Closed. This question needs details or clarity. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Add details and clarify the problem by editing this post.
Closed 6 years ago.
Improve this question
I am fairly new to Java proramming, as I have already stated in the title I want to pass some parameters that could or could not exist as instances of a class. If it does not exist, I want to create it. My code so far:
public class TestClass {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Person Ted = new Person();
Person Jack = new Person();
Item it = new Item(Ted);
Item itSec = new Item (Pierce); //Person Pierce doesn't exist => should be created
}
}
public class Person {
public Person(){
//some code
}
}
public class Item {
public Item(Person name){
if(!(name instanceof Person)){
Person name = new Person(); //create that missing instance
}
else{
//some code
}
void getItem(Person name){
System.out.println(name);
}
}
You misunderstand some things.
You can't use an identifier before it's been declared. The following is not correct in your code:
Item itSec = new Item (Pierce);
That's because you didn't declare Pierce before this line. You don't have to create an instance of the class, but you need a valid identifier. You should have declared it before this way:
Person Pierce;
At this moment the identifier, or the reference, is empty, so to say, or it is equal null. All object references which are not local are initiated this way, or they are equal false or 0, whichever is correct for their type. The result is the same as if you declared explicitly:
Person Pierce = null;
But let's move on. Say the reference has been declared. (Btw, Java uses camelCaseNotation for variables, so pierce would be correct.) Let's say we're at a point when Pierce is null or refers to some object, we don't know. Now we call this:
Item itSec = new Item (Pierce);
new Item(Pierce) calls the constructor public Item(Person name){...} in the class Item, which you should know. But now, in that constructor there's the line:
if(!(name instanceof Person)){
which you misuse. What this line is checking is not if the variable name equals null or an existing object, but variable type of name is a subtype of Person. Which will always return true in this place, as the function heading public Item(Person name){...} says this: the function is public, is a constructor, and the argument is of type Person (so Person or a subtype).
What you want to say here is this:
public Item(Person name){
if(name==null)){ //if the reference is empty
this.name = new Person(); //I'll explain this below
}
else{
this.name = name; //otherwise the local "name" will stay null
}
}
I used this.name and it was a jump ahead. Why? In your code that is Person name = ..., which is not correct as that name wouldn't last once the constructor's finished. You need a field in the Item class object, which will hold this value. So the Item class might be defined this way:
public class Item {
Person name;
//...
}
And now the field name holds the value assigned in the line:
this.name = new Person();
You need to use this to disambiguate which name you means. One is the Item class field, the other one is Person name the constructor parameter.
Now, we go back to the main function. If you want the variable Pierce to reference the newly created Person, this still needs to be done. The assignment can take place here, but first you'd have to create a function in the class Item that returns the value of its field name. So:
getName() {
return name;
}
And now call it from the main function:
Pierce = itSec.getName();
That's it. Finally, this function doesn't make sense:
void getItem(Person name){
System.out.println(name);
}
}
It doesn't get any Item. It only prints what you pass to it. And this doesn't mean that if you call it with getItem(Pierce), you will see "Pierce" on the screen. It will call the toString function in the object Pierce denotes, and as it is, you will get a standard object identifier. But if you define a function:
void printItem() {
System.out.println(name);
}
Then you can call it this way. For an existing object itSec:
itSec.printItem();
As for a getter function, it should return what you ask for, but that's another story.
What do you expect without instancing?
Person Pierce = new Person();
Item itSec = new Item (Pierce);
You cannot use a variable that does not exist...
Item itSec = new Item (Pierce);
The snippet above will never work because Pierce is undefined.
The code:
if(!(name instanceof Person)){
Person name = new Person(); //create that missing instance
}
Does not really make any sense, because that is the same as calling
Person Ted = new Person();
Person Jack = new Person();
Wherein the Person instance does not actually contain any data (unless you have some magic going on when instantiating the Person!)
I assume what you really want to pass is not an object whose variable is the name of a person, but rather a Person object that contains the name of the person.
If so, your code should be like this:
Person p1 = new Person("Ted");
Person p2 = new Person("Jack");
If you really want to do some instantiation if something does not exist, you might be able to do something like this:
Item(String personName) {
if(isExisting(personName)) {
getPerson(personName);
} else {
Person p = new Person(personName);
}
boolean isExisting(String personName) {
// Check if person exists somewhere
}
Person getPerson(String personName) {
// Retrieve the Person instance with the same person name.
}
if(!(name instanceof Person)){
Person name = new Person();
}
is meaning less because 'name' is always object is instance of person in this situation..
Item itSec = new Item (Pierce);
Pierce is not an object.. We can pass only Person object to constructor of Item class.. There is no any method to create an object of any class by just passing unkown variable..
Item itSec = new Item (Pierce); //Person Pierce doesn't exist => should be created
If it does not exist, I want to create it.
There's no "if" about it. The code never declared that variable, so it will never exist. (And never compile in its current state. Surely your Java compiler is telling you this.) Given that it always needs to be created, just create it:
Person Pierce = new Person();
Item itSec = new Item(Pierce);
Edit: Based on ongoing comments, it sounds like you want to have something more like a Map. Consider an example:
Map<String,Person> people = new HashMap<String,Person>();
people.put("Pierce", new Person());
The Map would basically be a collection of key/value pairs where the name is the key and the Person is the value. You can dynamically add/edit/remove elements to the collection as you see fit.
Then to use it, you'd call another operation on the map:
Item itSec = new Item(people.get("Pierce"));
You could use various operations to check if a value exists in the collection, add it, etc. You might even extend the class to add your own operations which create one if it doesn't exist when trying to get it.
Java won't dynamically create variables for you if a variable doesn't exist, but operations on a Map (or potentially other similar structures) can check if an element exists, add it, remove it, etc.
Related
I am using java fx, nothing fancy in the code below, and catching the text field's focusedProperty to overwrite the newly entered value below. The code below changes a person's name that is entered in the textfield and when user clicks on cancel button it will put the old name back into the textfield. But for some reason a magic happens and whenever I set the person's name it overwrites the field in the cancelPerson variable. Could not figure out why this would happen? I get the cancelPerson from persons list before I set the new value. So how come changes in the persons list can affect an independent variable. Any idea why this would occur? Thanks.
private ObservableList<Person> persons;
private Person person;
private Person cancelPerson;
personName.focusedProperty().addListener((observable, oldValue, newValue) -> {
if (!newValue) {
final int index = personIdCombo.getSelectionModel().getSelectedIndex();
cancelPerson = persons.get(index);
final Person person = persons.get(index);
person.setName(personName.getText());
persons.set(index, person);
}
}
);
class Person{
private final StringProperty name;
public Person() {
this.name = new SimpleStringProperty("testName");
}
public SystemParams(Person person) {
this.name = person.name;
}
}
Jim Garrison's answer (suggesting the copy constructor) is correct; I
just wanted to add another answer to give a helpful way of thinking
about references in Java.
I found it helpful to think of an = assignment as a REFERS TO assignment. So, cancelPersons = persons.get(index); is basically saying:
cancelPerson REFERS TO persons.get(index);
Now, where your second line says final Person person = persons.get(index);, think of it as
final Person person REFERS TO persons.get(index);
See how they both REFER TO the same persons.get(index)? Now, whether you use cancelPerson or just person, Java is pointing back to the same overall object, not different ones.
Unless you have a new keyword somewhere, you are not actually creating a new object.
This is because person and cancelPerson are references and when you do
cancelPerson = persons.get(index);
final Person person = persons.get(index);
You end up with both variables pointing to the same object.
If you want to save a copy of person you have to do a "deep copy", that is create a new Person and copy the contents to the new object. This is usually done with what is referred to as a "copy constructor"
class Person {
public Person() { ... the no-arg constructor }
public Person(Person p) {
this.name = p.name;
... etc
}
}
In Java, class instances like instances of Person are reference types. This means that when you perform an assignment, you are merely copying a reference to an instance.
In your code, person and cancelPerson both refer to the same Person instance and any operations you do on them affect that same instance.
You could make a copy of a Person instance first if you don't want it to be modified.
I was trying to make an object arrayList and faced a problem: I do not know how to dynamically create a new object from a particular ingredient / establish unique reference dynamically, so it point to a unique object, instead of printing out something Like this:
Coconut 366
Coconut 366
Coconut 366
// all coconuts in the list references to the last coconut, so no new unique Coconut container object
then I tried this:
allContainers.add( new Coconut() );
then access last item in the list and cast object at current index of for loop iteration replacing an empty new Coconut(), however assignment of this does not work too..
Does anyone know to add unique reference on each method call of the same Object so values will be different as it will point to a different object?
Any suggestions how to solve this dilemma?
Thank you.
expansion of sample code:
ArrayList<TeaObjects> someTea = new ArrayList<TeaObjects>();
ArrayList<HealthyObjects> someHealth = new ArrayList<HealthyObjects>();
public void init {
someTea.add( new blackTea() );
someTea.add( new whiteTea() );
someTea.add( new greenTea() );
}
public void tea {
// for loop checking for properties
if (healthyTea) {
// 1. Create a new instance dynamically of the lets say greenTea g1, where constructor is empty
// 2. add those properties to g1 = (Cast ) (assign healthy properties)
// 3. HealthyObjects.add(g1); // where g1 is dynamically created reference
add to a list tea, so I want to achieve [new greenTea g1, new greenTea g2] to be in the list. I also want
}
}
Sure, create a new instance each time. Write a copy constructor:
public class Ingredient {
private String name;
public Ingredient(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
// copy constructor
public Ingredient(Ingredient duplicate) {
this.name = duplicate.name;
}
}
I dont know how to really ask this.
But like...
Student stud1 = new Student("Shady");
Student stud2 = new Student("Nick");
Student stud3 = new Student("Name");
stud2.addBook(new Book(Book.BOOK_MISERABLES, 3););
Now if we assume we have the following variable in the Book class:
private Student owner;
And now the question, inside the constructor of "Book" -> Is it possible to get the "stud2" object it's being called to? Without adding an additional parameter to the constructor? If so, how? I think it's possible... So it will be something like this:
private Student owner;
public Book(int bookNum, int weeks){
this.owner = this.GET_THE_TARGET_THIS_IS_CALLED_ON;
this.bookNumber = bookNum;
this.time = weeks;
}
What you're asking is not directly possible. You will need to either
Pass a reference to the Student instance to your Book constructor
or
Use a setter inside the Book class to set the value of the owner field to your Student instance.
The latter would be a method that looks like this:
public void setOwner(Student owner) {
this.owner = owner;
}
Additionally, you may want to modify your Student.addBook method to call this setter, like this:
book.setOwner(this);
As you mentioned in your comment, you can traverse the stack using Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace() However, you'll be unable to obtain an object reference using that technique. You can obtain the class or method name but the uses for that are limited unless you intend to construct a new instance. That's all highly unorthodox and not at all appropriate for this situation.
For the following class I want to access an object if the name equals to something, let's say "you". Otherwise I want to create it.
I want to check if an object exists that has the name as 'you' and then add entries to the ArrayList contInstances. If such an instance doesn't already exist I want to create it. Next time I might have to use the same object so that I can add some more entries to the ArrayList.
public class Values {
String name;
ArrayList<anotherClass> classInstances = new ArrayList<anotherClass>();
}
This happens to be in a loop. How can I do that?
Edit: I'll quote an example here:
if (an object exists that contains field 'name' == 'YOU'){
add entries to the array list directly using the available object
}
else {
create a new object and set the 'name' = 'YOU';
add entries to the array list;
}
It sounds kind of like you want to have a cache by name. Instead of an ArrayList, consider using a Map<String, AnotherClass> to keep track of Name->Object mappings.
You can then use this approach:
Map<String, AnotherClass> instances = new LinkedHashMap<String, AnotherClass>();
for (...) {
String name = getNextName();
AnotherClass instance = instances.get(name);
if (instance == null) {
instance = makeInstance(name);
instances.put(name, instance);
}
useInstance(name, instance);
}
After that loop is finished, if you still want a List<AnotherClass>, you can use return new ArrayList<AnotherClass>(instances.values());
How can I do such a thing?
String N = jTextField0.getText();
MyClass (N) = new Myclass();
Is it even possibe?
Or as my question's explains, how can I just make a method to create a new object of my specified class just with a different name each time I call it.
I really searched everywhere with no luck.
Thanks in Advance
P.S.
I wish you guys can excuse me for not being clear enough, Just to say it as it is, I made a textfield to get the name of someone who wants to make an account, and I made a class named "Customer". and a button named "Add". Now I want every time "Add" is clicked, compiler take what is in my textfield and make an object of the class "Customer" named with what it took from the textfield
It was too hard to read it in comments so I updated my question again, so sorry.
I'm stuck so bad. I suppose my problem is that I didn't "understand" what you did and only tried to copy it. This is what I wrote:
private void AddB0MouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {
String name = NameT0.getText();
Customer instance = new Customer(Name);
Customer.customers.add(instance);
and this is my Customer class:
public class Customer{
String name;
public Customer(String name){
this.name = name;
}
public String getName(){
return name;
}
static ArrayList<Customer> customers = new ArrayList<Customer>();
Variable names must be determined at compile time, they are not even part of the generated code. So there is no way to do that.
If you want to be able to give your objects names, you can use
Map<String, MyClass> map = new HashMap<>();
Add objects to the map like this (e.g):
map.put(userInput, new MyClass());
and retrieve objects like this:
MyClass mc = map.get(userInput);
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by...
how can I just make a method to create a new object of my specified
class just with a different name each time I call it
...but if I'm interpreting you correctly, I believe what you're trying to do as make MyClass accept a constructor parameter. You can do:
public class MyClass {
private String name;
public MyClass(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
}
Then to create a new instance of MyClass, do:
String name = jTextField0.getText();
MyClass instance = new MyClass(name);
instance.getName(); // returns the name it was given
EDIT
Since you've added clarifications in the comments since I first answered this question, I thought I would update the answer to portray more of the functionality that you're looking for.
To keep track of the MyClass instances, you can add them to an ArrayList. ArrayList objects can be instantiated as follows:
ArrayList<MyClass> customers = new ArrayList<MyClass>();
Then for each MyClass instance you wish to add, do the following:
customers.add(instance);
Note that the ArrayList should not be reinstantiated for each instance that you wish to add; you should only instantiate the ArrayList once.