(0, 0);
}

Let the method be invoked with these arguments:

moveCircle(myCircle, 23, 56)

Inside the method, circle initially refers to myCircle. The method changes the x and y coordinates of the object that circle references (i.e., myCircle) by 23 and 56, respectively. These changes will persist when the method returns. Then circle is assigned a reference to a new Circle object with x = y = 0. This reassignment has no permanence, however, because the reference was passed in by value and cannot change. Within the method, the object pointed to by circle has changed, but, when the method returns, myCircle still references the same Circle object as before the method was called.

Objects

A typical Java program creates many objects, which as you know, interact by invoking methods. Through these object interactions, a program can carry out various tasks, such as implementing a GUI, running an animation, or sending and receiving information over a network. Once an object has completed the work for which it was created, its resources are recycled for use by other objects.

Here's a small program, called CreateObjectDemo, that creates three objects: one Point object and two Rectangle objects. You will need all three source files to compile this program.

public class CreateObjectDemo {

public static void main(String[] args) {

// Declare and create a point object and two rectangle objects.
Point originOne = new Point(23, 94);
Rectangle rectOne = new Rectangle(originOne, 100, 200);
Rectangle rectTwo = new Rectangle(50, 100);

// display rectOne's width, height, and area
System.out.println("Width of rectOne: " + rectOne.width);
System.out.println("Height of rectOne: " + rectOne.height);
System.out.println("Area of rectOne: " + rectOne.getArea());

// set rectTwo's position
rectTwo.origin = originOne;

// display rectTwo's position
System.out.println("X Position of rectTwo: " + rectTwo.origin.x);
System.out.println("Y Position of rectTwo: " + rectTwo.origin.y);

// move rectTwo and display its new position
rectTwo.move(40, 72);
System.out.println("X Position of rectTwo: " + rectTwo.origin.x);
System.out.println("Y Position of rectTwo: " + rectTwo.origin.y);
}
}

This program creates, manipulates, and displays information about various objects. Here's the output:

Width of rectOne: 100
Height of rectOne: 200
Area of rectOne: 20000
X Position of rectTwo: 23
Y Position of rectTwo: 94
X Position of rectTwo: 40
Y Position of rectTwo: 72

The following three sections use the above example to describe the life cycle of an object within a program. From them, you will learn how to write code that creates and uses objects in your own programs. You will also learn how the system cleans up after an object when its life has ended.

Creating Objects

As you know, a class provides the blueprint for objects; you create an object from a class. Each of the following statements taken from the CreateObjectDemo program creates an object and assigns it to a variable:

Point originOne = new Point(23, 94);
Rectangle rectOne = new Rectangle(originOne, 100, 200);
Rectangle rectTwo = new Rectangle(50, 100);

The first line creates an object of the Point class, and the second and third lines each create an object of the Rectangle class.

Each of these statements has three parts (discussed in detail below):

1. Declaration: The code set in bold are all variable declarations that associate a variable name with an object type.
2. Instantiation: The new keyword is a Java operator that creates the object.
3. Initialization: The new operator is followed by a call to a constructor, which initializes the new object.

Declaring a Variable to Refer to an Object

Previously, you learned that to declare a variable, you write:

type name;

This notifies the compiler that you will use name to refer to data whose type is type. With a primitive variable, this declaration also reserves the proper amount of memory for the variable.

You can also declare a reference variable on its own line. For example:

Point originOne;

If you declare originOne like this, its value will be undetermined until an object is actually created and assigned to it. Simply declaring a reference variable does not create an object. For that, you need to use the new operator, as described in the next section. You must assign an object to originOne before you use it in your code. Otherwise, you will get a compiler error.

A variable in this state, which currently references no object, can be illustrated as follows (the variable name, originOne, plus a reference pointing to nothing):

Instantiating a Class

The new operator instantiates a class by allocating memory for a new object and returning a reference to that memory. The new operator also invokes the object constructor.

Note: The phrase "instantiating a class" means the same thing as "creating an object." When you create an object, you are creating an "instance" of a class, therefore "instantiating" a class.

The new operator requires a single, postfix argument: a call to a constructor. The name of the constructor provides the name of the class to instantiate.

The new operator returns a reference to the object it created. This reference is usually assigned to a variable of the appropriate type, like:

Point originOne = new Point(23, 94);

The reference returned by the new operator does not have to be assigned to a variable. It can also be used directly in an expression. For example:

int height = new Rectangle().height;

This statement will be discussed in the next section.

Initializing an Object

Here's the code for the Point class:

public class Point {
public int x = 0;
public int y = 0;
//constructor
public Point(int a, int b) {
x = a;
y = b;
}
}

This class contains a single constructor. You can recognize a constructor because its declaration uses the same name as the class and it has no return type. The constructor in the Point class takes two integer arguments, as declared by the code (int a, int b). The following statement provides 23 and 94 as values for those arguments:

Point originOne = new Point(23, 94);

The result of executing this statement can be illustrated in the next figure:

Here's the code for the Rectangle class, which contains four constructors:

public class Rectangle {
public int width = 0;
public int height = 0;
public Point origin;

// four constructors
public Rectangle() {
origin = new Point(0, 0);
}
public Rectangle(Point p) {
origin = p;
}
public Rectangle(int w, int h) {
origin = new Point(0, 0);
width = w;
height = h;
}
public Rectangle(Point p, int w, int h) {
origin = p;
width = w;
height = h;
}

// a method for moving the rectangle
public void move(int x, int y) {
origin.x = x;
origin.y = y;
}

// a method for computing the area of the rectangle
public int getArea() {
return width * height;
}
}

Each constructor lets you provide initial values for the rectangle's origin, width, and height, using both primitive and reference types. If a class has multiple constructors, they must have different signatures. The Java compiler differentiates the constructors based on the number and the type of the arguments. When the Java compiler encounters the following code, it knows to call the constructor in the Rectangle class that requires a Point argument followed by two integer arguments:

Rectangle rectOne = new Rectangle(originOne, 100, 200);

This calls one of Rectangle's constructors that initializes origin to originOne. Also, the constructor sets width to 100 and height to 200. Now there are two references to the same Point object—an object can have multiple references to it, as shown in the next figure:

The following line of code calls the Rectangle constructor that requires two integer arguments, which provide the initial values for width and height. If you inspect the code within the constructor, you will see that it creates a new Point object whose x and y values are initialized to 0:

Rectangle rectTwo = new Rectangle(50, 100);

The Rectangle constructor used in the following statement doesn't take any arguments, so it's called a no-argument constructor:

Rectangle rect = new Rectangle();

All classes have at least one constructor. If a class does not explicitly declare any, the Java compiler automatically provides a no-argument constructor, called the default constructor. This default constructor calls the class parent's no-argument constructor, or the Object constructor if the class has no other parent. If the parent has no constructor (Object does have one), the compiler will reject the program.

Using Objects

Once you've created an object, you probably want to use it for something. You may need to use the value of one of its fields, change one of its fields, or call one of its methods to perform an action.

Referencing an Object's Fields

Object fields are accessed by their name. You must use a name that is unambiguous.

You may use a simple name for a field within its own class. For example, we can add a statement within the Rectangle class that prints the width and height:

System.out.println("Width and height are: " + width + ", " + height);

In this case, width and height are simple names.

Code that is outside the object's class must use an object reference or expression, followed by the dot (.) operator, followed by a simple field name, as in:

objectReference.fieldName

For example, the code in the CreateObjectDemo class is outside the code for the Rectangle class. So to refer to the origin, width, and height fields within the Rectangle object named rectOne, the CreateObjectDemo class must use the names rectOne.origin, rectOne.width, and rectOne.height, respectively. The program uses two of these names to display the width and the height of rectOne:

System.out.println("Width of rectOne: " + rectOne.width);
System.out.println("Height of rectOne: " + rectOne.height);

Attempting to use the simple names width and height from the code in the CreateObjectDemo class doesn't make sense — those fields exist only within an object — and results in a compiler error.

Later, the program uses similar code to display information about rectTwo. Objects of the same type have their own copy of the same instance fields. Thus, each Rectangle object has fields named origin, width, and height. When you access an instance field through an object reference, you reference that particular object's field. The two objects rectOne and rectTwo in the CreateObjectDemo program have different origin, width, and height fields.

To access a field, you can use a named reference to an object, as in the previous examples, or you can use any expression that returns an object reference. Recall that the new operator returns a reference to an object. So you could use the value returned from new to access a new object's fields:

int height = new Rectangle().height;

This statement creates a new Rectangle object and immediately gets its height. In essence, the statement calculates the default height of a Rectangle. Note that after this statement has been executed, the program no longer has a reference to the created Rectangle, because the program never stored the reference anywhere. The object is unreferenced, and its resources are free to be recycled by the Java Virtual Machine.

Calling an Object's Methods

You also use an object reference to invoke an object's method. You append the method's simple name to the object reference, with an intervening dot operator (.). Also, you provide, within enclosing parentheses, any arguments to the method. If the method does not require any arguments, use empty parentheses.

objectReference.methodName(argumentList);

or:

objectReference.methodName();

The Rectangle class has two methods: getArea() to compute the rectangle's area and move() to change the rectangle's origin. Here's the CreateObjectDemo code that invokes these two methods:

System.out.println("Area of rectOne: " + rectOne.getArea());
...
rectTwo.move(40, 72);

The first statement invokes rectOne's getArea() method and displays the results. The second line moves rectTwo because the move() method assigns new values to the object's origin.x and origin.y.

As with instance fields, objectReference must be a reference to an object. You can use a variable name, but you also can use any expression that returns an object reference. The new operator returns an object reference, so you can use the value returned from new to invoke a new object's methods:

new Rectangle(100, 50).getArea()

The expression new Rectangle(100, 50) returns an object reference that refers to a Rectangle object. As shown, you can use the dot notation to invoke the new Rectangle's getArea() method to compute the area of the new rectangle.

Some methods, such as getArea(), return a value. For methods that return a value, you can use the method invocation in expressions. You can assign the return value to a variable, use it to make decisions, or control a loop. This code assigns the value returned by getArea() to the variable areaOfRectangle:

int areaOfRectangle = new Rectangle(100, 50).getArea();

Remember, invoking a method on a particular object is the same as sending a message to that object. In this case, the object that getArea() is invoked on is the rectangle returned by the constructor.

The Garbage Collector

Some object-oriented languages require that you keep track of all the objects you create and that you explicitly destroy them when they are no longer needed. Managing memory explicitly is tedious and error-prone. The Java platform allows you to create as many objects as you want (limited, of course, by what your system can handle), and you don't have to worry about destroying them. The Java runtime environment deletes objects when it determines that they are no longer being used. This process is called garbage collection.

An object is eligible for garbage collection when there are no more references to that object. References that are held in a variable are usually dropped when the variable goes out of scope. Or, you can explicitly drop an object reference by setting the variable to the special value null. Remember that a program can have multiple references to the same object; all references to an object must be dropped before the object is eligible for garbage collection.

The Java runtime environment has a garbage collector that periodically frees the memory used by objects that are no longer referenced. The garbage collector does its job automatically when it determines that the time is right.

More on Classes

This section covers more aspects of classes that depend on using object references and the dot operator that you learned about in the preceding sections on objects:

◉ Returning values from methods.
◉ The this keyword.
◉ Class vs. instance members.
◉ Access control.

Returning a Value from a Method

A method returns to the code that invoked it when it

- completes all the statements in the method,
- reaches a return statement, or
- throws an exception (covered later),

whichever occurs first.

You declare a method's return type in its method declaration. Within the body of the method, you use the return statement to return the value.

Any method declared void doesn't return a value. It does not need to contain a return statement, but it may do so. In such a case, a return statement can be used to branch out of a control flow block and exit the method and is simply used like this:

return;

If you try to return a value from a method that is declared void, you will get a compiler error.

Any method that is not declared void must contain a return statement with a corresponding return value, like this:

return returnValue;

The data type of the return value must match the method's declared return type; you can't return an integer value from a method declared to return a boolean.

The getArea() method in the Rectangle Rectangle class that was discussed in the sections on objects returns an integer:

// a method for computing the area of the rectangle
public int getArea() {
return width * height;
}

This method returns the integer that the expression width*height evaluates to.

The getArea method returns a primitive type. A method can also return a reference type. For example, in a program to manipulate Bicycle objects, we might have a method like this:

public Bicycle seeWhosFastest(Bicycle myBike, Bicycle yourBike,
Environment env) {
Bicycle fastest;
// code to calculate which bike is
// faster, given each bike's gear
// and cadence and given the
// environment (terrain and wind)
return fastest;
}

Returning a Class or Interface

If this section confuses you, skip it and return to it after you have finished the lesson on interfaces and inheritance.

When a method uses a class name as its return type, such as whosFastest does, the class of the type of the returned object must be either a subclass of, or the exact class of, the return type. Suppose that you have a class hierarchy in which ImaginaryNumber is a subclass of java.lang.Number, which is in turn a subclass of Object, as illustrated in the following figure.

The class hierarchy for ImaginaryNumber

Now suppose that you have a method declared to return a Number:

public Number returnANumber() {

...

}

The returnANumber method can return an ImaginaryNumber but not an Object. ImaginaryNumber is a Number because it's a subclass of Number. However, an Object is not necessarily a Number — it could be a String or another type.

You can override a method and define it to return a subclass of the original method, like this:

public ImaginaryNumber returnANumber() {

...

}

This technique, called covariant return type, means that the return type is allowed to vary in the same direction as the subclass.

Note: You also can use interface names as return types. In this case, the object returned must implement the specified interface.

Using the this Keyword

Within an instance method or a constructor, this is a reference to the current object — the object whose method or constructor is being called. You can refer to any member of the current object from within an instance method or a constructor by using this.

Using this with a Field

The most common reason for using the this keyword is because a field is shadowed by a method or constructor parameter.

For example, the Point class was written like this

public class Point {

public int x = 0;

public int y = 0;

//constructor

public Point(int a, int b) {

x = a;

y = b;

}

but it could have been written like this:

public class Point {

public int x = 0;

public int y = 0;

//constructor

public Point(int x, int y) {

this.x = x;

this.y = y;

}

Each argument to the constructor shadows one of the object's fields — inside the constructor x is a local copy of the constructor's first argument. To refer to the Point field x, the constructor must use this.x.

Using this with a Constructor

From within a constructor, you can also use the this keyword to call another constructor in the same class. Doing so is called an explicit constructor invocation. Here's another Rectangle class, with a different implementation from the one in the Objects section.

public class Rectangle {

private int x, y;

private int width, height;

public Rectangle() {

this(0, 0, 1, 1);

}

public Rectangle(int width, int height) {

this(0, 0, width, height);

}

public Rectangle(int x, int y, int width, int height) {

this.x = x;

this.y = y;

this.width = width;

this.height = height;

}

...

}

This class contains a set of constructors. Each constructor initializes some or all of the rectangle's member variables. The constructors provide a default value for any member variable whose initial value is not provided by an argument. For example, the no-argument constructor creates a 1x1 Rectangle at coordinates 0,0. The two-argument constructor calls the four-argument constructor, passing in the width and height but always using the 0,0 coordinates. As before, the compiler determines which constructor to call, based on the number and the type of arguments.

If present, the invocation of another constructor must be the first line in the constructor.

Controlling Access to Members of a Class

Access level modifiers determine whether other classes can use a particular field or invoke a particular method. There are 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).

A class may be declared with the modifier public, in which case that class is visible to all classes everywhere. If a class has no modifier (the default, also known as package-private), it is visible only within its own package (packages are named groups of related classes — you will learn about them in a later lesson.)

At the member level, you can also use the public modifier or no modifier (package-private) just as with top-level classes, and with the same meaning. For members, there are two additional access modifiers: private and protected. The private modifier specifies that the member can only be accessed in its own class. The protected modifier specifies that 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.

The following table shows the access to members permitted by each modifier.

Access Levels

Modifier	Class	Package	Subclass	World
public	Y	Y	Y	Y
protected	Y	Y	Y	N
no modifier	Y	Y	N	N
private	Y	N	N	N

The first data column indicates whether the class itself has access to the member defined by the access level. As you can see, a class always has access to its own members. The second column indicates whether classes in the same package as the class (regardless of their parentage) have access to the member. The third column indicates whether subclasses of the class declared outside this package have access to the member. The fourth column indicates whether all classes have access to the member.

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.

Let's look at a collection of classes and see how access levels affect visibility. The following figure shows the four classes in this example and how they are related.

Classes and Packages of the Example Used to Illustrate Access Levels

The following table shows where the members of the Alpha class are visible for each of the access modifiers that can be applied to them.

Visibility

Modifier	Alpha	Beta	Alphasub	Gamma
public	Y	Y	Y	Y
protected	Y	Y	Y	N
no modifier	Y	Y	N	N
private	Y	N	N	N

Tips on Choosing an Access Level:

If other programmers use your class, you want to ensure that errors from misuse cannot 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. (Many of the examples in the tutorial use public fields. This may help to illustrate some points concisely, but is not recommended for production code.) Public fields tend to link you to a particular implementation and limit your flexibility in changing your code.

Understanding Class Members

In this section, we discuss the use of the static keyword to create fields and methods that belong to the class, rather than to an instance of the class.

Class Variables

When a number of objects are created from the same class blueprint, they each have their own distinct copies of instance variables. In the case of the Bicycle class, the instance variables are cadence, gear, and speed. Each Bicycle object has its own values for these variables, stored in different memory locations.

Sometimes, you want to have variables that are common to all objects. This is accomplished with the static modifier. Fields that have the static modifier in their declaration are called static fields or class variables. They are associated with the class, rather than with any object. Every instance of the class shares a class variable, which is in one fixed location in memory. Any object can change the value of a class variable, but class variables can also be manipulated without creating an instance of the class.

For example, suppose you want to create a number of Bicycle objects and assign each a serial number, beginning with 1 for the first object. This ID number is unique to each object and is therefore an instance variable. At the same time, you need a field to keep track of how many Bicycle objects have been created so that you know what ID to assign to the next one. Such a field is not related to any individual object, but to the class as a whole. For this you need a class variable, numberOfBicycles, as follows:

public class Bicycle {

private int cadence;
private int gear;
private int speed;

// add an instance variable for the object ID
private int id;

// add a class variable for the
// number of Bicycle objects instantiated
private static int numberOfBicycles = 0;
...
}

Class variables are referenced by the class name itself, as in

Bicycle.numberOfBicycles

This makes it clear that they are class variables.

Note: You can also refer to static fields with an object reference like
myBike.numberOfBicycles
but this is discouraged because it does not make it clear that they are class variables.

You can use the Bicycle constructor to set the id instance variable and increment the numberOfBicycles class variable:

public class Bicycle {

private int cadence;
private int gear;
private int speed;
private int id;
private static int numberOfBicycles = 0;

public Bicycle(int startCadence, int startSpeed, int startGear){
gear = startGear;
cadence = startCadence;
speed = startSpeed;

// increment number of Bicycles
// and assign ID number
id = ++numberOfBicycles;
}

// new method to return the ID instance variable
public int getID() {
return id;
}
...
}

Class Methods

The Java programming language supports static methods as well as static variables. Static methods, which have the static modifier in their declarations, should be invoked with the class name, without the need for creating an instance of the class, as in

ClassName.methodName(args)

Note: You can also refer to static methods with an object reference like
instanceName.methodName(args)
but this is discouraged because it does not make it clear that they are class methods.

A common use for static methods is to access static fields. For example, we could add a static method to the Bicycle class to access the numberOfBicycles static field:

public static int getNumberOfBicycles() {
return numberOfBicycles;
}

Not all combinations of instance and class variables and methods are allowed:

◉ Instance methods can access instance variables and instance methods directly.
◉ Instance methods can access class variables and class methods directly.
◉ Class methods can access class variables and class methods directly.
◉ Class methods cannot access instance variables or instance methods directly—they must use an object reference. Also, class methods cannot use the this keyword as there is no instance for this to refer to.

Constants

The static modifier, in combination with the final modifier, is also used to define constants. The final modifier indicates that the value of this field cannot change.

For example, the following variable declaration defines a constant named PI, whose value is an approximation of pi (the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter):

static final double PI = 3.141592653589793;

Constants defined in this way cannot be reassigned, and it is a compile-time error if your program tries to do so. By convention, the names of constant values are spelled in uppercase letters. If the name is composed of more than one word, the words are separated by an underscore (_).

Note: If a primitive type or a string is defined as a constant and the value is known at compile time, the compiler replaces the constant name everywhere in the code with its value. This is called a compile-time constant. If the value of the constant in the outside world changes (for example, if it is legislated that pi actually should be 3.975), you will need to recompile any classes that use this constant to get the current value.

The Bicycle Class

After all the modifications made in this section, the Bicycle class is now:

public class Bicycle {

private int cadence;
private int gear;
private int speed;

private int id;

private static int numberOfBicycles = 0;

public Bicycle(int startCadence,
int startSpeed,
int startGear) {
gear = startGear;
cadence = startCadence;
speed = startSpeed;

id = ++numberOfBicycles;
}

public int getID() {
return id;
}

public static int getNumberOfBicycles() {
return numberOfBicycles;
}

public int getCadence() {
return cadence;
}

public void setCadence(int newValue) {
cadence = newValue;
}

public int getGear(){
return gear;
}

public void setGear(int newValue) {
gear = newValue;
}

public int getSpeed() {
return speed;
}

public void applyBrake(int decrement) {
speed -= decrement;
}

public void speedUp(int increment) {
speed += increment;
}
}

Initializing Fields

As you have seen, you can often provide an initial value for a field in its declaration:

public class BedAndBreakfast {

// initialize to 10
public static int capacity = 10;

// initialize to false
private boolean full = false;
}

This works well when the initialization value is available and the initialization can be put on one line. However, this form of initialization has limitations because of its simplicity. If initialization requires some logic (for example, error handling or a for loop to fill a complex array), simple assignment is inadequate. Instance variables can be initialized in constructors, where error handling or other logic can be used. To provide the same capability for class variables, the Java programming language includes static initialization blocks.

Note: It is not necessary to declare fields at the beginning of the class definition, although this is the most common practice. It is only necessary that they be declared and initialized before they are used.

Static Initialization Blocks

A static initialization block is a normal block of code enclosed in braces, { }, and preceded by the static keyword. Here is an example:

static {
// whatever code is needed for initialization goes here
}

A class can have any number of static initialization blocks, and they can appear anywhere in the class body. The runtime system guarantees that static initialization blocks are called in the order that they appear in the source code.

There is an alternative to static blocks — you can write a private static method:

class Whatever {
public static varType myVar = initializeClassVariable();

private static varType initializeClassVariable() {

// initialization code goes here
}
}

The advantage of private static methods is that they can be reused later if you need to reinitialize the class variable.

Initializing Instance Members

Normally, you would put code to initialize an instance variable in a constructor. There are two alternatives to using a constructor to initialize instance variables: initializer blocks and final methods.

Initializer blocks for instance variables look just like static initializer blocks, but without the static keyword:

{
// whatever code is needed for initialization goes here
}

The Java compiler copies initializer blocks into every constructor. Therefore, this approach can be used to share a block of code between multiple constructors.

A final method cannot be overridden in a subclass. This is discussed in the lesson on interfaces and inheritance. Here is an example of using a final method for initializing an instance variable:

class Whatever {
private varType myVar = initializeInstanceVariable();

protected final varType initializeInstanceVariable() {

// initialization code goes here
}
}

This is especially useful if subclasses might want to reuse the initialization method. The method is final because calling non-final methods during instance initialization can cause problems.

Summary of Creating and Using Classes and Objects

A class declaration names the class and encloses the class body between braces. The class name can be preceded by modifiers. The class body contains fields, methods, and constructors for the class. A class uses fields to contain state information and uses methods to implement behavior. Constructors that initialize a new instance of a class use the name of the class and look like methods without a return type.

You control access to classes and members in the same way: by using an access modifier such as public in their declaration.

You specify a class variable or a class method by using the static keyword in the member's declaration. A member that is not declared as static is implicitly an instance member. Class variables are shared by all instances of a class and can be accessed through the class name as well as an instance reference. Instances of a class get their own copy of each instance variable, which must be accessed through an instance reference.

You create an object from a class by using the new operator and a constructor. The new operator returns a reference to the object that was created. You can assign the reference to a variable or use it directly.

Instance variables and methods that are accessible to code outside of the class that they are declared in can be referred to by using a qualified name. The qualified name of an instance variable looks like this:

objectReference.variableName

The qualified name of a method looks like this:

objectReference.methodName(argumentList)

or:

objectReference.methodName()

The garbage collector automatically cleans up unused objects. An object is unused if the program holds no more references to it. You can explicitly drop a reference by setting the variable holding the reference to null.

Questions and Exercises: Classes

Questions

1. Consider the following class:

public class IdentifyMyParts {
public static int x = 7;
public int y = 3;
}

a. What are the class variables?

b. What are the instance variables?

c. What is the output from the following code:

IdentifyMyParts a = new IdentifyMyParts();
IdentifyMyParts b = new IdentifyMyParts();
a.y = 5;
b.y = 6;
a.x = 1;
b.x = 2;
System.out.println("a.y = " + a.y);
System.out.println("b.y = " + b.y);
System.out.println("a.x = " + a.x);
System.out.println("b.x = " + b.x);
System.out.println("IdentifyMyParts.x = " + IdentifyMyParts.x);

Exercises

1. Write a class whose instances represent a single playing card from a deck of cards. Playing cards have two distinguishing properties: rank and suit. Be sure to keep your solution as you will be asked to rewrite it in Enum Types.

Hint:

You can use the assert statement to check your assignments. You write:

assert (boolean expression to test);

If the boolean expression is false, you will get an error message. For example,

assert toString(ACE) == "Ace";

should return true, so there will be no error message.

If you use the assert statement, you must run your program with the ea flag:

java -ea YourProgram.class

2. Write a class whose instances represent a full deck of cards. You should also keep this solution.

3. Write a small program to test your deck and card classes. The program can be as simple as creating a deck of cards and displaying its cards.

Answers to Questions and Exercises: Classes

Questions

1. Consider the following class:

public class IdentifyMyParts {
public static int x = 7;
public int y = 3;
}

a. Question: What are the class variables?

Answer: x

b. Question: What are the instance variables?

Answer: y

c. Question: What is the output from the following code:

IdentifyMyParts a = new IdentifyMyParts();
IdentifyMyParts b = new IdentifyMyParts();
a.y = 5;
b.y = 6;
a.x = 1;
b.x = 2;
System.out.println("a.y = " + a.y);
System.out.println("b.y = " + b.y);
System.out.println("a.x = " + a.x);
System.out.println("b.x = " + b.x);
System.out.println("IdentifyMyParts.x = " + IdentifyMyParts.x);

Answer: Here is the output:

a.y = 5
b.y = 6
a.x = 2
b.x = 2
IdentifyMyParts.x = 2

Because x is defined as a public static int in the class IdentifyMyParts, every reference to x will have the value that was last assigned because x is a static variable (and therefore a class variable) shared across all instances of the class. That is, there is only one x: when the value of x changes in any instance it affects the value of x for all instances of IdentifyMyParts.

This is covered in the Class Variables section of Understanding Instance and Class Members.

Exercises

1. Exercise: Write a class whose instances represent a single playing card from a deck of cards. Playing cards have two distinguishing properties: rank and suit. Be sure to keep your solution as you will be asked to rewrite it in Enum Types.

Answer: Card.java(in a .java source file).

2. Exercise: Write a class whose instances represents a full deck of cards. You should also keep this solution.

Answer: Deck.java(in a .java source file).

3. Exercise: Write a small program to test your deck and card classes. The program can be as simple as creating a deck of cards and displaying its cards.

Answer: DisplayDeck.java(in a .java source file).

Questions and Exercises: Objects

Questions

1. What's wrong with the following program?

public class SomethingIsWrong {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Rectangle myRect;
myRect.width = 40;
myRect.height = 50;
System.out.println("myRect's area is " + myRect.area());
}
}

2. The following code creates one array and one string object. How many references to those objects exist after the code executes? Is either object eligible for garbage collection?

...
String[] students = new String[10];
String studentName = "Peter Parker";
students[0] = studentName;
studentName = null;
...

3. How does a program destroy an object that it creates?

Exercises

1. Fix the program called SomethingIsWrong shown in Question 1.

2. Given the following class, called NumberHolder, write some code that creates an instance of the class, initializes its two member variables, and then displays the value of each member variable.

public class NumberHolder {
public int anInt;
public float aFloat;
}

Answers to Questions and Exercises: Objects

Questions

1. Question: What's wrong with the following program?

public class SomethingIsWrong {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Rectangle myRect;
myRect.width = 40;
myRect.height = 50;
System.out.println("myRect's area is " + myRect.area());
}
}

Answer: The code never creates a Rectangle object. With this simple program, the compiler generates an error. However, in a more realistic situation, myRect might be initialized to null in one place, say in a constructor, and used later. In that case, the program will compile just fine, but will generate a NullPointerException at runtime.

2. Question: The following code creates one array and one string object. How many references to those objects exist after the code executes? Is either object eligible for garbage collection?

...
String[] students = new String[10];
String studentName = "Peter Smith";
students[0] = studentName;
studentName = null;
...

Answer: There is one reference to the students array and that array has one reference to the string Peter Smith. Neither object is eligible for garbage collection. The array students is not eligible for garbage collection because it has one reference to the object studentName even though that object has been assigned the value null. The object studentName is not eligible either because students[0] still refers to it.

3. Question: How does a program destroy an object that it creates?

Answer: A program does not explicitly destroy objects. A program can set all references to an object to null so that it becomes eligible for garbage collection. But the program does not actually destroy objects.

Exercises

1. Exercise: Fix the program called SomethingIsWrong shown in Question 1.

Answer: SomethingIsRight:

public class SomethingIsRight {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Rectangle myRect = new Rectangle();
myRect.width = 40;
myRect.height = 50;
System.out.println("myRect's area is " + myRect.area());
}
}

2. Exercise: Given the following class, called NumberHolder, write some code that creates an instance of the class, initializes its two member variables, and then displays the value of each member variable.

public class NumberHolder {
public int anInt;
public float aFloat;
}

Answer: See NumberHolderDisplay:

public class NumberHolderDisplay {
public static void main(String[] args) {
NumberHolder aNumberHolder = new NumberHolder();
aNumberHolder.anInt = 1;
aNumberHolder.aFloat = 2.3f;
System.out.println(aNumberHolder.anInt);
System.out.println(aNumberHolder.aFloat);
}
}

Nested Classes

The Java programming language allows you to define a class within another class. Such a class is called a nested class and is illustrated here:

class OuterClass {
...
class NestedClass {
...
}
}

Terminology: Nested classes are divided into two categories: static and non-static. Nested classes that are declared static are called static nested classes. Non-static nested classes are called inner classes.
class OuterClass {
...
static class StaticNestedClass {
...
}
class InnerClass {
...
}
}

A nested class is a member of its enclosing class. Non-static nested classes (inner classes) have access to other members of the enclosing class, even if they are declared private. Static nested classes do not have access to other members of the enclosing class. As a member of the OuterClass, a nested class can be declared private, public, protected, or package private. (Recall that outer classes can only be declared public or package private.)

Why Use Nested Classes?

Compelling reasons for using nested classes include the following:

◉ It is a way of logically grouping classes that are only used in one place: If a class is useful to only one other class, then it is logical to embed it in that class and keep the two together. Nesting such "helper classes" makes their package more streamlined.

◉ It increases encapsulation: Consider two top-level classes, A and B, where B needs access to members of A that would otherwise be declared private. By hiding class B within class A, A's members can be declared private and B can access them. In addition, B itself can be hidden from the outside world.

◉ It can lead to more readable and maintainable code: Nesting small classes within top-level classes places the code closer to where it is used.

Static Nested Classes

As with class methods and variables, a static nested class is associated with its outer class. And like static class methods, a static nested class cannot refer directly to instance variables or methods defined in its enclosing class: it can use them only through an object reference.

Note: A static nested class interacts with the instance members of its outer class (and other classes) just like any other top-level class. In effect, a static nested class is behaviorally a top-level class that has been nested in another top-level class for packaging convenience.
Static nested classes are accessed using the enclosing class name:

OuterClass.StaticNestedClass

For example, to create an object for the static nested class, use this syntax:

OuterClass.StaticNestedClass nestedObject =
new OuterClass.StaticNestedClass();

Inner Classes

As with instance methods and variables, an inner class is associated with an instance of its enclosing class and has direct access to that object's methods and fields. Also, because an inner class is associated with an instance, it cannot define any static members itself.

Objects that are instances of an inner class exist within an instance of the outer class. Consider the following classes:

class OuterClass {
...
class InnerClass {
...
}
}

An instance of InnerClass can exist only within an instance of OuterClass and has direct access to the methods and fields of its enclosing instance.

To instantiate an inner class, you must first instantiate the outer class. Then, create the inner object within the outer object with this syntax:

OuterClass.InnerClass innerObject = outerObject.new InnerClass();

There are two special kinds of inner classes: local classes and anonymous classes.

Shadowing

If a declaration of a type (such as a member variable or a parameter name) in a particular scope (such as an inner class or a method definition) has the same name as another declaration in the enclosing scope, then the declaration shadows the declaration of the enclosing scope. You cannot refer to a shadowed declaration by its name alone. The following example, ShadowTest, demonstrates this:

public class ShadowTest {

public int x = 0;

class FirstLevel {

public int x = 1;

void methodInFirstLevel(int x) {
System.out.println("x = " + x);
System.out.println("this.x = " + this.x);
System.out.println("ShadowTest.this.x = " + ShadowTest.this.x);
}
}

public static void main(String... args) {
ShadowTest st = new ShadowTest();
ShadowTest.FirstLevel fl = st.new FirstLevel();
fl.methodInFirstLevel(23);
}
}

The following is the output of this example:

x = 23
this.x = 1
ShadowTest.this.x = 0

This example defines three variables named x: the member variable of the class ShadowTest, the member variable of the inner class FirstLevel, and the parameter in the method methodInFirstLevel. The variable x defined as a parameter of the method methodInFirstLevel shadows the variable of the inner class FirstLevel. Consequently, when you use the variable x in the method methodInFirstLevel, it refers to the method parameter. To refer to the member variable of the inner class FirstLevel, use the keyword this to represent the enclosing scope:

System.out.println("this.x = " + this.x);

Refer to member variables that enclose larger scopes by the class name to which they belong. For example, the following statement accesses the member variable of the class ShadowTest from the method methodInFirstLevel:

System.out.println("ShadowTest.this.x = " + ShadowTest.this.x);

Serialization

Serialization of inner classes, including local and anonymous classes, is strongly discouraged. When the Java compiler compiles certain constructs, such as inner classes, it creates synthetic constructs; these are classes, methods, fields, and other constructs that do not have a corresponding construct in the source code. Synthetic constructs enable Java compilers to implement new Java language features without changes to the JVM. However, synthetic constructs can vary among different Java compiler implementations, which means that .class files can vary among different implementations as well. Consequently, you may have compatibility issues if you serialize an inner class and then deserialize it with a different JRE implementation.

Inner Class Example

To see an inner class in use, first consider an array. In the following example, you create an array, fill it with integer values, and then output only values of even indices of the array in ascending order.

The DataStructure.java example that follows consists of:

◉ The DataStructure outer class, which includes a constructor to create an instance of DataStructure containing an array filled with consecutive integer values (0, 1, 2, 3, and so on) and a method that prints elements of the array that have an even index value.

◉ The EvenIterator inner class, which implements the DataStructureIterator interface, which extends the Iterator< Integer> interface. Iterators are used to step through a data structure and typically have methods to test for the last element, retrieve the current element, and move to the next element.

◉ A main method that instantiates a DataStructure object (ds), then invokes the printEven method to print elements of the array arrayOfInts that have an even index value.

public class DataStructure {

// Create an array
private final static int SIZE = 15;
private int[] arrayOfInts = new int[SIZE];

public DataStructure() {
// fill the array with ascending integer values
for (int i = 0; i < SIZE; i++) {
arrayOfInts[i] = i;
}
}

public void printEven() {

// Print out values of even indices of the array
DataStructureIterator iterator = this.new EvenIterator();
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
System.out.print(iterator.next() + " ");
}
System.out.println();
}

interface DataStructureIterator extends java.util.Iterator<Integer> { }

// Inner class implements the DataStructureIterator interface,
// which extends the Iterator<Integer> interface

private class EvenIterator implements DataStructureIterator {

// Start stepping through the array from the beginning
private int nextIndex = 0;

public boolean hasNext() {

// Check if the current element is the last in the array
return (nextIndex <= SIZE - 1);
}

public Integer next() {

// Record a value of an even index of the array
Integer retValue = Integer.valueOf(arrayOfInts[nextIndex]);

// Get the next even element
nextIndex += 2;
return retValue;
}
}

public static void main(String s[]) {

// Fill the array with integer values and print out only
// values of even indices
DataStructure ds = new DataStructure();
ds.printEven();
}
}

The output is:

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Note that the EvenIterator class refers directly to the arrayOfInts instance variable of the DataStructure object.

You can use inner classes to implement helper classes such as the one shown in the this example. To handle user interface events, you must know how to use inner classes, because the event-handling mechanism makes extensive use of them.

Local and Anonymous Classes

There are two additional types of inner classes. You can declare an inner class within the body of a method. These classes are known as local classes. You can also declare an inner class within the body of a method without naming the class. These classes are known as anonymous classes.

Modifiers

You can use the same modifiers for inner classes that you use for other members of the outer class. For example, you can use the access specifiers private, public, and protected to restrict access to inner classes, just as you use them to restrict access do to other class members.

Local Classes

Local classes are classes that are defined in a block, which is a group of zero or more statements between balanced braces. You typically find local classes defined in the body of a method.

This section covers the following topics:

◈ Declaring Local Classes

You can define a local class inside any block. For example, you can define a local class in a method body, a for loop, or an if clause.

The following example, LocalClassExample, validates two phone numbers. It defines the local class PhoneNumber in the method validatePhoneNumber:

public class LocalClassExample {

static String regularExpression = "[^0-9]";

public static void validatePhoneNumber(
String phoneNumber1, String phoneNumber2) {

final int numberLength = 10;

// Valid in JDK 8 and later:

// int numberLength = 10;

class PhoneNumber {

String formattedPhoneNumber = null;

PhoneNumber(String phoneNumber){
// numberLength = 7;
String currentNumber = phoneNumber.replaceAll(
regularExpression, "");
if (currentNumber.length() == numberLength)
formattedPhoneNumber = currentNumber;
else
formattedPhoneNumber = null;
}

public String getNumber() {
return formattedPhoneNumber;
}

// Valid in JDK 8 and later:

// public void printOriginalNumbers() {
// System.out.println("Original numbers are " + phoneNumber1 +
// " and " + phoneNumber2);
// }
}

PhoneNumber myNumber1 = new PhoneNumber(phoneNumber1);
PhoneNumber myNumber2 = new PhoneNumber(phoneNumber2);

// Valid in JDK 8 and later:

// myNumber1.printOriginalNumbers();

if (myNumber1.getNumber() == null)
System.out.println("First number is invalid");
else
System.out.println("First number is " + myNumber1.getNumber());
if (myNumber2.getNumber() == null)
System.out.println("Second number is invalid");
else
System.out.println("Second number is " + myNumber2.getNumber());

}

public static void main(String... args) {
validatePhoneNumber("123-456-7890", "456-7890");
}
}

The example validates a phone number by first removing all characters from the phone number except the digits 0 through 9. After, it checks whether the phone number contains exactly ten digits (the length of a phone number in North America). This example prints the following:

First number is 1234567890
Second number is invalid

◈ Accessing Members of an Enclosing Class

A local class has access to the members of its enclosing class. In the previous example, the PhoneNumber constructor accesses the member LocalClassExample.regularExpression.

In addition, a local class has access to local variables. However, a local class can only access local variables that are declared final. When a local class accesses a local variable or parameter of the enclosing block, it captures that variable or parameter. For example, the PhoneNumber constructor can access the local variable numberLength because it is declared final; numberLength is a captured variable.

However, starting in Java SE 8, a local class can access local variables and parameters of the enclosing block that are final or effectively final. A variable or parameter whose value is never changed after it is initialized is effectively final. For example, suppose that the variable numberLength is not declared final, and you add the highlighted assignment statement in the PhoneNumber constructor to change the length of a valid phone number to 7 digits:

PhoneNumber(String phoneNumber) {
numberLength = 7;
String currentNumber = phoneNumber.replaceAll(
regularExpression, "");
if (currentNumber.length() == numberLength)
formattedPhoneNumber = currentNumber;
else
formattedPhoneNumber = null;
}

Because of this assignment statement, the variable numberLength is not effectively final anymore. As a result, the Java compiler generates an error message similar to "local variables referenced from an inner class must be final or effectively final" where the inner class PhoneNumber tries to access the numberLength variable:

if (currentNumber.length() == numberLength)
Starting in Java SE 8, if you declare the local class in a method, it can access the method's parameters. For example, you can define the following method in the PhoneNumber local class:

public void printOriginalNumbers() {
System.out.println("Original numbers are " + phoneNumber1 +
" and " + phoneNumber2);
}

The method printOriginalNumbers accesses the parameters phoneNumber1 and phoneNumber2 of the method validatePhoneNumber.

◈ Shadowing and Local Classes

Declarations of a type (such as a variable) in a local class shadow declarations in the enclosing scope that have the same name.

◈ Local Classes Are Similar To Inner Classes

Local classes are similar to inner classes because they cannot define or declare any static members. Local classes in static methods, such as the class PhoneNumber, which is defined in the static method validatePhoneNumber, can only refer to static members of the enclosing class. For example, if you do not define the member variable regularExpression as static, then the Java compiler generates an error similar to "non-static variable regularExpression cannot be referenced from a static context."

Local classes are non-static because they have access to instance members of the enclosing block. Consequently, they cannot contain most kinds of static declarations.

You cannot declare an interface inside a block; interfaces are inherently static. For example, the following code excerpt does not compile because the interface HelloThere is defined inside the body of the method greetInEnglish:

public void greetInEnglish() {
interface HelloThere {
public void greet();
}
class EnglishHelloThere implements HelloThere {
public void greet() {
System.out.println("Hello " + name);
}
}
HelloThere myGreeting = new EnglishHelloThere();
myGreeting.greet();
}

You cannot declare static initializers or member interfaces in a local class. The following code excerpt does not compile because the method EnglishGoodbye.sayGoodbye is declared static. The compiler generates an error similar to "modifier 'static' is only allowed in constant variable declaration" when it encounters this method definition:

public void sayGoodbyeInEnglish() {
class EnglishGoodbye {
public static void sayGoodbye() {
System.out.println("Bye bye");
}
}
EnglishGoodbye.sayGoodbye();
}

A local class can have static members provided that they are constant variables. (A constant variable is a variable of primitive type or type String that is declared final and initialized with a compile-time constant expression. A compile-time constant expression is typically a string or an arithmetic expression that can be evaluated at compile time.) The following code excerpt compiles because the static member EnglishGoodbye.farewell is a constant variable:

public void sayGoodbyeInEnglish() {
class EnglishGoodbye {
public static final String farewell = "Bye bye";
public void sayGoodbye() {
System.out.println(farewell);
}
}
EnglishGoodbye myEnglishGoodbye = new EnglishGoodbye();
myEnglishGoodbye.sayGoodbye();
}

Anonymous Classes

Anonymous classes enable you to make your code more concise. They enable you to declare and instantiate a class at the same time. They are like local classes except that they do not have a name. Use them if you need to use a local class only once.

This section covers the following topics:

◉ Declaring Anonymous Classes

While local classes are class declarations, anonymous classes are expressions, which means that you define the class in another expression. The following example, HelloWorldAnonymousClasses, uses anonymous classes in the initialization statements of the local variables frenchGreeting and spanishGreeting, but uses a local class for the initialization of the variable englishGreeting:

public class HelloWorldAnonymousClasses {

interface HelloWorld {
public void greet();
public void greetSomeone(String someone);
}

public void sayHello() {

class EnglishGreeting implements HelloWorld {
String name = "world";
public void greet() {
greetSomeone("world");
}
public void greetSomeone(String someone) {
name = someone;
System.out.println("Hello " + name);
}
}

HelloWorld englishGreeting = new EnglishGreeting();

HelloWorld frenchGreeting = new HelloWorld() {
String name = "tout le monde";
public void greet() {
greetSomeone("tout le monde");
}
public void greetSomeone(String someone) {
name = someone;
System.out.println("Salut " + name);
}
};

HelloWorld spanishGreeting = new HelloWorld() {
String name = "mundo";
public void greet() {
greetSomeone("mundo");
}
public void greetSomeone(String someone) {
name = someone;
System.out.println("Hola, " + name);
}
};
englishGreeting.greet();
frenchGreeting.greetSomeone("Fred");
spanishGreeting.greet();
}

public static void main(String... args) {
HelloWorldAnonymousClasses myApp =
new HelloWorldAnonymousClasses();
myApp.sayHello();
}
}

◉ Syntax of Anonymous Classes

As mentioned previously, an anonymous class is an expression. The syntax of an anonymous class expression is like the invocation of a constructor, except that there is a class definition contained in a block of code.

Consider the instantiation of the frenchGreeting object:

HelloWorld frenchGreeting = new HelloWorld() {
String name = "tout le monde";
public void greet() {
greetSomeone("tout le monde");
}
public void greetSomeone(String someone) {
name = someone;
System.out.println("Salut " + name);
}
};

The anonymous class expression consists of the following:

◦ The new operator

◦ The name of an interface to implement or a class to extend. In this example, the anonymous class is implementing the interface HelloWorld.

◦ Parentheses that contain the arguments to a constructor, just like a normal class instance creation expression. Note: When you implement an interface, there is no constructor, so you use an empty pair of parentheses, as in this example.

◦ A body, which is a class declaration body. More specifically, in the body, method declarations are allowed but statements are not.

Because an anonymous class definition is an expression, it must be part of a statement. In this example, the anonymous class expression is part of the statement that instantiates the frenchGreeting object. (This explains why there is a semicolon after the closing brace.)

◉ Accessing Local Variables of the Enclosing Scope, and Declaring and Accessing Members of the Anonymous Class

Like local classes, anonymous classes can capture variables; they have the same access to local variables of the enclosing scope:

◦ An anonymous class has access to the members of its enclosing class.

◦ An anonymous class cannot access local variables in its enclosing scope that are not declared as final or effectively final.

◦ Like a nested class, a declaration of a type (such as a variable) in an anonymous class shadows any other declarations in the enclosing scope that have the same name.

Anonymous classes also have the same restrictions as local classes with respect to their members:

◦ You cannot declare static initializers or member interfaces in an anonymous class.

◦ An anonymous class can have static members provided that they are constant variables.

Note that you can declare the following in anonymous classes:

◦ Fields

◦ Extra methods (even if they do not implement any methods of the supertype)

◦ Instance initializers

◦ Local classes

However, you cannot declare constructors in an anonymous class.

◉ Examples of Anonymous Classes

Anonymous classes are often used in graphical user interface (GUI) applications.

Consider the JavaFX example HelloWorld.java (from the section Hello World, JavaFX Style from Getting Started with JavaFX). This sample creates a frame that contains a Say 'Hello World' button. The anonymous class expression is highlighted:

import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.layout.StackPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class HelloWorld extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}

@Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
primaryStage.setTitle("Hello World!");
Button btn = new Button();
btn.setText("Say 'Hello World'");
btn.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {

@Override
public void handle(ActionEvent event) {
System.out.println("Hello World!");
}
});

StackPane root = new StackPane();
root.getChildren().add(btn);
primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(root, 300, 250));
primaryStage.show();
}
}

In this example, the method invocation btn.setOnAction specifies what happens when you select the Say 'Hello World' button. This method requires an object of type EventHandler<ActionEvent>. The EventHandler<ActionEvent> interface contains only one method, handle. Instead of implementing this method with a new class, the example uses an anonymous class expression. Notice that this expression is the argument passed to the btn.setOnAction method.

Because the EventHandler<ActionEvent> interface contains only one method, you can use a lambda expression instead of an anonymous class expression.

Anonymous classes are ideal for implementing an interface that contains two or more methods. The following JavaFX example is from the section Customization of UI Controls. The highlighted code creates a text field that only accepts numeric values. It redefines the default implementation of the TextField class with an anonymous class by overriding the replaceText and replaceSelection methods inherited from the TextInputControl class.

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.layout.GridPane;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class CustomTextFieldSample extends Application {

final static Label label = new Label();

@Override
public void start(Stage stage) {
Group root = new Group();
Scene scene = new Scene(root, 300, 150);
stage.setScene(scene);
stage.setTitle("Text Field Sample");

GridPane grid = new GridPane();
grid.setPadding(new Insets(10, 10, 10, 10));
grid.setVgap(5);
grid.setHgap(5);

scene.setRoot(grid);
final Label dollar = new Label("$");
GridPane.setConstraints(dollar, 0, 0);
grid.getChildren().add(dollar);

final TextField sum = new TextField() {
@Override
public void replaceText(int start, int end, String text) {
if (!text.matches("[a-z, A-Z]")) {
super.replaceText(start, end, text);
}
label.setText("Enter a numeric value");
}

@Override
public void replaceSelection(String text) {
if (!text.matches("[a-z, A-Z]")) {
super.replaceSelection(text);
}
}
};

sum.setPromptText("Enter the total");
sum.setPrefColumnCount(10);
GridPane.setConstraints(sum, 1, 0);
grid.getChildren().add(sum);

Button submit = new Button("Submit");
GridPane.setConstraints(submit, 2, 0);
grid.getChildren().add(submit);

submit.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
@Override
public void handle(ActionEvent e) {
label.setText(null);
}
});

GridPane.setConstraints(label, 0, 1);
GridPane.setColumnSpan(label, 3);
grid.getChildren().add(label);

scene.setRoot(grid);
stage.show();
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}
}

Lambda Expressions

One issue with anonymous classes is that if the implementation of your anonymous class is very simple, such as an interface that contains only one method, then the syntax of anonymous classes may seem unwieldy and unclear. In these cases, you're usually trying to pass functionality as an argument to another method, such as what action should be taken when someone clicks a button. Lambda expressions enable you to do this, to treat functionality as method argument, or code as data.

The previous section, Anonymous Classes, shows you how to implement a base class without giving it a name. Although this is often more concise than a named class, for classes with only one method, even an anonymous class seems a bit excessive and cumbersome. Lambda expressions let you express instances of single-method classes more compactly.

Ideal Use Case for Lambda Expressions

Suppose that you are creating a social networking application. You want to create a feature that enables an administrator to perform any kind of action, such as sending a message, on members of the social networking application that satisfy certain criteria. The following table describes this use case in detail:

Field	Description
Name	Perform action on selected members
Primary Actor	Administrator
Preconditions	Administrator is logged in to the system.
Postconditions	Action is performed only on members that fit the specified criteria.
Main Success Scenario	Administrator specifies criteria of members on which to perform a certain action. Administrator specifies an action to perform on those selected members. Administrator selects the Submit button. The system finds all members that match the specified criteria. The system performs the specified action on all matching members.
Extensions	1a. Administrator has an option to preview those members who match the specified criteria before he or she specifies the action to be performed or before selecting the Submit button.
Frequency of Occurrence	Many times during the day.

Suppose that members of this social networking application are represented by the following Person class:

public class Person {

public enum Sex {

MALE, FEMALE

}

String name;

LocalDate birthday;

Sex gender;

String emailAddress;

public int getAge() {

// ...

}

public void printPerson() {

// ...

}

Suppose that the members of your social networking application are stored in a List<Person> instance.

This section begins with a naive approach to this use case. It improves upon this approach with local and anonymous classes, and then finishes with an efficient and concise approach using lambda expressions. Find the code excerpts described in this section in the example RosterTest.

Approach 1: Create Methods That Search for Members That Match One Characteristic

One simplistic approach is to create several methods; each method searches for members that match one characteristic, such as gender or age. The following method prints members that are older than a specified age:

public static void printPersonsOlderThan(List<Person> roster, int age) {

for (Person p : roster) {

if (p.getAge() >= age) {

p.printPerson();

}

Note: A List is an ordered Collection. A collection is an object that groups multiple elements into a single unit. Collections are used to store, retrieve, manipulate, and communicate aggregate data.

This approach can potentially make your application brittle, which is the likelihood of an application not working because of the introduction of updates (such as newer data types). Suppose that you upgrade your application and change the structure of the Person class such that it contains different member variables; perhaps the class records and measures ages with a different data type or algorithm. You would have to rewrite a lot of your API to accommodate this change. In addition, this approach is unnecessarily restrictive; what if you wanted to print members younger than a certain age, for example?

Approach 2: Create More Generalized Search Methods

The following method is more generic than printPersonsOlderThan; it prints members within a specified range of ages:

public static void printPersonsWithinAgeRange(

List<Person> roster, int low, int high) {

for (Person p : roster) {

if (low <= p.getAge() && p.getAge() < high) {

p.printPerson();

}

What if you want to print members of a specified sex, or a combination of a specified gender and age range? What if you decide to change the Person class and add other attributes such as relationship status or geographical location? Although this method is more generic than printPersonsOlderThan, trying to create a separate method for each possible search query can still lead to brittle code. You can instead separate the code that specifies the criteria for which you want to search in a different class.

Approach 3: Specify Search Criteria Code in a Local Class

The following method prints members that match search criteria that you specify:

public static void printPersons(

List<Person> roster, CheckPerson tester) {

for (Person p : roster) {

if (tester.test(p)) {

p.printPerson();

}

This method checks each Person instance contained in the List parameter roster whether it satisfies the search criteria specified in the CheckPerson parameter tester by invoking the method tester.test. If the method tester.test returns a true value, then the method printPersons is invoked on the Person instance.

To specify the search criteria, you implement the CheckPerson interface:

interface CheckPerson {

boolean test(Person p);

}

The following class implements the CheckPerson interface by specifying an implementation for the method test. This method filters members that are eligible for Selective Service in the United States: it returns a true value if its Person parameter is male and between the ages of 18 and 25:

class CheckPersonEligibleForSelectiveService implements CheckPerson {

public boolean test(Person p) {

return p.gender == Person.Sex.MALE &&

p.getAge() >= 18 &&

p.getAge() <= 25;

}

To use this class, you create a new instance of it and invoke the printPersons method:

printPersons(

roster, new CheckPersonEligibleForSelectiveService());

Although this approach is less brittle—you don't have to rewrite methods if you change the structure of the Person—you still have additional code: a new interface and a local class for each search you plan to perform in your application. Because CheckPersonEligibleForSelectiveService implements an interface, you can use an anonymous class instead of a local class and bypass the need to declare a new class for each search.

Approach 4: Specify Search Criteria Code in an Anonymous Class

One of the arguments of the following invocation of the method printPersons is an anonymous class that filters members that are eligible for Selective Service in the United States: those who are male and between the ages of 18 and 25:

printPersons(

roster,

new CheckPerson() {

public boolean test(Person p) {

return p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25;

}

);

This approach reduces the amount of code required because you don't have to create a new class for each search that you want to perform. However, the syntax of anonymous classes is bulky considering that the CheckPerson interface contains only one method. In this case, you can use a lambda expression instead of an anonymous class, as described in the next section.

Approach 5: Specify Search Criteria Code with a Lambda Expression

The CheckPerson interface is a functional interface. A functional interface is any interface that contains only one abstract method. (A functional interface may contain one or more default methods or static methods.) Because a functional interface contains only one abstract method, you can omit the name of that method when you implement it. To do this, instead of using an anonymous class expression, you use a lambda expression, which is highlighted in the following method invocation:

printPersons(

roster,

(Person p) -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25

);

See Syntax of Lambda Expressions for information about how to define lambda expressions.

You can use a standard functional interface in place of the interface CheckPerson, which reduces even further the amount of code required.

Approach 6: Use Standard Functional Interfaces with Lambda Expressions

Reconsider the CheckPerson interface:

interface CheckPerson {

boolean test(Person p);

}

This is a very simple interface. It's a functional interface because it contains only one abstract method. This method takes one parameter and returns a boolean value. The method is so simple that it might not be worth it to define one in your application. Consequently, the JDK defines several standard functional interfaces, which you can find in the package java.util.function.

For example, you can use the Predicate<T> interface in place of CheckPerson. This interface contains the method boolean test(T t):

interface Predicate<T> {

boolean test(T t);

}

The interface Predicate<T> is an example of a generic interface. Generic types (such as generic interfaces) specify one or more type parameters within angle brackets (<>). This interface contains only one type parameter, T. When you declare or instantiate a generic type with actual type arguments, you have a parameterized type. For example, the parameterized type Predicate<Person> is the following:

interface Predicate<Person> {

boolean test(Person t);

}

This parameterized type contains a method that has the same return type and parameters as CheckPerson.boolean test(Person p). Consequently, you can use Predicate<T> in place of CheckPerson as the following method demonstrates:

public static void printPersonsWithPredicate(

List<Person> roster, Predicate<Person> tester) {

for (Person p : roster) {

if (tester.test(p)) {

p.printPerson();

}

As a result, the following method invocation is the same as when you invoked printPersons in Approach 3: Specify Search Criteria Code in a Local Class to obtain members who are eligible for Selective Service:

printPersonsWithPredicate(

roster,

p -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25

);

This is not the only possible place in this method to use a lambda expression. The following approach suggests other ways to use lambda expressions.

Approach 7: Use Lambda Expressions Throughout Your Application

Reconsider the method printPersonsWithPredicate to see where else you could use lambda expressions:

public static void printPersonsWithPredicate(

List<Person> roster, Predicate<Person> tester) {

for (Person p : roster) {

if (tester.test(p)) {

p.printPerson();

}

This method checks each Person instance contained in the List parameter roster whether it satisfies the criteria specified in the Predicate parameter tester. If the Person instance does satisfy the criteria specified by tester, the method printPersron is invoked on the Person instance.

Instead of invoking the method printPerson, you can specify a different action to perform on those Person instances that satisfy the criteria specified by tester. You can specify this action with a lambda expression. Suppose you want a lambda expression similar to printPerson, one that takes one argument (an object of type Person) and returns void. Remember, to use a lambda expression, you need to implement a functional interface. In this case, you need a functional interface that contains an abstract method that can take one argument of type Person and returns void. The Consumer<T> interface contains the method void accept(T t), which has these characteristics. The following method replaces the invocation p.printPerson() with an instance of Consumer<Person> that invokes the method accept:

public static void processPersons(

List<Person> roster,

Predicate<Person> tester,

Consumer<Person> block) {

for (Person p : roster) {

if (tester.test(p)) {

block.accept(p);

}

processPersons(

roster,

p -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25,

p -> p.printPerson()

);

What if you want to do more with your members' profiles than printing them out. Suppose that you want to validate the members' profiles or retrieve their contact information? In this case, you need a functional interface that contains an abstract method that returns a value. The Function<T,R> interface contains the method R apply(T t). The following method retrieves the data specified by the parameter mapper, and then performs an action on it specified by the parameter block:

public static void processPersonsWithFunction(

List<Person> roster,

Predicate<Person> tester,

Function<Person, String> mapper,

Consumer<String> block) {

for (Person p : roster) {

if (tester.test(p)) {

String data = mapper.apply(p);

block.accept(data);

}

The following method retrieves the email address from each member contained in roster who is eligible for Selective Service and then prints it:

processPersonsWithFunction(

roster,

p -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25,

p -> p.getEmailAddress(),

email -> System.out.println(email)

);

Approach 8: Use Generics More Extensively

Reconsider the method processPersonsWithFunction. The following is a generic version of it that accepts, as a parameter, a collection that contains elements of any data type:

public static <X, Y> void processElements(

Iterable<X> source,

Predicate<X> tester,

Function <X, Y> mapper,

Consumer<Y> block) {

for (X p : source) {

if (tester.test(p)) {

Y data = mapper.apply(p);

block.accept(data);

}

To print the e-mail address of members who are eligible for Selective Service, invoke the processElements method as follows:

processElements(

roster,

p -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25,

p -> p.getEmailAddress(),

email -> System.out.println(email)

);

This method invocation performs the following actions:

1. Obtains a source of objects from the collection source. In this example, it obtains a source of Person objects from the collection roster. Notice that the collection roster, which is a collection of type List, is also an object of type Iterable.

2. Filters objects that match the Predicate object tester. In this example, the Predicate object is a lambda expression that specifies which members would be eligible for Selective Service.

3. Maps each filtered object to a value as specified by the Function object mapper. In this example, the Function object is a lambda expression that returns the e-mail address of a member.

4. Performs an action on each mapped object as specified by the Consumer object block. In this example, the Consumer object is a lambda expression that prints a string, which is the e-mail address returned by the Function object.

You can replace each of these actions with an aggregate operation.

Approach 9: Use Aggregate Operations That Accept Lambda Expressions as Parameters

The following example uses aggregate operations to print the e-mail addresses of those members contained in the collection roster who are eligible for Selective Service:

roster

.stream()

.filter(

p -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25)

.map(p -> p.getEmailAddress())

.forEach(email -> System.out.println(email));

The following table maps each of the operations the method processElements performs with the corresponding aggregate operation:

processElements Action	Aggregate Operation
Obtain a source of objects	Stream<E> stream()
Filter objects that match a Predicate object	Stream<T> filter(Predicate<? super T> predicate)
Map objects to another value as specified by a Function object	<R> Stream<R> map(Function<? super T,? extends R> mapper)
Perform an action as specified by a Consumer object	void forEach(Consumer<? super T> action)

The operations filter, map, and forEach are aggregate operations. Aggregate operations process elements from a stream, not directly from a collection (which is the reason why the first method invoked in this example is stream). A stream is a sequence of elements. Unlike a collection, it is not a data structure that stores elements. Instead, a stream carries values from a source, such as collection, through a pipeline. A pipeline is a sequence of stream operations, which in this example is filter- map-forEach. In addition, aggregate operations typically accept lambda expressions as parameters, enabling you to customize how they behave.

Lambda Expressions in GUI Applications

To process events in a graphical user interface (GUI) application, such as keyboard actions, mouse actions, and scroll actions, you typically create event handlers, which usually involves implementing a particular interface. Often, event handler interfaces are functional interfaces; they tend to have only one method.

In the JavaFX example HelloWorld.java (discussed in the previous section Anonymous Classes), you can replace the highlighted anonymous class with a lambda expression in this statement:

btn.setOnAction(new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {

@Override

public void handle(ActionEvent event) {

System.out.println("Hello World!");

}

});

The method invocation btn.setOnAction specifies what happens when you select the button represented by the btn object. This method requires an object of type EventHandler<ActionEvent>. The EventHandler<ActionEvent> interface contains only one method, void handle(T event). This interface is a functional interface, so you could use the following highlighted lambda expression to replace it:

btn.setOnAction(

event -> System.out.println("Hello World!")

);

Syntax of Lambda Expressions

A lambda expression consists of the following:

◉ A comma-separated list of formal parameters enclosed in parentheses. The CheckPerson.test method contains one parameter, p, which represents an instance of the Person class.

Note: You can omit the data type of the parameters in a lambda expression. In addition, you can omit the parentheses if there is only one parameter. For example, the following lambda expression is also valid:

p -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25

◉ The arrow token, ->

◉ A body, which consists of a single expression or a statement block. This example uses the following expression:

p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25

If you specify a single expression, then the Java runtime evaluates the expression and then returns its value. Alternatively, you can use a return statement:

p -> {

return p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25;

}

A return statement is not an expression; in a lambda expression, you must enclose statements in braces ({}). However, you do not have to enclose a void method invocation in braces. For example, the following is a valid lambda expression:

email -> System.out.println(email)

Note that a lambda expression looks a lot like a method declaration; you can consider lambda expressions as anonymous methods—methods without a name.

The following example, Calculator, is an example of lambda expressions that take more than one formal parameter:

public class Calculator {

interface IntegerMath {

int operation(int a, int b);

}

public int operateBinary(int a, int b, IntegerMath op) {

return op.operation(a, b);

}

public static void main(String... args) {

Calculator myApp = new Calculator();

IntegerMath addition = (a, b) -> a + b;

IntegerMath subtraction = (a, b) -> a - b;

System.out.println("40 + 2 = " +

myApp.operateBinary(40, 2, addition));

System.out.println("20 - 10 = " +

myApp.operateBinary(20, 10, subtraction));

}

The method operateBinary performs a mathematical operation on two integer operands. The operation itself is specified by an instance of IntegerMath. The example defines two operations with lambda expressions, addition and subtraction. The example prints the following:

40 + 2 = 42

20 - 10 = 10

Accessing Local Variables of the Enclosing Scope

Like local and anonymous classes, lambda expressions can capture variables; they have the same access to local variables of the enclosing scope. However, unlike local and anonymous classes, lambda expressions do not have any shadowing issues. Lambda expressions are lexically scoped. This means that they do not inherit any names from a supertype or introduce a new level of scoping. Declarations in a lambda expression are interpreted just as they are in the enclosing environment. The following example, LambdaScopeTest, demonstrates this:

import java.util.function.Consumer;

public class LambdaScopeTest {

public int x = 0;

class FirstLevel {

public int x = 1;

void methodInFirstLevel(int x) {

// The following statement causes the compiler to generate

// the error "local variables referenced from a lambda expression

// must be final or effectively final" in statement A:

// x = 99;

Consumer<Integer> myConsumer = (y) ->

{

System.out.println("x = " + x); // Statement A

System.out.println("y = " + y);

System.out.println("this.x = " + this.x);

System.out.println("LambdaScopeTest.this.x = " +

LambdaScopeTest.this.x);

};

myConsumer.accept(x);

}

public static void main(String... args) {

LambdaScopeTest st = new LambdaScopeTest();

LambdaScopeTest.FirstLevel fl = st.new FirstLevel();

fl.methodInFirstLevel(23);

}

This example generates the following output:

x = 23

y = 23

this.x = 1

LambdaScopeTest.this.x = 0

If you substitute the parameter x in place of y in the declaration of the lambda expression myConsumer, then the compiler generates an error:

Consumer<Integer> myConsumer = (x) -> {

// ...

}

The compiler generates the error "variable x is already defined in method methodInFirstLevel(int)" because the lambda expression does not introduce a new level of scoping. Consequently, you can directly access fields, methods, and local variables of the enclosing scope. For example, the lambda expression directly accesses the parameter x of the method methodInFirstLevel. To access variables in the enclosing class, use the keyword this. In this example, this.x refers to the member variable

FirstLevel.x.

However, like local and anonymous classes, a lambda expression can only access local variables and parameters of the enclosing block that are final or effectively final. For example, suppose that you add the following assignment statement immediately after the methodInFirstLevel definition statement:

void methodInFirstLevel(int x) {

x = 99;

// ...

}

Because of this assignment statement, the variable FirstLevel.x is not effectively final anymore. As a result, the Java compiler generates an error message similar to "local variables referenced from a lambda expression must be final or effectively final" where the lambda expression myConsumer tries to access the FirstLevel.x variable:

System.out.println("x = " + x);

Target Typing

How do you determine the type of a lambda expression? Recall the lambda expression that selected members who are male and between the ages 18 and 25 years:

p -> p.getGender() == Person.Sex.MALE

&& p.getAge() >= 18

&& p.getAge() <= 25

This lambda expression was used in the following two methods:

◉ public static void printPersons(List<Person> roster, CheckPerson tester) in Approach 3: Specify Search Criteria Code in a Local Class

◉ public void printPersonsWithPredicate(List<Person> roster, Predicate<Person> tester) in Approach 6: Use Standard Functional Interfaces with Lambda Expressions

When the Java runtime invokes the method printPersons, it's expecting a data type of CheckPerson, so the lambda expression is of this type. However, when the Java runtime invokes the method printPersonsWithPredicate, it's expecting a data type of Predicate<Person>, so the lambda expression is of this type. The data type that these methods expect is called the target type. To determine the type of a lambda expression, the Java compiler uses the target type of the context or situation in which the lambda expression was found. It follows that you can only use lambda expressions in situations in which the Java compiler can determine a target type:

◉ Variable declarations

◉ Assignments

◉ Return statements

◉ Array initializers

◉ Method or constructor arguments

◉ Lambda expression bodies

◉ Conditional expressions, ?:

◉ Cast expressions

Target Types and Method Arguments

For method arguments, the Java compiler determines the target type with two other language features: overload resolution and type argument inference.

Consider the following two functional interfaces ( java.lang.Runnable and java.util.concurrent.Callable<V>):

public interface Runnable {

void run();

}

public interface Callable<V> {

V call();

}

The method Runnable.run does not return a value, whereas Callable<V>.call does.

Suppose that you have overloaded the method invoke as follows

void invoke(Runnable r) {

r.run();

}

<T> T invoke(Callable<T> c) {

return c.call();

}

Which method will be invoked in the following statement?

String s = invoke(() -> "done");

The method invoke(Callable<T>) will be invoked because that method returns a value; the method invoke(Runnable) does not. In this case, the type of the lambda expression () -> "done" is Callable<T>.

Serialization

You can serialize a lambda expression if its target type and its captured arguments are serializable. However, like inner classes, the serialization of lambda expressions is strongly discouraged.

Method References

You use lambda expressions to create anonymous methods. Sometimes, however, a lambda expression does nothing but call an existing method. In those cases, it's often clearer to refer to the existing method by name. Method references enable you to do this; they are compact, easy-to-read lambda expressions for methods that already have a name.

Consider again the Person class discussed in the section Lambda Expressions:

public class Person {

public enum Sex {
MALE, FEMALE
}

String name;
LocalDate birthday;
Sex gender;
String emailAddress;

public int getAge() {
// ...
}

public Calendar getBirthday() {
return birthday;
}

public static int compareByAge(Person a, Person b) {
return a.birthday.compareTo(b.birthday);
}}

Suppose that the members of your social networking application are contained in an array, and you want to sort the array by age. You could use the following code (find the code excerpts described in this section in the example MethodReferencesTest):

Person[] rosterAsArray = roster.toArray(new Person[roster.size()]);

class PersonAgeComparator implements Comparator<Person> {
public int compare(Person a, Person b) {
return a.getBirthday().compareTo(b.getBirthday());
}
}

Arrays.sort(rosterAsArray, new PersonAgeComparator());

The method signature of this invocation of sort is the following:

static <T> void sort(T[] a, Comparator<? super T> c)

Notice that the interface Comparator is a functional interface. Therefore, you could use a lambda expression instead of defining and then creating a new instance of a class that implements Comparator:

Arrays.sort(rosterAsArray,
(Person a, Person b) -> {
return a.getBirthday().compareTo(b.getBirthday());
}
);

However, this method to compare the birth dates of two Person instances already exists as Person.compareByAge. You can invoke this method instead in the body of the lambda expression:

Arrays.sort(rosterAsArray,
(a, b) -> Person.compareByAge(a, b)
);

Because this lambda expression invokes an existing method, you can use a method reference instead of a lambda expression:

Arrays.sort(rosterAsArray, Person::compareByAge);

The method reference Person::compareByAge is semantically the same as the lambda expression (a, b) -> Person.compareByAge(a, b). Each has the following characteristics:

◉ Its formal parameter list is copied from Comparator<Person>.compare, which is (Person, Person).
◉ Its body calls the method Person.compareByAge.

Kinds of Method References

There are four kinds of method references:

Kind	Example
Reference to a static method	ContainingClass::staticMethodName
Reference to an instance method of a particular object	containingObject::instanceMethodName
Reference to an instance method of an arbitrary object of a particular type	ContainingType::methodName
Reference to a constructor	ClassName::new

Reference to a Static Method

The method reference Person::compareByAge is a reference to a static method.

Reference to an Instance Method of a Particular Object

The following is an example of a reference to an instance method of a particular object:

class ComparisonProvider {

public int compareByName(Person a, Person b) {

return a.getName().compareTo(b.getName());

}

public int compareByAge(Person a, Person b) {

return a.getBirthday().compareTo(b.getBirthday());

}

ComparisonProvider myComparisonProvider = new ComparisonProvider();

Arrays.sort(rosterAsArray, myComparisonProvider::compareByName);

The method reference myComparisonProvider::compareByName invokes the method compareByName that is part of the object myComparisonProvider. The JRE infers the method type arguments, which in this case are (Person, Person).

Reference to an Instance Method of an Arbitrary Object of a Particular Type

The following is an example of a reference to an instance method of an arbitrary object of a particular type:

String[] stringArray = { "Barbara", "James", "Mary", "John",

"Patricia", "Robert", "Michael", "Linda" };

Arrays.sort(stringArray, String::compareToIgnoreCase);

The equivalent lambda expression for the method reference String::compareToIgnoreCase would have the formal parameter list (String a, String b), where a and b are arbitrary names used to better describe this example. The method reference would invoke the method a.compareToIgnoreCase(b).

Reference to a Constructor

You can reference a constructor in the same way as a static method by using the name new. The following method copies elements from one collection to another:

public static <T, SOURCE extends Collection<T>, DEST extends Collection<T>>

DEST transferElements(

SOURCE sourceCollection,

Supplier<DEST> collectionFactory) {

DEST result = collectionFactory.get();

for (T t : sourceCollection) {

result.add(t);

}

return result;

}

The functional interface Supplier contains one method get that takes no arguments and returns an object. Consequently, you can invoke the method transferElements with a lambda expression as follows:

Set<Person> rosterSetLambda =

transferElements(roster, () -> { return new HashSet<>(); });

You can use a constructor reference in place of the lambda expression as follows:

Set<Person> rosterSet = transferElements(roster, HashSet::new);

The Java compiler infers that you want to create a HashSet collection that contains elements of type Person. Alternatively, you can specify this as follows:

Set<Person> rosterSet = transferElements(roster, HashSet<Person>::new);

When to Use Nested Classes, Local Classes, Anonymous Classes, and Lambda Expressions

As mentioned in the section Nested Classes, nested classes enable you to logically group classes that are only used in one place, increase the use of encapsulation, and create more readable and maintainable code. Local classes, anonymous classes, and lambda expressions also impart these advantages; however, they are intended to be used for more specific situations:

◉ Local class: Use it if you need to create more than one instance of a class, access its constructor, or introduce a new, named type (because, for example, you need to invoke additional methods later).

◉ Anonymous class: Use it if you need to declare fields or additional methods.

◉ Lambda expression:

◉ Use it if you are encapsulating a single unit of behavior that you want to pass to other code. For example, you would use a lambda expression if you want a certain action performed on each element of a collection, when a process is completed, or when a process encounters an error.

◉ Use it if you need a simple instance of a functional interface and none of the preceding criteria apply (for example, you do not need a constructor, a named type, fields, or additional methods).

◉ Nested class: Use it if your requirements are similar to those of a local class, you want to make the type more widely available, and you don't require access to local variables or method parameters.

◉ Use a non-static nested class (or inner class) if you require access to an enclosing instance's non-public fields and methods. Use a static nested class if you don't require this access.

Questions and Exercises: Nested Classes

Questions

1. The program Problem.java doesn't compile. What do you need to do to make it compile? Why?

2. Use the Java API documentation for the Box class (in the javax.swing package) to help you answer the following questions.

a. What static nested class does Box define?

b. What inner class does Box define?

c. What is the superclass of Box's inner class?

d. Which of Box's nested classes can you use from any class?

e. How do you create an instance of Box's Filler class?

Exercises

1. Get the file Class1.java. Compile and run Class1. What is the output?

2. The following exercises involve modifying the class DataStructure.java, which the section Inner Class Example discusses.

a. Define a method named print(DataStructureIterator iterator). Invoke this method with an instance of the class EvenIterator so that it performs the same function as the method printEven.

b. Invoke the method print(DataStructureIterator iterator) so that it prints elements that have an odd index value. Use an anonymous class as the method's argument instead of an instance of the interface DataStructureIterator.

c. Define a method named print(java.util.Function<Integer, Boolean> iterator) that performs the same function as print(DataStructureIterator iterator). Invoke this method with a lambda expression to print elements that have an even index value. Invoke this method again with a lambda expression to print elements that have an odd index value.

d. Define two methods so that the following two statements print elements that have an even index value and elements that have an odd index value:

DataStructure ds = new DataStructure()

// ...

ds.print(DataStructure::isEvenIndex);

ds.print(DataStructure::isOddIndex);

Answers to Questions and Exercises: Nested Classes

Questions

1. Question: The program Problem.java doesn't compile. What do you need to do to make it compile? Why?

Answer: Delete static in front of the declaration of the Inner class. An static inner class does not have access to the instance fields of the outer class. See ProblemSolved.java.

2. Use the Java API documentation for the Box class (in the javax.swing package) to help you answer the following questions.

a. Question: What static nested class does Box define?

Answer: Box.Filler

b. Question: What inner class does Box define?

Answer: Box.AccessibleBox

c. Question: What is the superclass of Box's inner class?

Answer: [java.awt.]Container.AccessibleAWTContainer

d. Question: Which of Box's nested classes can you use from any class?

Answer: Box.Filler

e. Question: How do you create an instance of Box's Filler class?

Answer: new Box.Filler(minDimension, prefDimension, maxDimension)

Exercises

1. Exercise: Get the file Class1.java. Compile and run Class1. What is the output?

Answer: InnerClass1: getString invoked.

InnerClass1: getAnotherString invoked.

2. Exercise: The following exercises involve modifying the class DataStructure.java, which the section Inner Class Example discusses.

a. Define a method named print(DataStructureIterator iterator). Invoke this method with an instance of the class EvenIterator so that it performs the same function as the method printEven.

Hint: These statements do not compile if you specify them in the main method:

DataStructure ds = new DataStructure();

ds.print(new EvenIterator());

The compiler generates the error message, "non-static variable this cannot be referenced from a static context" when it encounters the expression new EvenIterator(). The class EvenIterator is an inner, non-static class. This means that you can create an instance of EvenIterator only inside an instance of the outer class, DataStructure.

You can define a method in DataStructure that creates and returns a new instance of EvenIterator.

Hint: You cannot access the private members SIZE and arrayOfInts outside the class DataStructure, which means that you cannot access these private members from an anonymous class defined outside DataStructure.

You can define methods that access the private members SIZE and arrayOfInts and then use them in your anonymous class.

Hint: In this print method, you can step though the elements contained in the array arrayOfInts with a for expression. For each index value, invoke the method function.apply. If this method returns a true value for a particular index value, print the element contained in that index value.

To invoke this print method to print elements that have an even index value, you can specify a lambda expression that implements the method Boolean Function.apply(Integer t). This lambda expression takes one Integer argument (the index) and returns a Boolean value (Boolean.TRUE if the index value is even, Boolean.FALSE otherwise).

d. Define two methods so that these statements print elements that have an even index value and then elements that have an odd index value:

DataStructure ds = new DataStructure()

// ...

ds.print(DataStructure::isEvenIndex);

ds.print(DataStructure::isOddIndex);

Hint: Create two methods in the class DataStructure named isEvenIndex and isOddIndex that have the same parameter list and return type as the abstract method Boolean Function<Integer, Boolean>.apply(Integer t). This means that the methods take one Integer argument (the index) and return a Boolean value.

Answer: See the file DataStructure.java.

Enum Types

An enum type is a special data type that enables for a variable to be a set of predefined constants. The variable must be equal to one of the values that have been predefined for it. Common examples include compass directions (values of NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, and WEST) and the days of the week.

Because they are constants, the names of an enum type's fields are in uppercase letters.

In the Java programming language, you define an enum type by using the enum keyword. For example, you would specify a days-of-the-week enum type as:

public enum Day {

SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY,

THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY

}

You should use enum types any time you need to represent a fixed set of constants. That includes natural enum types such as the planets in our solar system and data sets where you know all possible values at compile time—for example, the choices on a menu, command line flags, and so on.

Here is some code that shows you how to use the Day enum defined above:

public class EnumTest {

Day day;

public EnumTest(Day day) {

this.day = day;

}

public void tellItLikeItIs() {

switch (day) {

case MONDAY:

System.out.println("Mondays are bad.");

break;

case FRIDAY:

System.out.println("Fridays are better.");

break;

case SATURDAY: case SUNDAY:

System.out.println("Weekends are best.");

break;

default:

System.out.println("Midweek days are so-so.");

break;

}

public static void main(String[] args) {

EnumTest firstDay = new EnumTest(Day.MONDAY);

firstDay.tellItLikeItIs();

EnumTest thirdDay = new EnumTest(Day.WEDNESDAY);

thirdDay.tellItLikeItIs();

EnumTest fifthDay = new EnumTest(Day.FRIDAY);

fifthDay.tellItLikeItIs();

EnumTest sixthDay = new EnumTest(Day.SATURDAY);

sixthDay.tellItLikeItIs();

EnumTest seventhDay = new EnumTest(Day.SUNDAY);

seventhDay.tellItLikeItIs();

}

The output is:

Mondays are bad.

Midweek days are so-so.

Fridays are better.

Weekends are best.

Java programming language enum types are much more powerful than their counterparts in other languages. The enum declaration defines a class (called an enum type). The enum class body can include methods and other fields. The compiler automatically adds some special methods when it creates an enum. For example, they have a static values method that returns an array containing all of the values of the enum in the order they are declared. This method is commonly used in combination with the for-each construct to iterate over the values of an enum type. For example, this code from the Planet class example below iterates over all the planets in the solar system.

for (Planet p : Planet.values()) {

System.out.printf("Your weight on %s is %f%n",

p, p.surfaceWeight(mass));

}

Note: All enums implicitly extend java.lang.Enum. Because a class can only extend one parent, the Java language does not support multiple inheritance of state, and therefore an enum cannot extend anything else.

In the following example, Planet is an enum type that represents the planets in the solar system. They are defined with constant mass and radius properties.

Each enum constant is declared with values for the mass and radius parameters. These values are passed to the constructor when the constant is created. Java requires that the constants be defined first, prior to any fields or methods. Also, when there are fields and methods, the list of enum constants must end with a semicolon.

Note: The constructor for an enum type must be package-private or private access. It automatically creates the constants that are defined at the beginning of the enum body. You cannot invoke an enum constructor yourself.

In addition to its properties and constructor, Planet has methods that allow you to retrieve the surface gravity and weight of an object on each planet. Here is a sample program that takes your weight on earth (in any unit) and calculates and prints your weight on all of the planets (in the same unit):

public enum Planet {

MERCURY (3.303e+23, 2.4397e6),

VENUS (4.869e+24, 6.0518e6),

EARTH (5.976e+24, 6.37814e6),

MARS (6.421e+23, 3.3972e6),

JUPITER (1.9e+27, 7.1492e7),

SATURN (5.688e+26, 6.0268e7),

URANUS (8.686e+25, 2.5559e7),

NEPTUNE (1.024e+26, 2.4746e7);

private final double mass; // in kilograms

private final double radius; // in meters

Planet(double mass, double radius) {

this.mass = mass;

this.radius = radius;

}

private double mass() { return mass; }

private double radius() { return radius; }

// universal gravitational constant (m3 kg-1 s-2)

public static final double G = 6.67300E-11;

double surfaceGravity() {

return G * mass / (radius * radius);

}

double surfaceWeight(double otherMass) {

return otherMass * surfaceGravity();

}

public static void main(String[] args) {

if (args.length != 1) {

System.err.println("Usage: java Planet <earth_weight>");

System.exit(-1);

}

double earthWeight = Double.parseDouble(args[0]);

double mass = earthWeight/EARTH.surfaceGravity();

for (Planet p : Planet.values())

System.out.printf("Your weight on %s is %f%n",

p, p.surfaceWeight(mass));

}

If you run Planet.class from the command line with an argument of 175, you get this output:

$ java Planet 175

Your weight on MERCURY is 66.107583

Your weight on VENUS is 158.374842

Your weight on EARTH is 175.000000

Your weight on MARS is 66.279007

Your weight on JUPITER is 442.847567

Your weight on SATURN is 186.552719

Your weight on URANUS is 158.397260

Your weight on NEPTUNE is 199.207413

Questions and Exercises: Enum Types

Questions

1. True or false: an Enum type can be a subclass of java.lang.String.

Exercises

1. Rewrite the class Card from the exercise in Questions and Exercises: Classes so that it represents the rank and suit of a card with enum types.

2. Rewrite the Deck class.

Answers to Questions and Exercises: Enum Types

Questions

1. Question: True or false: an Enum type can be a subclass of java.lang.String.

Answer: False. All enums implicitly extend java.lang.Enum. Because a class can only extend one parent, the Java language does not support multiple inheritance of state, and therefore an enum cannot extend anything else.

Exercises

1. Exercise: Rewrite the class Card from the exercise in Questions and Exercises: Classes so that it represents the rank and suit of a card with enum types.

Answer: See Card3.java, Suit.java, and Rank.java.

2. Exercise: Rewrite the Deck class.

Answer: See Deck3.java.

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