Create an Object using New Operator: Java

New operator is used to create a new object of an existing class and associate the object with a variable that names it. Basically new operator instantiates a class by allocating memory for a new object and returning reference to that memory.

Every class needs an object to use its member and methods by other classes. Programmer have to create that object using new operator to use functionality provided by that class. Following is the syntax to create new object of an existing class:

Class_variable =new Class_Name();

This syntax basically describes some points about new operator as below:

• Allocates memory to class_variable for new object of class.
• It invokes object constructor.
• Requires only single postfix argument which calls to constructor.
• Returns reference to memory which is usually assigned to variable of appropriate type.

Following statement will create an object of city class and allocate memory to this newly created object:

City metro;

metro = new City();

The equivalent code for the above statement that can be written in single line is:

City metro = new City();

So new operator does two things overall i.e. it first allocates memory somewhere to hold an instance of the type, and then calls a constructor to initialize an instance of the type in that newly allocated memory.

After creating new object for a class, that object can use all the members and methods defined in that class. You can assign all the properties for that class and operate available or new functions on those properties.

How to Define Methods with Behavior: Java

Objects have behavior that is implemented by its methods. Other objects can ask an object to do something by invoking its methods. This section tells you everything you need to know about writing methods for your Java classes.

In Java, you define a class’s methods in the body of the class for which the method implements some behavior. Typically, you declare a class’s methods after its variables in the class body although this is not required.

Implementing Methods

Similar to a class implementation, a method implementation consists of two parts: the method declaration and the method body

methodDeclaration {
        methodBody
}

The Method Declaration

At minimum, a method declaration has a name and a return type indicating the data type of the value returned by the method:

returnType methodName( ) {
. . .
}

This method declaration is very basic. Methods have many other attributes such as arguments, access control, and so on.

Objects as Instances of Class

A class defines only a blueprint and its concrete version comes into effect only through objects that implement the functionality as defined by class. Recall our class example of City class. The objects created from this class will have two variables: name and population; and they will be able to represent cities. The object of City class will also have a method namely display ( ). An object of a class is typically named by a variable of the class type. For example, the program CityTrial in Example 4.7 declares the two variables metl1 and metro2 to be of type City, as follows;

City metro1, metro2;

This gives us variables of the class City, but so far there are no objects of the class. Objects are class value that are named by the variables. To obtain an object you must use the new operator to create a “new” object. For example, the following creates an object of the class City and names it with the variable metro1:

Metro = new city ( );

For now you need not go into details, simply note that the statement like:

Class-variable = new class-Name ( );

Creates a new object of the specified class and associates it with the class type variables. Since the class variable now names an object of the class, we will often refer to the class variable as an object of the class. (This is really the same usage as when we refer to an int variable n as “the integer n”, even though the integer is strictly speaking not n but the value of n.)

Unlike what we did in previous lines, the declaration of a class type variable and the creation of the object are more typically combined into one statement as follows:
City metro1 = new City( );

To instantiate an object, Java uses the keyword new.

Declare member variables in JAVA

How to Declare Member Variables in Classes: JAVA

A class’s state is represented by its member variables. You declare a class’s member variables in the body of the class. Typically, programmer declare a class’s variables before you declare its methods, although this is not required.

classDeclaration {
        member variable declarations
        method declarations
}

To declare variables that are members of a class, the declarations must be within the class body, but not within the body of a method. Variables declared within the body of a method are local to that method i.e., available and accessible only inside the method.

Types

• Class variable (static variable): A data member that is declared once for a class. All objects of the class type, share these data members, as there is single copy of them available in memory. The class variables are declared by adding keyword static in front of a variable declaration.
• Instance variable: A data member that is created for every object of the class. For example, if there are 10 objects of a class type, there would be 10 copies of instance variables, one each for an object.

Consider the following code.

Public class sample {
        int anInt; // instance variable
        float aFloat; // instance variable
        static float anotherFloat; // class variable
};

Suppose there are five objects created for class type Sample. Then there would be five copies of variables anInt and aFloat but there would be one copy of variable anotherFloat which all five objects can share.

Notice that class variables are declared by adding a keyword static before the variable declaration. Keyword static in the variable declaration makes it class variable.

Method are similar: your classes can have instance methods and class methods. Instance methods operate on the current object’s instance variables but also have access to the class variables. Class methods (also called static methods), on the other hand, cannot access the instance variables declared within the class (unless they create a new object and access them through the object). Also, class methods can be invoked on the class, you don’t need an instance to call a class method.

A class method can be invoked by:

• Just its name within its own class e.g., check( ).
• Class-name.method-name outside its class e.g., Sample.check ( )

In above two lines, we assume that method check( ) is a static method in class Sample.

Implement Object-Oriented in JAVA

How to Declare Classes with Members: JAVA

In order to bring a class into existence in Java program, it should be declared. A class is declared using keyword class. The generic syntax for class declaration in Java is:

Class   <class_name>
{
    Statements defining class come here
}
The angle-brackets < > mean these names are to be provided by the programmer and [ ] brackets mean, this part is optional. The class name must be provided while declaring a class. This is used to refer to the class whenever an instance (the object) of the class is created. The class name must be a legal identifier in Java. While naming classes, generally nouns are used and the first letter is given in uppercase e.g., City or Date etc. the curly brackets { } mark the beginning of a class and/or a method. The curly brackets are also used to specify block statements.

A class is a blueprint or prototype that you can use to create many objects. The implementation of a class is comprised of two components: the class declaration and the class body.

classDeclaration   {
    // classBody
}

When a class is declared, no memory space is allotted to it. This is because a class is simply a blueprint or logical placeholder containing objects and method. Memory space is allocated when objects of a class type are created.

The Class Declaration

The class declaration component declares the name of the class along with other attributes such as whether the class is public or not.

The Class Body

The class body follows the class declaration and is embedded with in curly braces ‘{‘ and ‘}’. The class body contains declaration for all instance variable and class variable (known collectively as member variable) for the class. In addition, the class body contains declarations and implementations for all instance methods and class methods (known collectively as methods) for the class. The following template shows the form of a class definition that is most commonly used; however, it is legal to intermix the method definitions and the instance variable declaration.

Public class class_Name    {
Instance_Variable_Declaration_1
Instance_Variable_Declaration_2
. . . . . .
Instance_Variable_Declaration_Last
Method_Definition_1
Method_Definition_2
     . . . . .
    Method_Definition_Last
}

How to Implement Object Oriented Design in JAVA

The basic unit of object-orientation in Java is the class. The class is often is described as a blueprint for an object. You can think of an object as an entity having a unique identity, characteristics and behaviour. For instance, a ceilingFan is an object : it has a unique identity ; its characteristics are : it has 3 or 4 blades, it has a motor, a colour etc. ; its behaviour is : it rotates the air at some specific speed. Similarly, a Student is an object. Its characteristics are: its rollno, name class, marks etc. Its behaviour is: it takes test, it attends classes etc.

To create an object in Java, you need a class. It allows a programmer to define all of the properties (i.e. characteristics) and methods (i.e. behaviour) that internally define an object, all of the API (Application programming interface) method that externally define an object. Therefore, we can say that a class is the BLUEPRINT of an object. A class define the types of shared characteristics, such as:

• The set of attributes i.e. characteristics through data.
• The set of behaviour i.e. behaviour through method/functions

In its role as a blueprint, the class specifies what an actual object will look like. But it is not an object. Objects are actually instances of classes. You can think of a class as a cookie cutter and an instance as an actual cookie. Similarly, you can think of a class as a blueprint of a house and an instance as an actual house.

Class as Basis of all Computation 

In Java, the class forms, the basis of all computation. Anything that has to exist as a part of a Java program has to exist as a part of class, whether that is a variable or a function or any other code-fragment. Unlike other OOP languages such as C++ that allows the existence of variables and functions outside any class. The reason being that Java is a pure Object Oriented Language. Here all functionality revolves around classes and object, as in real world. Therefore, if you want to use certain variable and functions in Java, you have to make them part of a class. ALL JAVA programs consist of objects (data and behaviour) that “interact” with each other by calling methods. All data is stored within objects which are instances of a class.

See, without classes can be no objects and without objects, no computation can take place in Java. Thus, classes form the basis of all computation in Java.

Defining Classes

A Java program consists of objects, from various classes, interacting with one another. Before we go into the details of how you can define classes, let’s review some of the general properties of classes. A value of class type is called an object. An object is usually referred to as an instance of the class rather than as a value of the class, but it is a value of the class type. An object is a value of the class type much like a value, such as 5, of a primitive type, like int, is a value of a variable of that type. 

However, an object typically has multiple pieces of data and has methods (action) it can take. Each object can have different data but all objects of the class have the same types of data and all objects in a class have the same methods. We generally say that data and methods belong to the object, and that is an acceptable point of view. The data certainly does belong to the object, but since all objects in a class have the same methods, it also would be correct to say that the methods actually belong to the class.

In this section we are going to learn about how to define classes in Java. Now consider the code fragment shown below that defines a class called City.

Public class City {
String name ;    // variable name will be name of the city
Long population ;    // will hold City’s population
Void display( )    {
Label1.setText(“city name :” + name) ;
Label2.setText(“population :” + population) ;
}
}
Let us examine this code line by line. The firstline Public class City Defines the name of the class which is City. The keyword class ensures that it is a class and the keyword public means it is available in entire program. When you add a top-level container frame in your GUI application, then a public class having the frame name is created in your application. In other words, the top-level frame is represented through a public class.

The brace following the public Class City
    { marks the beginning of class’ block.

The next two lines
    String name;
    Long population; declares the data members of the class to define its characteristics.

Each of these lines declares one instance variable name. You can think of and object of the class as a complex item with instance variables inside of it. So, you can think of an instance variable as a smaller variable inside each object of the class. In this case, the instance variables are called name and population.

The copy of instance variables is created for each object of the class. The next four lines
    void display ( )
    {
        Label1.setText(“City name :” + name);
        Label2.setText(“population :” + population);
    }

Define a method of the class which defines the behaviour of the class. The name of the method is display( ). By looking at its code, you can easily make out what its functionality is like. The last line
    }
marks the end of the class’ block.

Null Statement and Character Manipulation in JAVA

In Java programs, statements are terminated with a semicolon (;). The simplest statement of them all is the empty, or null statement.
; it is a null statement

A null statement is useful in those instances where the syntax of the language requires the presence of a statement but where the logic of the program does not. We will see it in loops and their bodies.

Character Manipulation

Consider the following code. What does it print?

        :
System.out.print(“H” + “a”);
System.out.print(‘H’ + ‘a’);
        :
Aren’t you thinking that it would produce output as:    HaHa
But if you the program, you’ll find that the output produced is:    Ha169

As expected, the first call to System.out.print prints Ha. Its argument is the expression “H” + “a”, which performs the obvious string concatenation.

The second call to system.out.print is another story. Its argument is the expression ‘H’ + ‘a’. The problem is that ‘H’ and ‘a’ are char literals. Because neither operand is of type string, the + operator performs addition rather than string concatenation. Thus it adds ‘H”s value i.e. 72 and ‘a”s value I.e. 97 and gives 169. (A-Z have values 65-90; a-z have values 97-122).

You can force the + operator to perform string concatenation rather than addition by ensuring that at least one of its operands is a string. The common idiom is to begin a sequence of concatenations with the empty string (“ “), as follows:
    System.out.print(“ “ + ‘H’ + ‘a’) ;

But this approach can lead to some confusions also. Can you guess what the following statement prints?
    System.out.println(“2 + 2 = “ + 2 + 2);
---------------------------------------------------

Yes, you are right. It produces:    2 + 2 = 22

To perform the addition of expression 2+2 shown above, you need to convert it to Expression by enclosing it in parenthesis i.e. as
(2+2): System.Out.Println(“2+2 = ”+ (2+2));

The + operator performs string concatenation if and only If at least one of its operands is of type string: otherwise, it performs addition with primitive types.