Classes in Java
In Java, every object (classes) is manipulated through a reference
This reference saves the identifier of the object
And is responsible for sending messages to the object associated
The type of the reference indicates what type of messages you can send
Access modifiers
When you create classes, the need arises to indicate the use of their attributes and methods
Some attributes will be internal:
The same goes for methods:
The access modifiers control the visibility of class members
Indicate which of them are of interest to the outside
Java offers four access modifiers:
- private
is visibility more restrictive
Only allows the invocation from the class itself
- public
is visibility less restrictive
Enables the invocation from any class
- package
is the visibility by default
Only allows the invocation from the classes that they belong to the same package
- protected
is the visibility associated with the inheritance
Only allows the invocation from derived classes
Builders
When a class does not declare any constructor, it automatically creates a default constructor
In the example the constructor has been called from the main method and is responsible for leaving the object in an initial state in which we can work with him
Since we haven't created the constructor, the default constructor was automatically used
In the example, we've defined a class called Person that has only the attribute name that is private
The constructor was used to initialize it and to access it (as it is private it is not directly accessible) the get and set methods have been added
In case you have not used the constructor to initialize it with new, by using p we would have obtained a value null, since the object would not yet be defined in memory
To refer to an attribute of the class itself, we use the reserved word this
In this case, it has been used to refer to the attribute name
Constructor with parameters
When we need to add external information, we can use parameter builders
A constructor can declare the parameters that are needed to create the object
This example is very similar to the previous one, however we now have two constructors, a default constructor and a parameterted constructor
In the event that we have the same name in a parameter and an attribute, we can distinguish them if we use the reserved word this
We did with the parameter name and the attribute name, when using this have become unambiguated
A constructor can also be overloaded, that is, it receives different types of arguments to have different behavior
In this example we have defined classes Point and Rectangle
By defining multiple constructors with parameters of different types to the class Rectangle
So we have overloaded the constructor to be getting different results in the main method
Attributes static
A class describes the attributes of each object (instance attributes)
Sometimes you need attributes that are shared by everyone: that remain to the class
The reserved word static declares a class attribute
In the example you have declared an attribute static of type int, it's not a class but as you can see you can also use primitive types
To access the attribute static we've given you the name of the class, in this case A
There is No need any class instance to be able to access the attribute
It is created when you load the class and initialize with the values from the default constructor
In the example, we have used the classes Timer and A initializing their attributes in a block static
With static should not create new objects because they are back on track with each new instantiation
The class attributes are initialized using a block static
The blocks static running to load the class
Can be considered as a builder most of the class
In this example I've reduced the code to use an equivalent alternative to initialize in the declaration
Static methods
In the same way that there are attributes static there are methods static
Recommended for use with utility methods that are not performed on any object but about primitive types
For example the class Math it offers the methods static sqrt, random, pow, etc
Are declared by using the word static
In the example you have declared the method static f in the class A
The class name is used to invoke them, in this case the class A
A method static you can only access:
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attributes static
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other static methods
In the example a reference has been added to the method static g what that allows us to access the elements of the instance of the class A without being static
Keep in mind that to access instance items must obtain a reference to previously
Inheritance
A derived class can add new operations (expand the number of messages that the object understands)
In the example you have created the classes A and B
As B inherited methods A y por tanto, podía usar methodA without problems
However, A non inherited methods B, that's why it gave us an execution error
In the example we have used a derived class to redefine operations
Redefining one method is to give a different implementation to the same message (which will be treated by another method)
It is important not to confuse the overhead of a method with its redefinition
In the example, has redefined the method methodA of the class A in the class B, reusing it by replacing its implementation
It has been used the reserved word super to refer to the methods of the base class
You can also use the reserved word super to refer to the attributes of the base class
In the example there is a base object Vehicle, two derivatives Car and Bike
A fundamental aspect of inheritance is the relationship between the base type and the derived type
The derived class has at least the operations of the base class
That is, an object of the first class understands all the messages that an object of the second class might understand
Therefore, any reference of the base type can point to an object of the derived type (since it understands all its messages)
Polymorphism
Inheritance allows different classes to share a common set of operations (those in the base class)
Dynamic binding allows that even if two objects accept the same messages they can perform them differently
In the example we can see that thanks to polymorphism, even though v is of type Vehicle it takes into account the type of object pointed
It is important to differentiate the two types that participate in sending a message:
- The type of reference
it is the one that determines the messages that it can transmit to its associated object
Therefore, it can only be associated with objects that understand at least those messages (objects of the same type or of a derived type)
- The type of the associated object
it is the one that determines which method is the one that dispatched the message received
Constructors and inheritance
The constructors cannot be inherited
In the example we have declared two constructors for the class A and then it has been inherited in the class B
When you try to use the constructor with integer parameter will give us an error because B did not have an appropriate constructor though A yes that was
A class you can only use the constructors that declare
If you have not declared, none will be assigned the default constructor
In the example we have declared two constructors for the class A and then it has been inherited in the class B
But on this occasion it has made a call to the default constructor of the base class within the constructor of the derived class
Some constructor of the base class is required to be invoked (to ensure its state)
By super you can select the proper builder
super can only appear once and must be the first line of the constructor
Will support only the parameters that support the constructors of the base class
Abstract classes
An abstract class is one which has one or more abstract methods
An abstract method is one that has not been implemented in the base class
Your code will have to be provided in each of the derived classes
To define a class as abstract using the reserved word abstract
In the example we have defined the abstract class Vehicle with two abstract methods
As can be seen, methods are also defined using the reserved word abstract
Abstract classes have the restriction that they cannot be instantiated (because they have undeployed methods)
If a derived class does not redefine all abstract methods, it will in turn be an abstract class
Creating abstract classes:
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Identify the common operations that have to have objects to manipulate
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Create with them an abstract class base
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Identify the operations to redefine and give an implementation to the rest
Use of abstract classes:
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Their only goal is the derivation
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The class derived will have to implement the abstract methods
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Others may be inherited, replaced or expanded
Classes end
You may want a class to be un derived (for security reasons, you do not want anyone to be able to replace it with a derived class)
It uses the reserved word end so that the class can not be derived
In the example we have tried to inherit the class B the class A that was end
As we have defined A as end the interpreter will not allow you to have inherited classes
In the example we have defined a final method and one that is not
There is also an intermediate level: that can be derived from the class but not certain methods
A method you can also use the reserved word end
A final method cannot be redefined
In the example we tried to modify a final attribute, the interpreter will give us an error
Make a class or method final is a major constraint
Should only be done in special situations and putting the utmost care
A final attribute cannot be modified once it has been started
In the example, we have defined two variables called x as a final
If the value of the final attribute is the same for all instances, it is wasting space in memory
In this example, we have used constant variables to solve the problem of the previous example
In Java, constants are declared by combining the reserved words static followed by end
Constants do not take up memory and by convention, they are usually defined with a capitalized name
Downcasting
When a class is not derived explicitly from another class then derived implicitly from the class java.lang.Object
The class Object it's not a primitive type, but it's the class from which all the language classes derive and those that the programmer believes
However, you don't need to use the reserved word extends because it implicitly drifts
Therefore, all kinds of Java is a Object and will inherit the methods of this
Some of the outlined methods of the class Object:
- boolean equals(Object)
- void finalize()
- int hashCode()
- String toString()
There are occasions in which it is known with certainty that the object is of the appropriate class
In these cases you may be able to force the assignment using a cast
In the example we have used the classes Vehicle and Canoe that inherits from it
To then make a declaration of a Vehicle v for that we have used the constructor Canoe
And has been declared a Canoe c for which the type was previously known (Canoe) por lo que se ha realizado un cast
The cast checks that the object is of the appropriate class and performs the assignment
In the event of not being of the appropriate class or is not able to perform the assignment will throw an exception ClassCastException
Operator instanceof
The operator instanceof allows you to find out if an object belongs to a certain class
In the example, has carried out two checks with instanceof
When we tested with Object will always return True because it is a supertype of the class of the instance
When we tested with Canoe we have checked if the cast can be applied
In this way we avoid having to handle the exception ClassCastException
Interfaces
Interfaces, like classes, are a way to create objects
They are characterized by only one behavior (and/or constants)
Are defined with the reserved word interface in a similar way as is done with the classes
In the example we have defined the interface anInterface with the methods method1 and method2
Similar to abstract classes, because they have no implementation it is possible to instantiate the interface
You can only use it to create new data types (other classes or interfaces)
In this example it has implemented the interface anInterface heredandola in the class aClass
When the class aClass inherited methods anInterface it has become a subtype of that interface
For that reason we must give them an implementation in the class, since sinó we would be obliged to declare it abstract
But precisely because he has used an interface, the interpreter will show us an error message telling us which specific methods have not been implemented
Differences between class and interface
Class:
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Type that extending it by inheritance results in its behavior and implementation (both attributes and its methods)
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Advantage: Less coding when creating new subtypes as its behavior comes to its implementation
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Drawback: It can only be derived from one of them, multiple inheritance is not allowed
Interfaces:
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Type that extending it by inheritance gets only its behavior (description of methods)
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Advantage: You can inherit multiple interfaces without conflicts
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Drawback: There is hard-coding the implementation of each method for each subtype inherited