CS 106A, Lecture 21

Classes

suggested reading:
Java Ch. 6

This document is copyright (C) Stanford Computer Science and Marty Stepp, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. All rights reserved.
Based on slides created by Keith Schwarz, Mehran Sahami, Eric Roberts, Stuart Reges, and others.
 Plan for today
•Recap: HashMaps + What’s Trending
•Classes
•Recap

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Recap: HashMaps

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 Plan for today
•Recap: HashMaps + What’s Trending
•Classes
•Recap

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 Large Java Programs
There are some large programs written in Java!

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Defining New Variable Types
Inbox Database Email Sender Login Manager

Email User Inbox

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 What Is A Class?

A class defines a
new variable type.
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 Why Is This Useful?
• A student registration system needs to store info about
students, but Java has no Student variable type.
• A music synthesizer app might want to store information
about different types of instruments, but Java has no
Instrument variable type.
• An email program might have many emails that need to be
stored, but Java has no Email variable type.
• Classes let you define new types of variables, which lets you
decompose your program code across different files.

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 Classes Are Like Blueprints
iPod blueprint (class)
state:
current song
volume
battery life
behavior:
power on/off
change station/song
change volume
choose random song

constructs

iPod (variable) #1 iPod (variable) #2 iPod (variable) #3

state: state: state:
song = "1,000,000 Miles" song = "Letting You" song = "Discipline"
volume = 17 volume = 9 volume = 24
battery life = 2.5 hrs battery life = 3.41 hrs battery life = 1.8 hrs
behavior: behavior: behavior:
power on/off power on/off power on/off
change station/song change station/song change station/song
change volume change volume change volume
choose random song choose random song choose random song

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 What Is A Class?

A class defines a
new variable type.
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 Creating A New Class
Let’s define a new variable type called BankAccount
that represents information about a single person’s
bank account.

A BankAccount:
- contains the name of account holder
- contains the balance
- can deposit money
- can withdraw money
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 What if…
What if we could write a program like this:

BankAccount nickAccount = new BankAccount();

nickAccount.setName(“Nick”);
nickAccount.deposit(50);

BankAccount rishiAccount = new BankAccount();

rishiAccount.setName(“Rishi”);
rishiAccount.deposit(50);
boolean success = rishiAccount.withdraw(10);
if (success) {
println(“Rishi withdrew $10.”);
}

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 Creating A New Class
1. What information is inside this new
variable type? These are its private instance
variables.

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 Example: BankAccount
// In file BankAccount.java
public class BankAccount {
// Step 1: the data inside a BankAccount
private String name;
private double balance;
}

Each BankAccount object has its own copy

of all instance variables.

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 Creating A New Class
1. What information is inside this new
variable type? These are its instance
variables.
2. What can this new variable type do?
These are its public methods.

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 What if…
What if we could write a program like this:

BankAccount nickAccount = new BankAccount();

nickAccount.setName(“Nick”);
nickAccount.deposit(50);
println(nickAccount);

BankAccount rishiAccount = new BankAccount();

rishiAccount.setName(“Rishi”);
rishiAccount.deposit(50);
boolean success = rishiAccount.withdraw(10);
if (success) {
println(“Rishi withdrew $10.”);
}
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 Example: BankAccount
public class BankAccount {
// Step 1: the data inside a BankAccount
private String name;
private double balance;

// Step 2: the things a BankAccount can do

public void deposit(double amount) {
balance += amount;
}
public boolean withdraw(double amount) {
if (balance >= amount) {
balance -= amount;
return true;
}
return false;
}
} 17
 Defining Methods In Classes
Methods defined in classes can be called ba1
on an instance of that class. name = "Marty"
balance = 1.45
deposit(amount) {
When one of these methods executes, balance += amount;
it can reference that object’s copy of }

instance variables. ba2

name = "Mehran"
ba1.deposit(0.20); balance = 901000.00
ba2.deposit(1000.00);
deposit(amount) {
balance += amount;
}

This means calling one of these methods on different objects has

different effects.
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 Getters and Setters
Instance variables in a class should always be private. This is so only
the object itself can modify them, and no-one else.

To allow the client to reference them, we define public methods in

the class that set an instance variable’s value and get (return) an
instance variable’s value. These are commonly known as getters and
setters.

account.setName(“Nick”);
String accountName = account.getName();

Getters and setters prevent instance variables from being tampered

with.
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 Example: BankAccount
public class BankAccount {
private String name;
private double balance;

...
public void setName(String newName) {
if (newName.length() > 0) {
name = newName;
}
}

public String getName() {

return name;
}
}
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 Creating A New Class
1. What information is inside this new
variable type? These are its instance
variables.
2. What can this new variable type do?
These are its public methods.
3. How do you create a variable of this type?
This is the constructor.

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 Constructors
GRect rect = new GRect();

GRect rect2 = new GRect(50, 50);

This is calling a special method! The GRect constructor.

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 Constructors
BankAccount ba1 = new BankAccount();

BankAccount ba2 = new BankAccount(“Nick”, 50);

The constructor is executed when a new object is created.

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 Example: BankAccount
public class BankAccount {
// Step 1: the data inside a BankAccount
private String name;
private double balance;

// Step 2: the things a BankAccount can do (omitted)

// Step 3: how to create a BankAccount
public BankAccount(String accountName, double startBalance) {
name = accountName;
balance = startBalance;
}

public BankAccount(String accountName) {

name = accountName;
balance = 0;
}
} 24
 Using Constructors
BankAccount ba1 = ba1
new BankAccount("Marty", 1.25); name = "Marty"
balance = 1.25
BankAccount(nm, bal) {
name = nm;
balance = bal;
}
BankAccount ba2 =
new BankAccount("Mehran", 900000.00);
ba2
name = "Mehran"
balance = 900000.00
BankAccount(nm, bal) {
name = nm;
• When you call a constructor (with new): }
balance = bal;

– Java creates a new object of that class.

– The constructor runs, on that new object.
– The newly created object is returned to your program. 25
 Constructors
• constructor: Initializes the state of new objects as they are created.

public ClassName(parameters) {
statements;
}

– The constructor runs when the client says new ClassName(...);

– no return type is specified; it "returns" the new object being created

– If a class has no constructor, Java gives it a default constructor with no

parameters that sets all fields to default values like 0 or null.
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 Plan for today
•Recap: HashMaps + What’s Trending
•Classes
•Recap

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 What Is A Class?

A class defines a
new variable type.
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 Creating A New Class
1. What information is inside this new
variable type? These are its instance
variables.
2. What can this new variable type do?
These are its public methods.
3. How do you create a variable of this type?
This is the constructor.

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 Recap
•Recap: HashMaps + What’s Trending
•Classes
•Recap

Next time: more classes

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