Introduction
Class Definition
Data Fields
Methods
Constructors
Instantiation
  Demo 1
  Demo 2
Static Members
  Demo 3
Value&Reference
  Demo 4
Overloading
   Demo 5
Wrappers 
  Demo 6
Autobox/Unbox
   Demo 7
Arrays
  Demo 8
Exceptions
Exercises

You saw in the previous chapter the class definition of a very simple, generic class. Here we show another example of a class but with more of the features typically found in a class.

These members of a class include

• Data Fields - declare the data values belonging to the class or object
• Constructors - special functions called when an object is created to carry out initialization tasks.
• Methods - functions to carry out tasks for the objects.
• Member Classes - an inner class be defined within a class.We discuss these in Chapter 7.
  

The class GenericClass below illustrates these class features:

We see that this class declares a data field and has a constructor to initialized that data and methods that act upon that data. We can now use our new data type as in, for example:

    void aMethodSomewhere () {
      // Ceate an instance of this class type.
      GenericClass a = new GenericClass(5);
      int k = a.get ();
      ....

In the following pages we discuss in more detail the members of a class definition, beginning with Data Fields. Then we will present several demonstration programs to illustrate the different aspects of class definition.

Latest update: Oct. 16, 2004

           Tech
OOP in Tech Apps
Complex Number
Histogram Class
  Demo
More Wrappers

           Physics
OOP in Physics
Particle Class
Root Finding
  Demo 1
Newton Methods
  Demo 2
Exercises