Understanding the Java Class Structure( Fields and Methods)


  • In Java programs, classes are the basic building blocks. While defining a class we define all the parts and characteristics of that building blocks. For using most classes we have to create objects.
  • An Object is a runtime instance of a class in memory. All the different objects of all the different classes represent the state of our program.
Fields and Methods -
  • Java classes have two primary elements :-
    • methods - often called as function and procedures in other languages.
    • field - generally known as variable.
  • Together these are called members of the class.
  • Variable holds the state of the program and method operate on that state.
  • This is the basically classes do.
  • Below is the simple java class-
          public class Animal{

          }
  • Java calls a word with special meaning keyword.
  • The public keyword means the class can be used by other classes.
  • class keyword is used to define a class.
  • Animal gives the name of the class.
  • Now, we'll add a field to the class.
          public class Animal{
               String name;          
          }
  • We define a variable named name. We also define the type of that variable to be a String(It is a value that we can put text into, such as "This is a String".
  • String is also a class supplied with Java.
  • Now, we'll add methods to our class.
          public class Animal{
               String name;
               public String getName(){
                        return name;
               }
               public void setName(String newName){
                         name = newName;
               }           
           }
  • Here we defined our first method( a method is an operation that can be called).
  • Again, public is used to signify that this method may be called from other classes.
  • return type - in this case, the method returns a String.
  • In second method has a special return type called void( void means that no value at all is returned.)
  • This method requires information be supplied to it from calling method; this information is called a parameter. setName has one parameter named newName, and it is of type String. This means the caller should pass in one String parameter and expect nothing to be returned.

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