Paul NgugiClasses are definitions for objects and objects are created from classes. This section gives two examples of defining classes and uses the classes to create objects. Below is a program that defines the Circle class and uses it to create objects. The program constructs three circle objects with radius 1, 25, and 125 and displays the radius and area of each of the three circles. It then changes the radius of the second object to 100 and displays its new radius and area.
package demo;
public class TestSimpleCircle {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Create a circle with radius 1
SimpleCircle circle1 = new SimpleCircle();
System.out.println("The area of the circle of radius " + circle1.radius + " is " + circle1.getArea());
// Create a circle with radius 25
SimpleCircle circle2 = new SimpleCircle(25);
System.out.println("The area of the circle of radius " + circle2.radius + " is " + circle2.getArea());
// Create a circle with radius 125
SimpleCircle circle3 = new SimpleCircle(125);
System.out.println("The area of the circle of radius " + circle3.radius + " is " + circle3.getArea());
// Modify circle radius
circle2.radius = 100; // or circle2.setRadius(100)
System.out.println("The area of the circle of radius " + circle2.radius + " is " + circle2.getArea());
}
}
// Define the circle class with two constructors
class SimpleCircle {
double radius;
/** Construct a circle with radius 1 */
SimpleCircle(){
radius = 1;
}
/** Construct a circle with a specified radius */
SimpleCircle(double newRadius){
radius = newRadius;
}
/** Return the area of this circle */
double getArea() {
return radius * radius * Math.PI;
}
/** Return the perimeter of this circle */
double getPerimeter() {
return 2 * radius * Math.PI;
}
/** Set a new radius for this circle */
void setRadius(double newRadius) {
radius = newRadius;
}
}
The area of the circle of radius 1.0 is 3.141592653589793
The area of the circle of radius 25.0 is 1963.4954084936207
The area of the circle of radius 125.0 is 49087.385212340516
The area of the circle of radius 100.0 is 31415.926535897932
The program contains two classes. The first of these, TestSimpleCircle, is the main class. Its sole purpose is to test the second class, SimpleCircle. Such a program that uses the class is often referred to as a client of the class. When you run the program, the Java runtime system invokes the main method in the main class.
You can put the two classes into one file, but only one class in the file can be a public class. Furthermore, the public class must have the same name as the file name. Therefore, the file name is TestSimpleCircle.java, since TestSimpleCircle is public. Each class in the source code is compiled into a .class file. When you compile TestSimpleCircle.java, two class files TestSimpleCircle.class and SimpleCircle.class are generated, as shown below.
The main class contains the main method (line 5) that creates three objects. As in creating an array, the new operator is used to create an object from the constructor: new SimpleCircle() creates an object with radius 1 (line 7), new SimpleCircle(25) creates an object with radius 25 (line 11), and new SimpleCircle(125) creates an object with radius 125 (line 15).
These three objects (referenced by circle1, circle2, and circle3) have different data but the same methods. Therefore, you can compute their respective areas by using the getArea() method. The data fields can be accessed via the reference of the object using circle1.radius, circle2.radius, and circle3.radius, respectively. The object can invoke its method via the reference of the object using circle1.getArea(), circle2.getArea(), and circle3.getArea(), respectively.
These three objects are independent. The radius of circle2 is changed to 100 in line 19. The object’s new radius and area are displayed in lines 20.
As another example, consider television sets. Each TV is an object with states (current channel, current volume level, power on or off) and behaviors (change channels, adjust volume, turn on/off). You can use a class to model TV sets. The UML diagram for the class is
shown below.
package demo;
public class TV {
int channel = 1; // Default channel is 1
int volumeLevel = 1; // Default volume level is 1
boolean on = false; // TV is off
public TV() {
}
public void turnOn() {
on = true;
}
public void turnOff() {
on = false;
}
public void setChannel(int newChannel) {
if(on && newChannel >= 1 && newChannel <= 120)
channel = newChannel;
}
public void setVolume(int newVolumeLevel) {
if(on && newVolumeLevel >= 1 && newVolumeLevel <= 7)
volumeLevel = newVolumeLevel;
}
public void channelUp() {
if(on && channel < 120)
channel++;
}
public void channelDown() {
if(on && channel > 1)
channel--;
}
public void volumeUp() {
if(on && volumeLevel < 7)
volumeLevel++;
}
public void volumeDown() {
if(on && volumeLevel > 1)
volumeLevel--;
}
}
The constructor and methods in the TV class are defined public so they can be accessed from other classes. Note that the channel and volume level are not changed if the TV is not on. Before either of these is changed, its current value is checked to ensure that it is within the correct range. Below gives a program that uses the TV class to create two objects.
The program creates two objects in lines 6 and 11 and invokes the methods on the objects to perform actions for setting channels and volume levels and for increasing channels and volumes. The program displays the state of the objects in lines 17–18. The methods are invoked using syntax such as tv1.turnOn() (line 7). The data fields are accessed using syntax such as tv1.channel (line 17).
These examples have given you a glimpse of classes and objects. You may have many questions regarding constructors, objects, reference variables, accessing data fields, and invoking object’s methods. The sections that follow discuss these issues in detail.
