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Java Builder Object Printing Null

I have created a Person, class and a Professor class that both use the Builder Pattern to create objects. The Professor class takes a Person object as an argument in its constructor. I am trying to use both classes together, but when I attempt to print out a professor, get the following output: null null (instead of Bob Smith).
Here's what I tried so far:
Person:
public class Person {
private String firstname;
private String lastname;
private int age;
private String phoneNumber;
private String emailAddress;
private char gender;
public Person(){}
// builder pattern chosen due to number of instance fields
public static class PersonBuilder {
// required parameters
private final String firstname;
private final String lastname;
// optional parameters
private int age;
private String phoneNumber;
private String emailAddress;
private char gender;
public PersonBuilder(String firstname, String lastname) {
this.firstname = firstname;
this.lastname = lastname;
}
public PersonBuilder age(int age) {
this.age = age;
return this;
}
public PersonBuilder phoneNumber(String phoneNumber) {
this.phoneNumber = phoneNumber;
return this;
}
public PersonBuilder emailAddress(String emailAddress) {
this.emailAddress = emailAddress;
return this;
}
public PersonBuilder gender(char gender) {
this.gender = gender;
return this;
}
public Person build() {
return new Person(this);
}
}
// person constructor
private Person(PersonBuilder builder) {
this.firstname = builder.firstname;
this.lastname = builder.lastname;
this.age = builder.age;
this.phoneNumber = builder.phoneNumber;
this.emailAddress = builder.emailAddress;
this.gender = builder.gender;
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return this.firstname + " " + this.lastname;
}
}
Here's the Professor class:
package com.example.hardcodedloginform;
import java.util.List;
public class Professor extends Person{
private Person professor;
private double salary;
private String courseTaught;
private List<Student> students;
private int professorID;
public static class ProfessorBuilder {
// required fields
private Person professor;
private int professorID;
// optional fields
private double salary;
private String courseTaught;
private List<Student> students;
public ProfessorBuilder(Person professor, int professorID) {
this.professor = professor;
this.professorID = professorID;
}
public ProfessorBuilder salary(double salary) {
this.salary = salary;
return this;
}
public ProfessorBuilder courseTaught(String courseTaught) {
this.courseTaught = courseTaught;
return this;
}
public ProfessorBuilder students(List<Student> students) {
this.students = students;
return this;
}
public Professor build() {
return new Professor(this);
}
}
private Professor(ProfessorBuilder builder) {
this.salary = builder.salary;
this.courseTaught = builder.courseTaught;
this.students = builder.students;
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return "" + super.toString();
}
}
And here is the Main class where I try to print out a professor object:
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Person profBobs = new Person.PersonBuilder("Bob", "Smith")
.age(35)
.emailAddress("bob.smith#SNHU.edu")
.gender('M')
.phoneNumber("818-987-6574")
.build();
Professor profBob = new Professor.ProfessorBuilder(profBobs, 12345)
.courseTaught("MAT101")
.salary(15230.01)
.build();
System.out.println(profBob);
}
}
I would like the printout in the console to be "Bob Smith", but what I am seeing is: null null. I checked and found that the Person object profBobs is, in fact, created properly and does print out the name "Bob Smith" when I attempt to print it the same way. I don't know why my Professor prints: null null.

Your Professor constructor fails to initialise any member fields of its base class.
There are multiple ways to solve this. One solution has ProfessorBuilder extend PersonBuilder:
public class Professor extends Person {
// Remove the `person` field! A professor *is-a* person, it does not *contain* it.
private double salary;
private String courseTaught;
private List<Student> students;
private int professorID;
public static class ProfessorBuilder extends Person.PersonBuilder {
// required fields
private int professorID;
// optional fields
private double salary;
private String courseTaught;
private List<Student> students;
public ProfessorBuilder(Person professor, int professorID) {
super(professor);
this.professorID = professorID;
}
// …
}
private Professor(ProfessorBuilder builder) {
super(builder);
this.salary = builder.salary;
this.courseTaught = builder.courseTaught;
this.students = builder.students;
}
}
For this to work you also need to mark the Person constructor as protected rather than private.
Furthermore, your Professor.toString method implementation made no sense: it essentially just called the base class method, so there’s no need to override it. And prepending the empty string does nothing.

Refactoring in Java: Duplicated attributes

I am supposed to refactor duplicated attributes in Student class. I have Student and Professor classes as below. I am really confused about how to do refactoring with attributes. Should I add a new class, or made modifications in one of the classes. If so, how? I could not understand how to proceed with this to-do.
private final String matrNr;
private final String name;
private final int age;
private int semester;
private final String email;
public Student(String name, int age, String email, String matrNr, int semester) {
this.matrNr = matrNr;
this.name = name;
this.age = age;
this.semester = semester;
this.email = email;
}
public String getEmail() {
return email;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public int getAge() {
return age;
}
public int getSemester() {
return semester;
}
public String getMatrNr() {
return matrNr;
}
public void increaseSemester(){
semester = semester + 1;
}
}
And the professor is a like:
private final String persNr;
private final String name;
private final int age;
private final String email;
public Professor(String name, int age, String email, String persNr) {
this.persNr = persNr;
this.name = name;
this.age = age;
this.email = email;
}
public int getAge() {
return age;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public String getEmail() {
return email;
}
public String getPersNr() {
return persNr;
}
}
Thanks for any kind of helps!

Your goal is to refactor duplicated attributes in the Student and Professor classes. The way to do this is to create a parent class which defines the common attributes (like "name"), and modify Student and Professor classes to extend the common parent class. In this way, both Students and Professors can have a "name", even though you have defined "name" only once in the common parent.
Below shows how you could do this with a common "Human" parent class, how the constructors would work, and how you could define a Student-only attribute (semester).
Here is a simple version a common Human class:
common "Human" class
each Human has a "name"
the name is set in the constructor (so when you're creating an object) and cannot be changed later ("name" is final; also no "setHuman()")
class Human {
private final String name;
public Human(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
}
Here's a simple Professor class:
by definition, a Professor is a Human (Professor extends Human)
when creating a Professor, you must specify the "name" (which is then passed to the Human constructor)
once you have a Professor, you can call getName() (which is defined on the Human class)
class Professor extends Human {
public Professor(String name) {
super(name);
}
}
Here's a simple Student class:
Student is a little different - in addition to a name, it also has a "semester"
when creating a Student, the constructor requires a name and semester, and the Student class itself keeps track of "semester" – so it's fine to have semester defined on Student, and name defined on Human.
you can call getName() (defined on Human)
you can call getSemester() (defined on Student)
class Student extends Human {
private final int semester;
public Student(String name, int semester) {
super(name);
this.semester = semester;
}
public int getSemester() {
return semester;
}
}

how to replace an email in java through a method

first time I've tried this. I need to be able to replace an email for subclass Student and sublass Teacher after an email has been inputted, I have a parent class and superclass which is where I believe I need to add my changeEmail method. I may be a way off here but can I use stringBuilder or is there an easier way? Real noob when it comes to this.
SUBCLASS -
public class Teacher extends Member
{
private String qualifications;
public Teacher(String name, String email, String qualifications)
{
super(name, email);
this.qualifications = qualifications;
}
public String getQualifications()
{
return qualifications;
}
public String toString()
{
StringBuffer details = new StringBuffer();
details.append(super.getName());
details.append(' ');
if(qualifications != null && qualifications.trim().length() > 0) {
details.append("(" + qualifications + ")");
details.append(' ');
}
details.append(super.getEmail());
return details.toString();
}
}
SUBCLASS -
public class Student extends Member
{
private int attendance;
public Student(String name, String email)
{
super(name, email);
this.attendance = 0;
}
public int getAttendance()
{
return attendance;
}
public void markAttendance(int attendance)
{
this.attendance += attendance;
}
public void print()
{
System.out.println(super.getName() + " (" + attendance + ")");
}
}
SUPERCLASS -
public class Member
{
private String email;
private String name;
public Member(String name, String email)
{
this.name = name;
this.email = email;
}
public String getEmail()
{
return email;
}
public String getName()
{
return name;
}
public String changeEmail()
{
//..........
}
}

Since changeEmail is a public method in the superclass, the subclasses can access it too. Student (as well as Teacher) is a Member.
public String changeEmail(String newEmailAddress) {
String old = email;
this.email = newEmailAddress;
return old;
}
What I changed was adding a parameter (String newEmailAddress) and then set the new value to the email instance field.
(EDIT: I updated the answer to return the old email address. I don't know why a method like this would return anything but anyways..)

That is called inheritance, basically if you have some shared variables, you can use some parent class and with the keyword extends create some subclasses.
All subclasses, which inherits the parent class, can have their own class variables, but also are having the parent variables.
In your case you can image the diagram like that- obvious, doesnt?
So...
Parent class member is having these class variables:
- String : mail
- String : name
You have two subclasses- Student and Teacher:
Teacher class variables:
qualifications
mail, name (inherited from parent!)
Student class variables:
attendance
mail, name (inherited from parent!)
Notice- with the keyword super you are calling the constructor (or simply "class" other methods) from the parent, so in Teacher and Student class, you will call exactly following:
public Member(String name, String email) {
this.name = name;
this.email = email;
}
To be able change the email, you need following
1) implement methods in parent class
2) optional- add call to child classes, and for usage outside the class also add some external method (without this you can still use public parent class methods)
Eg.
in parent
public void changeEmail(String newEmail) {
this.email = newEmail;
}
public String changeEmailWithReturnOld(String newEmail) {
String oldMail = this.email;
changeEmail(newEmail); //calling above
return oldMail;
}
In childs
public String changeTheMailWithReturnOld(String newMail) {
return super.changeEmailWithReturnOld(newMail); //super means super class, parent
}
Clear? :)
Then you can call following:
Teacher teacher1 = new Teacher("foo", "foo#foo.foo", "whateverFoo");
teacher1.changeEmail("someNewFoo#foo.foo"); //parent method
teacher1.changeEmailWithReturnOld("someNewFoo#foo.foo"); //Child method

Constructor two classes up java

I am trying to access a constructor in an abstract class that is two levels higher.
public abstract class Person{
protected String name;
public Person(String name){
if name.length() <= 12)
this.name = name;
else
this.name = name.substring(0,12);
}
public final String returnName(){
return name;
}
}
public class employee extends person{
public employee(string firstname, string gender){
super(firstname);
this.gender =gender;
}
}
public class dependent extends employee{
public dependent(string firstname, string gender, string relation){
super(firstname);
super(gender);
this.relation = relation;
}
How do I invoke the constructor of the abstract class from the dependent class (two levels below)?

Ok, first of all, here's how you pass two parameters to your Employee constructor:
super(firstname, gender);
Second, there's no need to call the Person constructor from the Dependent one. This will happen automatically when Dependent calls the Employee constructor, because the Employee constructor then calls the Person one.

What you are looking for is something like the below, please note Classes start with Upper-case and camel case for method parameter staring with a lower-case letter. String must be upper-case String name , please also be aware you have introduced a protected member scope on name
See the following post on the implications In Java, difference between default, public, protected, and private
public abstract class Person
{
protected String name;
public Person(String name)
{
if (name.length() <= 12)
{
this.name = name;
}
else
{
this.name = name.substring(0, 12);
}
}
public final String returnName()
{
return name;
}
}
public class Employee extends Person
{
private String gender = null;
public Employee(String firstName, String gender)
{
super(firstName);
this.gender = gender;
}
}
public class Dependent extends Employee
{
private String relation = null;
public Dependent(String firstName, String gender, String relation)
{
super(firstName, gender);
this.relation = relation;
}
}
You will need to add methods to access the relation and gender if you need the access to these

try this:
public class employee extends Person{
public employee(String firstname, String gender){
super(firstname);
this.gender =gender;
}
}
public class dependent extends employee{
public dependent(String firstname, String gender, String relation){
super(firstname,gender);
this.relation = relation;
}

How to use a variable of one class, in another in Java?

I'm just working through a few things as practice for an exam I have coming up, but one thing I cannot get my head round, is using a variable that belongs to one class, in a different class.
I have a Course class and a Student class. Class course stores all the different courses and what I simply want to be able to do is use the name of the course, in class Student.
Here is my Course class:
public class Course extends Student
{
// instance variables - replace the example below with your own
private Award courseAward;
private String courseCode;
public String courseTitle;
private String courseLeader;
private int courseDuration;
private boolean courseSandwich;
/**
* Constructor for objects of class Course
*/
public Course(String code, String title, Award award, String leader, int duration, boolean sandwich)
{
courseCode = code;
courseTitle = title;
courseAward = award;
courseLeader = leader;
courseDuration = duration;
courseSandwich = sandwich;
}
}
And here is Student:
public class Student
{
// instance variables - replace the example below with your own
private int studentNumber;
private String studentName;
private int studentPhone;
private String studentCourse;
/**
* Constructor for objects of class Student
*/
public Student(int number, String name, int phone)
{
studentNumber = number;
studentName = name;
studentPhone = phone;
studentCourse = courseTitle;
}
}
Am I correct in using 'extends' within Course? Or is this unnecessary?
In my constructor for Student, I am trying to assign 'courseTitle' from class Course, to the variable 'studentCourse'. But I simply cannot figure how to do this!
Thank you in advance for your help, I look forward to hearing from you!
Thanks!

Am I correct in using 'extends' within Course? Or is this unnecessary?
Unfortunately not, if you want to know whether your inheritance is correct or not, replace extends with is-a. A course is a student? The answer is no. Which means your Course should not extend Student
A student can attend a Course, hence the Student class can have a member variable of type Course. You can define a list of courses if your model specifies that (a student can attend several courses).
Here is a sample code:
public class Student{
//....
private Course course;
//...
public void attendCourse(Course course){
this.course = course;
}
public Course getCourse(){
return course;
}
}
Now, you can have the following:
Student bob = new Student(...);
Course course = new Course(...);
bob.attendCourse(course);

I assume a Course is not a Student, so inheritance between those classes is probably a bad idea.

You have to declare them public.
A better way is the keep them private, and code a public getter for that variable. for example:
public Award getCourseAward(){
return this.courseAward;
}

Course should not extend Student. If you want to access the courseTitle field of Course, you need to pass a reference to a Course object to the Student and then do course.CourseTitle.

You cannot access private attributes of a class from another, this is one of the main principles of OOP: encapsulation. You have to provide access method to those attribute, you want to publish outside the class. The common approach is setter/getters - getters only, if you want to have your class immutable. Look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutator_method#Java_example

It does not make sense to arbitrarily extend classes. Student is not a Course or vice versa, so you cannot extend them like that.
What you need to do is:
create a Course first:
Course aCourse = new Course(..);
create a Student:
Student aStudent = new Student(..);
assign the Course to the Student:
aStudent.setCourse(aCourse.title);

Extending Student with Couse because they are not of the same kind. Extending one class with another happens when specializing a more general (in a sense) one.
The solution would be to pass courseTitle as an argument of the Student constructor

There should be 3 separate objects here, a Course, a Student, and an Enrollment. An enrollment connects a Student to a Course, a Course has many Students, and a Student can enroll in many courses. None of them should extend each other.

First,
You are extending Student class in Course class, which means, student class gets all the coruse class properties. So, the student class does not have the courseTitle property.
Second, yes, it is unnesessary - you need to do the following:
public class Course
{
private Award courseAward;
private String courseCode;
public String courseTitle;
private String courseLeader;
private int courseDuration;
private boolean courseSandwich;
public Course(String code, String title, Award award, String leader, int duration, boolean sandwich)
{
courseCode = code;
courseTitle = title;
courseAward = award;
courseLeader = leader;
courseDuration = duration;
courseSandwich = sandwich;
}
}
public class Student
{
private int studentNumber;
private String studentName;
private int studentPhone;
// This is where you keep the course object associated to student
public Course studentCourse;
public Student(int number, String name, int phone, Course course)
{
studentNumber = number;
studentName = name;
studentPhone = phone;
studentCourse = course;
}
}
Example usage would be something like this:
Course course = new Course("ASD", "TITLE", null, "ME", 50, true);
Student student = new Student(1, "JOHN", "5551234", course);
And then, get the course information you need from student via, i.e.:
student.studentCourse.courseTitle;
Since now student.studentCourse will be a course object with all of its properties.
Cheers,

Maybe you do not need to add the course name to student. What I would do is add Students to some datastructure in Course. This is cleaner and reduces the coupling between Course and Student. This would also allow you to have Students being in more than one course. For example:
public class Course extends Student{
private Award courseAward;
private String courseCode;
public String courseTitle;
private Student courseLeader;//change to a student Object
private int courseDuration;
private boolean courseSandwich;
private Set<Student> students;//have course hold a collection of students
/**
* Constructor for objects of class Course
*/
public Course(String code, String title, Award award, Student leader, int duration, boolean sandwich){
courseCode = code;
courseTitle = title;
courseAward = award;
courseLeader = leader;
courseDuration = duration;
courseSandwich = sandwich;
this.students=new HashSet<Student>();
}
public boolean addStudent(Student student){
return students.add(student);
}
public Set<Student> getStudents(){
return students;
}
}

As mentioned, stay away from the "extends" for this. In general, you shouldn't use it unless the "is-a" relationship makes sense.
You should probably provide getters for the methods on the Course class:
public class Course {
...
public String getTitle() {
return title;
}
}
And then if the Student class needs that, it would somehow get a hold of the course (which is up to you in your design), and call the getter:
public class Student {
private Set<Course> courses = new HashSet<Course>();
public void attendCourse(Course course) {
courses.add(course);
}
public void printCourses(PrintStream stream) {
for (Course course : courses) {
stream.println(course.getTitle());
}
}
}

Here below find out the solution of your problem and if you want to check below code on your machine then create a file named Test.java and paste the below codes:
package com;
class Course
{
private Award courseAward;
private String courseCode;
public String courseTitle;
private String courseLeader;
private int courseDuration;
private boolean courseSandwich;
public Course(String code, String title, Award award, String leader, int duration, boolean sandwich)
{
courseAward = award;
courseCode = code;
courseTitle = title;
courseLeader = leader;
courseDuration = duration;
courseSandwich = sandwich;
}
public Award getCourseAward() {
return courseAward;
}
public void setCourseAward(Award courseAward) {
this.courseAward = courseAward;
}
public String getCourseCode() {
return courseCode;
}
public void setCourseCode(String courseCode) {
this.courseCode = courseCode;
}
public String getCourseTitle() {
return courseTitle;
}
public void setCourseTitle(String courseTitle) {
this.courseTitle = courseTitle;
}
public String getCourseLeader() {
return courseLeader;
}
public void setCourseLeader(String courseLeader) {
this.courseLeader = courseLeader;
}
public int getCourseDuration() {
return courseDuration;
}
public void setCourseDuration(int courseDuration) {
this.courseDuration = courseDuration;
}
public boolean isCourseSandwich() {
return courseSandwich;
}
public void setCourseSandwich(boolean courseSandwich) {
this.courseSandwich = courseSandwich;
}
}
class Student
{
private int studentNumber;
private String studentName;
private int studentPhone;
private Course studentCourse;
/**
* Constructor for objects of class Student
*/
public Student(int number, String name, int phone, Course course)
{
studentNumber = number;
studentName = name;
studentPhone = phone;
studentCourse = course;
}
public int getStudentNumber() {
return studentNumber;
}
public void setStudentNumber(int studentNumber) {
this.studentNumber = studentNumber;
}
public String getStudentName() {
return studentName;
}
public void setStudentName(String studentName) {
this.studentName = studentName;
}
public int getStudentPhone() {
return studentPhone;
}
public void setStudentPhone(int studentPhone) {
this.studentPhone = studentPhone;
}
public Course getStudentCourse() {
return studentCourse;
}
public void setStudentCourse(Course studentCourse) {
this.studentCourse = studentCourse;
}
}
class Award{
private long awardId;
private String awardName;
Award(long awardId, String awardName){
this.awardId = awardId;
this.awardName = awardName;
}
public long getAwardId() {
return awardId;
}
public void setAwardId(long awardId) {
this.awardId = awardId;
}
public String getAwardName() {
return awardName;
}
public void setAwardName(String awardName) {
this.awardName = awardName;
}
}
public class Test{
public static void main(String ar[]){
// use your all classes here
}
}