Classes

 in  Java  

SZABIST  Islamabad  
 Agenda  
•  What  are  classes?  
•  Class  is  a  unit  of  code  in  java  
•  Class  Syntax  
•  Access  Modifiers  
•  An  Encapsulated  Example  
•  CreaEng  Objects  
•  The  use  of  new  keyword  
•  Reference  Variable  hold  address  of  the  created  object  
•  EncapsulaEon/Data  hiding  
•  Inside  and  outside  of  a  class  
 What are Classes

•  A class is a template that contains

§  the data variables
§  the methods that operate on those data variables
(following some logic)

§  The class is the foundation on which the entire Java

language is built.

§  All the programming activity happens inside classes.

§  Next we explore:

§  writing classes
§  creating objects from classes (Inheritance)
 Unit  of  Code  in  Java  
•  Class  is  the  minimalist  possible  program  you  
can  write  in  java,  below  is  your  first  program  
class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args){
System.out.println(”HelloWorld!");
}
}

•  class keyword and class name

•  main method – entry point to program
•  argument list passed into program
•  command to print out a message to the screen
 Class Syntax

§  A class is declared by using the keyword class. The

general syntax for a class declaration is

<modifier> class <className> { }

§  <className> specifies the name of the class,

§  class is the keyword

§  <modifier> specifies some characteristics of the class.

§  The <modifier> specification is optional

§  The class keyword and <className> are

mandatory.
 Access Modifers

•  Modifiers can be broadly grouped into the following two categories:

•  Access modifiers determine from where the class can be

accessed:
•  e.g. private, protected, and public
•  If you do not specify an access modifier, the default access
is assumed.

•  Other modifiers specify how the class can be used:

•  e.g. abstract, final, and strictfp

Some Examples:
class MyClass { }

abstract class MyClass { }

final public class MyClass{}

 An Encapsulated Example
The class code that contains the class members is written inside two curly braces
You will see slides on why we call it encapsulation
Example: ClassRoom.java

1. class ClassRoom {
2. private String roomNumber;
3. private int totalSeats = 60;
4. private static int totalRooms = 0;
5. void setRoomNumber(String rn) {
6. roomNumber = rn;
7. }
8. String getRoomNumber() {
9. return roomNumber;
10.}
11.void setTotalSeats(int seats) {
12. totalSeats = seats;
13.}
14. int getTotalSeats() {
15. return totalSeats;
16. }
17. }
 Creating Objects: Syntax
§  Classes can be considered as data types

§  e.g. You can declare a variable as a primitive data type and assign it a value, as
follows: int i=0;

§  Similarly, you can declare a variable (a reference variable) of a class and assign
it a value with the following syntax:

<className> <variableName> = new <classConstructor>;

§  <variableName> is the name of the object reference: it will refer to the object (on
Heap) that you want to create

§  <className> is the name of an existing class

§  <classConstructor> is a constructor of the class.

§  The right side of the statement creates the object of the class specified by
<className> with the new operator

§  The object is assigns it to <variableName> (i.e. <variableName> points to it)

§  Creating an object from a class this way is also called instantiating the class.
 Creating Objects:Example

For example:

class ClassRoomManager {
public static void main(String[] args)‫‏‬
{
ClassRoom room1 = new ClassRoom();//create an object
room1.setRoomNumber("MH227");// call a setter
room2.setTotalSeats(30);

System.out.println("Room number:”+ room1.getRoomNumber());

System.out.println("Total seats:”+ room1.getTotalSeats());
// calling getter methods
}
}

Output:
Room number: MH227
Total seats: 30
 The use of new Keyword

§  The object is created in the following line of code:

ClassRoom roomOne = new ClassRoom();

§  What happens:

1.  The left side declares a reference variable roomOne of class

ClassRoom

2.  The right side creates an object of class ClassRoom with the
operator new

3. The assignment operator = assigns the newly created object

to the reference variable roomOne
 Reference Variable
•  Note that the variable roomOne does not hold the object

§  It is a reference to the object (living on the heap)

§  It is called a reference variable, or object reference.

§  However, for brevity, the object references sometimes are also called
objects
 Summary Classes and Objects

To summarize :

§  We instantiated the class ClassRoom inside another class called

ClassRoomManager

§  We declared an object reference roomOne that points to the newly created object

§  We invoked methods on the object roomOne (the object reference), which is of type
ClassRoom

§  Instantiating a class and invoking its methods is called accessing a class (or object)
and its methods.

§  The new operator creates the object dynamically, which means that it creates it at
runtime, not at compile time.

§  When the Java runtime system executes the statement with the new operator, it :
§  allocates memory for the instance (object) of class ClassRoom
§  and calls the constructor ClassRoom()‫ ‏‬to initialize this memory

§  Note: The terms instance and object are often used interchangeably
 Static and Instance Variables/Fields

§  It is possible to create more than one instance of a class.

§  Each instance has its own copy of the nonstatic variables of the
class (but all instances share the static variables of the class).

§  For this reason, the nonstatic data members of a class are also
called instance variables

§  Changing the value of an instance variable in one object of a

class does not change the value of the same variable in another
object of the same class.

§  But if you change the value of a static variable of the class in one
object, the change will be visible from all the objects.
 The Problem

Public class Car{


public String carName= “figo”;

public String color=“red”;

public void testEngineEfficiency(){
}
public void automaticBreakSystem(){
}
} taken from http://learn-java-with-comics.blogspot.com
 Solution: Encapsulation

Public class Car{


public String carName= “figo”;

private String color=“red”;

public void testEngineEfficiency(){
}
public void automaticBreakSystem(){
}
} taken from http://learn-java-with-comics.blogspot.com
 Data Hiding

Public class Car{


public String carName= “figo”;

private String color=“red”;

public void testEngineEfficiency(){
}
public void automaticBreakSystem(){
}
} taken from http://learn-java-with-comics.blogspot.com
 Inside and Outside
Public class Person 
 {
// you are inside the person class

private int age;// always make fields private



public int getAge(){ // and methods public so thatthey can be called
return this.age;
}
public void setAge(int age){

this.age = age;
}
}
Public class Main{

// you are outside of the Person class

public static void main(String args[]){

Person me = new Person();
me.setAge(35);//since setAge is public we can call it from outside 

}
}