CSE 1201

Object Oriented Programming

Using Classes and Objects

Acknowledgement

Course materials from Dr. Tagrul Dayar, Bilkent University

Creating Objects

A variable holds either a primitive type or a reference to an

object

A class name can be used as a type to declare an object

reference variable
String title;

No object is created with this declaration

An object reference variable holds the address of an object

The object itself must be created separately

Creating Objects

Generally, we use the new operator to create an object

title = new String ("Java Software Solutions");

This calls the String constructor, which is

a special method that sets up the object

Creating an object is called instantiation

An object is an instance of a particular class

Invoking Methods

We've seen that once an object has been instantiated, we

can use the dot operator to invoke its methods
count = title.length()

A method may return a value, which can be used in an

assignment or expression

A method invocation can be thought of as asking an

object to perform a service

References

Note that a primitive variable contains the value itself,

but an object variable contains the address of the object

An object reference can be thought of as a pointer to the

location of the object

Rather than dealing with arbitrary addresses, we often

depict a reference graphically

num1
name1

38
"Steve Jobs"

Assignment Revisited

The act of assignment takes a copy of a value and stores

it in a variable

For primitive types:

Before:

num1

38

num2

96

num2 = num1;

After:

num1

38

num2

38

Reference Assignment

For object references, assignment copies the address:

Before:

name1

"Steve Jobs"

name2

"Steve Wozniak"

name2 = name1;

After:

name1
name2

"Steve Jobs"

Aliases

Two or more references that refer to the same object are

called aliases of each other

That creates an interesting situation: one object can be

accessed using multiple reference variables

Aliases can be useful, but should be managed carefully

Changing an object through one reference changes it for all

of its aliases, because there is really only one object

Garbage Collection

When an object no longer has any valid references to it, it

can no longer be accessed by the program

The object is useless, and therefore is called garbage

Java performs automatic garbage collection periodically,

returning an object's memory to the system for future use

In other languages, the programmer is responsible for

performing garbage collection

The String Class

Because strings are so common, we don't have to use the

new operator to create a String object
title = "Java Software Solutions";

This is special syntax that works only for strings

Each string literal (enclosed in double quotes) represents a

String object

String Methods

Once a String object has been created, neither its

value nor its length can be changed

Thus we say that an object of the String class is

immutable

However, several methods of the String class return

new String objects that are modified versions of the
original

See the list of String methods on page 119 and in

Appendix M

You can also use the API documentation

String Indexes

It is occasionally helpful to refer to a particular character

within a string

This can be done by specifying the character's numeric

index

The indexes begin at zero in each string

In the string "Hello", the character 'H' is at index 0 and

the 'o' is at index 4

See StringMutation.java (page 120)

Example
String phrase = new String ("Change is inevitable");
String mutation1, mutation2, mutation3, mutation4;
System.out.println ("Original string: \"" + phrase + "\"");
System.out.println ("Length of string: " + phrase.length());
mutation1 = phrase.concat (", except from vending machines.");
mutation2 = mutation1.toUpperCase();
mutation3 = mutation2.replace ('E', 'X');
mutation4 = mutation3.substring (3, 30);
// Print each mutated string
System.out.println ("Mutation #1: " + mutation1);
System.out.println ("Mutation #2: " + mutation2);
System.out.println ("Mutation #3: " + mutation3);
System.out.println ("Mutation #4: " + mutation4);
System.out.println ("Mutated length: " + mutation4.length());

Class Libraries

A class library is a collection of classes that we can use when

developing programs

The Java standard class library is part of any Java

development environment

Its classes are not part of the Java language per se, but we
rely on them heavily

Various classes we've already used (System , Scanner,

String) are part of the Java standard class library

Other class libraries can be obtained through third party

vendors, or you can create them yourself

Packages

The classes of the Java standard class library are

organized into packages

Some of the packages in the standard class library are:

Package

Purpose

java.lang
General support
java.applet
Creating applets for the web
java.awt Graphics and graphical user interfaces
javax.swing
Additional graphics capabilities
java.net
Network communication
java.util
Utilities
javax.xml.parsers
XML document processing

The import Declaration

When you want to use a class from a package, you could

use its fully qualified name
java.util.Scanner;
java.util.Random;

Or you can import the class, and then use just the class name
import java.util.Scanner;

To import all classes in a particular package, you can use

the * wildcard character
import java.util.*;

The import Declaration

All classes of the java.lang package are imported

automatically into all programs

It's as if all programs contain the following line:

import java.lang.*;

That's why we didn't have to import the System or

String classes explicitly in earlier programs

The Scanner class, on the other hand, is part of the

java.util package, and therefore must be imported

The Random Class

The Random class is part of the java.util package

It provides methods that generate pseudorandom numbers

A Random object performs complicated calculations based

on a seed value to produce a stream of seemingly random
values

See RandomNumbers.java (page 126)

Random generator = new Random();

int num1;
float num2;
num1 = generator.nextInt();
System.out.println ("A random integer: " + num1);
num1 = generator.nextInt(10);
System.out.println ("From 0 to 9: " + num1);
num1 = generator.nextInt(15) + 20;
System.out.println ("From 20 to 34: " + num1);
num1 = generator.nextInt(20) - 10;
System.out.println ("From -10 to 9: " + num1);
num2 = generator.nextFloat();
System.out.println ("A random float [between 0-1]: " + num2);
num2 = generator.nextFloat() * 6; // 0.0 to 5.999999
num1 = (int) num2 + 1;
System.out.println ("From 1 to 6: " + num1);

Interactive Programs

Programs generally need input on which to operate

The Scanner class provides convenient methods for

reading input values of various types

A Scanner object can be set up to read input from various

sources, including the user typing values on the keyboard

Keyboard input is represented by the System.in object

Reading Input

The following line creates a Scanner object that reads from

the keyboard:
Scanner scan = new Scanner (System.in);

The new operator creates the Scanner object

Once created, the Scanner object can be used to invoke

various input methods, such as:
answer = scan.nextLine();

Reading Input

The Scanner class is part of the java.util class library,

and must be imported into a program to be used
See Echo.java (page 91)

The nextLine method reads all of the input until the end
of the line is found

The details of object creation and class libraries are

discussed further in Chapter 3

Echo.java
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Echo {
// Reads a character string from the user and prints it.
public static void main (String[] args) {
String message;
Scanner scan = new Scanner (System.in);
System.out.println ("Enter a line of text:");
message = scan.nextLine();
System.out.println ("You entered: \"" + message + "\"");
}
}

Input Tokens

Unless specified otherwise, white space is used to separate

the elements (called tokens) of the input

White space includes space characters, tabs, new line

characters

The next method of the Scanner class reads the next

input token and returns it as a string

Methods such as nextInt and nextDouble read data of

particular types

See GasMileage.java (page 92)

public static void main (String[] args) {

int miles;
double gallons, mpg;
Scanner scan = new Scanner (System.in);
System.out.print ("Enter the number of miles: ");
miles = scan.nextInt();
System.out.print ("Enter the gallons of fuel used: ");
gallons = scan.nextDouble();
mpg = miles / gallons;
System.out.println ("Miles Per Gallon: " + mpg);
}

The Math Class

The Math class is part of the java.lang package

The Math class contains methods that perform various

mathematical functions

These include:
absolute value
square root
exponentiation
trigonometric functions

The Math Class

The methods of the Math class are static methods (also

called class methods)

Static methods can be invoked through the class name no

object of the Math class is needed
value = Math.cos(90) + Math.sqrt(delta);

See Quadratic.java (page 129)

We discuss static methods further in Chapter 6

int a, b, c; // ax^2 + bx + c
double discriminant, root1, root2;
Scanner scan = new Scanner (System.in);
System.out.print ("Enter the coefficient of x squared: ");
a = scan.nextInt();
System.out.print ("Enter the coefficient of x: ");
b = scan.nextInt();
System.out.print ("Enter the constant: ");
c = scan.nextInt();
discriminant = Math.pow(b, 2) - (4 * a * c);
root1 = ((-1 * b) + Math.sqrt(discriminant)) / (2 * a);
root2 = ((-1 * b) - Math.sqrt(discriminant)) / (2 * a);