Chapter 10 Thinking in Objects

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Motivations
You see the advantages of object-oriented programming
from the preceding two chapters. This chapter will
demonstrate how to solve problems using the object-
oriented paradigm. Before studying these examples, we
first introduce several language features for supporting
these examples.

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Objectives
 To create immutable objects from immutable classes to protect
the contents of objects (§10.2).
 To determine the scope of variables in the context of a class
(§10.3).
 To use the keyword this to refer to the calling object itself
(§10.4).
 To apply class abstraction to develop software (§10.5).
 To explore the differences between the procedural paradigm and
object-oriented paradigm (§10.6).
 To develop classes for modeling composition relationships
(§10.7).
 To design programs using the object-oriented paradigm (§§10.8-
10.10).
 To design classes that follow the class-design guidelines
(§10.11).

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Immutable Objects and Classes
If the contents of an object cannot be changed once the object
is created, the object is called an immutable object and its class
is called an immutable class. If you delete the set method in
the Circle class in the preceding example, the class would be
immutable because radius is private and cannot be changed
without a set method.

A class with all private data fields and without mutators is not
necessarily immutable. For example, the following class
Student has all private data fields and no mutators, but it is
mutable.

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Example public class BirthDate {
private int year;
public class Student {
private int month;
private int id;
private BirthDate birthDate; private int day;

public Student(int ssn, public BirthDate(int newYear,

int year, int month, int day) {
int newMonth, int newDay) {
id = ssn;
birthDate = new BirthDate(year, month, day); year = newYear;
} month = newMonth;
day = newDay;
public int getId() {
}
return id;
}
public void setYear(int newYear) {
public BirthDate getBirthDate() { year = newYear;
return birthDate;
}
}
} }

public class Test {

public static void main(String[] args) {
Student student = new Student(111223333, 1970, 5, 3);
BirthDate date = student.getBirthDate();
date.setYear(2010); // Now the student birth year is changed!
}
}

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What Class is Immutable?
For a class to be immutable, it must mark all data fields private
and provide no mutator methods and no accessor methods that
would return a reference to a mutable data field object.

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Scope of Variables
 The scope of instance and static variables is the
entire class. They can be declared anywhere inside
a class.
 The scope of a local variable starts from its
declaration and continues to the end of the block
that contains the variable. A local variable must be
initialized explicitly before it can be used.

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The this Keyword
 The this keyword is the name of a reference that
refers to an object itself. One common use of the
this keyword is reference a class’s hidden data
fields.
 Another common use of the this keyword to
enable a constructor to invoke another
constructor of the same class.

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Reference the Hidden Data Fields
public class Foo { Suppose that f1 and f2 are two objects of Foo.
private int i = 5;
private static double k = 0; Invoking f1.setI(10) is to execute
this.i = 10, where this refers f1
void setI(int i) {
this.i = i; Invoking f2.setI(45) is to execute
} this.i = 45, where this refers f2

static void setK(double k) {

Foo.k = k;
}
}

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Calling Overloaded Constructor
public class Circle {
private double radius;

public Circle(double radius) {

this.radius = radius;
} this must be explicitly used to reference the data
field radius of the object being constructed
public Circle() {
this(1.0);
} this is used to invoke another constructor

public double getArea() {

return this.radius * this.radius * Math.PI;
}
} Every instance variable belongs to an instance represented by this,
which is normally omitted
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Class Abstraction and Encapsulation
Class abstraction means to separate class implementation
from the use of the class. The creator of the class provides
a description of the class and let the user know how the
class can be used. The user of the class does not need to
know how the class is implemented. The detail of
implementation is encapsulated and hidden from the user.

Class implementation Class Contract

is like a black box (Signatures of Clients use the
hidden from the clients
Class public methods and class through the
public constants) contract of the class

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Designing the Loan Class
Loan
-annualInterestRate: double The annual interest rate of the loan (default: 2.5).
-numberOfYears: int The number of years for the loan (default: 1)
-loanAmount: double The loan amount (default: 1000).
-loanDate: Date The date this loan was created.

+Loan() Constructs a default Loan object.

+Loan(annualInterestRate: double, Constructs a loan with specified interest rate, years, and
numberOfYears: int, loan amount.
loanAmount: double)
+getAnnualInterestRate(): double Returns the annual interest rate of this loan.
+getNumberOfYears(): int Returns the number of the years of this loan.
+getLoanAmount(): double Returns the amount of this loan.
+getLoanDate(): Date Returns the date of the creation of this loan.
+setAnnualInterestRate( Sets a new annual interest rate to this loan.
annualInterestRate: double): void
+setNumberOfYears( Sets a new number of years to this loan.
numberOfYears: int): void
+setLoanAmount( Sets a new amount to this loan.
loanAmount: double): void
+getMonthlyPayment(): double Returns the monthly payment of this loan.
+getTotalPayment(): double Returns the total payment of this loan.

Loan TestLoanClass Run

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Object-Oriented Thinking
Chapters 1-6 introduced fundamental programming
techniques for problem solving using loops, methods, and
arrays. The studies of these techniques lay a solid
foundation for object-oriented programming. Classes
provide more flexibility and modularity for building
reusable software. This section improves the solution for a
problem introduced in Chapter 3 using the object-oriented
approach. From the improvements, you will gain the
insight on the differences between the procedural
programming and object-oriented programming and see
the benefits of developing reusable code using objects and
classes.

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The BMI Class
The get methods for these data fields are
provided in the class, but omitted in the
UML diagram for brevity.
BMI
-name: String The name of the person.
-age: int The age of the person.
-weight: double The weight of the person in pounds.
-height: double The height of the person in inches.

+BMI(name: String, age: int, weight: Creates a BMI object with the specified
double, height: double) name, age, weight, and height.
+BMI(name: String, weight: double, Creates a BMI object with the specified
height: double) name, weight, height, and a default age
20.
+getBMI(): double Returns the BMI
+getStatus(): String Returns the BMI status (e.g., normal,
overweight, etc.)

BMI UseBMIClass Run

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Example: The Course Class
Course
-name: String The name of the course.
-students: String[] The students who take the course.
-numberOfStudents: int The number of students (default: 0).
+Course(name: String) Creates a Course with the specified name.
+getName(): String Returns the course name.
+addStudent(student: String): void Adds a new student to the course list.
+getStudents(): String[] Returns the students for the course.
+getNumberOfStudents(): int Returns the number of students for the course.

Course TestCource Run

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Example: The
StackOfIntegers Class
StackOfIntegers
-elements: int[] An array to store integers in the stack.
-size: int The number of integers in the stack.
+StackOfIntegers() Constructs an empty stack with a default capacity of 16.
+StackOfIntegers(capacity: int) Constructs an empty stack with a specified capacity.
+empty(): boolean Returns true if the stack is empty.
+peek(): int Returns the integer at the top of the stack without
removing it from the stack.
+push(value: int): int Stores an integer into the top of the stack.
+pop(): int Removes the integer at the top of the stack and returns it.
+getSize(): int Returns the number of elements in the stack.

TestStackOfIntegers Run
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Designing the StackOfIntegers Class
Data1 Data2 Data3

Data3
Data2 Data2
Data1 Data1 Data1

Data3 Data2 Data1

Data2
Data1 Data1

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Implementing
StackOfIntegers Class
elements[capacity – 1]
.
.
.
elements[size-1] top
capacity

.
. size
.
elements[1]
elements[0] bottom

StackOfIntegers
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Designing the GuessDate Class
GuessDate
-dates: int[][][] The static array to hold dates.

+getValue(setNo: int, row: int, Returns a date at the specified row and column in a given set.
column: int): int

GuessDate UseGuessDateClass Run

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Designing a Class
 (Coherence) A class should describe a single
entity, and all the class operations should logically
fit together to support a coherent purpose. You can
use a class for students, for example, but you
should not combine students and staff in the same
class, because students and staff have different
entities.

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Designing a Class, cont.
 (Separating responsibilities) A single entity with too
many responsibilities can be broken into several classes to
separate responsibilities. The classes String,
StringBuilder, and StringBuffer all deal with strings, for
example, but have different responsibilities. The String
class deals with immutable strings, the StringBuilder class
is for creating mutable strings, and the StringBuffer class
is similar to StringBuilder except that StringBuffer
contains synchronized methods for updating strings.

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Designing a Class, cont.
 Classes are designed for reuse. Users can
incorporate classes in many different combinations,
orders, and environments. Therefore, you should
design a class that imposes no restrictions on what
or when the user can do with it, design the
properties to ensure that the user can set properties
in any order, with any combination of values, and
design methods to function independently of their
order of occurrence.

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Designing a Class, cont.
 Provide a public no-arg constructor and override the
equals method and the toString method defined in
the Object class whenever possible.

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Designing a Class, cont.
 Follow standard Java programming style and
naming conventions. Choose informative
names for classes, data fields, and methods.
Always place the data declaration before the
constructor, and place constructors before
methods. Always provide a constructor and
initialize variables to avoid programming
errors.

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Using Visibility Modifiers
 Each class can present two contracts – one for the users
of the class and one for the extenders of the class. Make
the fields private and accessor methods public if they are
intended for the users of the class. Make the fields or
method protected if they are intended for extenders of the
class. The contract for the extenders encompasses the
contract for the users. The extended class may increase
the visibility of an instance method from protected to
public, or change its implementation, but you should
never change the implementation in a way that violates
that contract.

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Using Visibility Modifiers, cont.
 A class should use the private modifier to hide its
data from direct access by clients. You can use get
methods and set methods to provide users with
access to the private data, but only to private data
you want the user to see or to modify. A class
should also hide methods not intended for client use.
The gcd method in the Rational class in Example
11.2, “The Rational Class,” is private, for example,
because it is only for internal use within the class.

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Using the static Modifier

 A property that is shared by all the

instances of the class should be declared
as a static property.

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