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Creating an Object

• Two stages:
  • Declare the variable to hold the reference to an object
  • Use new to create an object and associate it with the reference variable:

Grommet g;
Grommet h = new Grommet();
g = new Grommet();
h = new Grommet();	// What does this do?

Accessing an Object

• Use the dot (.) operator to access fields of an object:

ComplexNumber c = new ComplexNumber();
c.x = 1.0;
c.y = -1.414;
double m = c.magnitude();

Destroying an Object

• There is no operator in Java to do the opposite of new (i.e. no equivalent of delete in C++)
• Java detects when an object is no longer being used (has no references)
• Java automatically deletes such objects

This page was last modified on 02 October, 2007