Instance and Static
This section concisely defines instance and static, discusses sample code to demonstrate the definitions, and repeats the definitions after the code discussion.
- Instance variables and methods exist inside of of objects. You must construct objects in order to have instance variables and methods.
staticvariables and methods exist inside of classes. You do not construct objecst in order to access static variables and methods.
In Our First Java Programs we learned how to create a program with a single public static void main(String[] args) method. In Methods we learned how to create a program with multiple static methods (e.g., public static void main and public static String getName). In Simple Objects we learned how to define our own types in a class. When doing this we created one class with our type (e.g., Person) and a second class to test our type (e.g., PersonTester). Our Person class contained instance variables, constructors, and instance methods - none of these has static modifier. Our PersonTester class contained public static void main and perhaps other static methods. This section develops the full concept of instance and static by devoloping an example PowerBall type, addons, and a tester.
PowerBall Type
The PowerBall type models a three number Powerball game - two regular numbers between 1 and 69 and a powerball number between 1 and 26. The programmer interface for our PowerBall type is the following.
PowerBall()- constructor that selects three random numbers for you.PowerBall(int n1, int n2, int pb)- constructor that you select three numbers.int getNum1()- return first powerball numberint getNum2()- return second powerball numberint getPowerBall()- return the powerball numbervoid newNumbers()- update my numbers with three random numbers.void newNumbers(int n1, int n2, int pb)- update my numbers with three I select
The code for our PowerBall class contains instance variables, constructors, and instance methods. There are no static variables or methods.
public class PowerBall {
// instance variables
private int num1;
private int num2;
private int powerBall;
public PowerBall(int n1, int n2, int pb) {
num1 = n1;
num2 = n2;
powerBall = pb;
}
public PowerBall() {
newNumbers();
}
public int getNum1() { return num1; }
public int getNum2() { return num2; }
public int getPowerBall() { return powerBall; }
public String getNumbers() {
String retVal = num1 + " " +
num2 + " " +
powerBall;
return retVal;
}
public void newNumbers() {
num1 = (int)(Math.random()*69)+1;
num2 = (int)(Math.random()*69)+1;
powerBall = (int)(Math.random()*26)+1;
}
public void newNumbers(int n1, int n2, int pb) {
num1 = n1;
num2 = n2;
powerBall = pb;
}
}
PowerBallAddOns Class
The PowerBallAddOns class contains two static items, public static int FAV_NUM and public static int specialAdd. PowerBallAddOns is not a program because it does not contain a main method. Other classes can access the public static items by prefixing them with PowerBallAddOns, i.e., the class name. For example, a class can perform an assignment by int i = PowerBallAddOns.FAV_NUM;. The code for PowerBallAddOns is given as follows.
public class PowerBallAddOns {
public static int FAV_NUM = 13;
public static int specialAdd(int num1, int num2) {
return ((num1 * (int)(Math.random()*23) + num2 * (int)(Math.random()*32)) % 69) + 1;
}
}
PowerBallTester Class
The PowerBallTester follows the pattern we established in Simple Objects. We accomplish testing with a single public static void main method. Notice PowerBallTester uses PowerBall and PowerBallAddOns.
public class PowerBallTester
{
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Pick my numbers
PowerBall myNums = new PowerBall(10,5,PowerBallAddOns.FAV_NUM);
System.out.println("My numbers: " + myNums.getNumbers());
// Pick random numbers
PowerBall randomNums = new PowerBall();
System.out.println("Random numbers: " + randomNums.getNumbers());
int num1 = randomNums.getNum1();
int num2 = randomNums.getNum2();
int pb = randomNums.getPowerBall();
System.out.print(PowerBallAddOns.specialAdd(num1,num2) + pb);
}
Powerball Figure
The following figure shows our three powerball classes. We have purposely separated our program into three .java files. PowerBall.java contains our PowerBall type, which only has instance items. PowerBallAddOns.java is not a program - it contains static information that we can use in our program. PowerBallTester contains our program - it uses our PowerBall type and PowerBallAddOns.
Powerball Code in One File
The three files of our Powerball program allow us to easily see the components of our program, but Java does not require us to separate our Powerball program into three files. We can put everything into one file, but it is hard to grasp when you first do this. You have a mixture of instance and static items. Before putting our Powerball program into one file, we consider a simple main program that generates an error in order to explain the error.
1 public class Main {
2
3 public double d = 2.0;
4
5 public static void main(String[] args) {
6 System.out.println(d);
7 }
8 }
The above program generates a compile error on line 6 - “non-static variable d cannot be referenced from a static context”. Variable d declared on line 3 is an instance variable within class Main. d only exists in objects of type Main. You know how to declare variables of type Main and assigne an object to it. We did this many times in Simple Objects. The following code snippet demonstrates what we already know how to do.
Main m = new Main();
System.out.println(m.d);
The following re-write of Main may look strange, but it is good Java code. Main is a class with a public instance double d. We use Main to declare a variable m of type Main and allocate an object to m by calling a constructor.
1 public class Main {
2
3 public double d = 2.0;
4
5 public static void main(String[] args) {
5a Main m = new Main();
6 System.out.println(m.d);
7 }
8 }
The following code places our three Powerball components in one PowerBall.java file. This may seem awkward, but it is good Java code. You will see this repeatedly in our study of Java graphics.
public class PowerBall {
// instance variables
private int num1;
private int num2;
private int powerBall;
public PowerBall(int n1, int n2, int pb) {
num1 = n1;
num2 = n2;
powerBall = pb;
}
public PowerBall() {
newNumbers();
}
public int getNum1() { return num1; }
public int getNum2() { return num2; }
public int getPowerBall() { return powerBall; }
public String getNumbers() {
String retVal = num1 + " " +
num2 + " " +
powerBall;
return retVal;
}
public void newNumbers() {
num1 = (int)(Math.random()*69)+1;
num2 = (int)(Math.random()*69)+1;
powerBall = (int)(Math.random()*26)+1;
}
public void newNumbers(int n1, int n2, int pb) {
num1 = n1;
num2 = n2;
powerBall = pb;
}
public static int FAV_NUM = 13;
public static int specialAdd(int num1, int num2) {
return ((num1 * (int)(Math.random()*23) + num2 * (int)(Math.random()*32)) % 69) + 1;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Pick my numbers
PowerBall myNums = new PowerBall(10,5,PowerBallAddOns.FAV_NUM);
System.out.println("My numbers: " + myNums.getNumbers());
// Pick random numbers
PowerBall randomNums = new PowerBall();
System.out.println("Random numbers: " + randomNums.getNumbers());
int num1 = randomNums.getNum1();
int num2 = randomNums.getNum2();
int pb = randomNums.getPowerBall();
System.out.print(PowerBallAddOns.specialAdd(num1,num2) + pb);
}
The following figure demonstrates PowerBall with instance, static, and main merged into one class.
Instance and Static
- Instance variables and methods exist inside of of objects. You must construct objects in order to have instance variables and methods.
staticvariables and methods exist inside of classes. You do not construct objecst in order to access static variables and methods.