We Keep Coding

Why we can use methods of ArrayList without creating new ArrayList object?

We have to create a object of any class to use their funtionalities unless those are static functionalities. But why we dont need to create a ArrayList object to use its methods like add, contains etc..
ArrayList<Egg> myList = new ArrayList<Egg>();
myList.add(a);
According to my understanding, myList is just variable which holds ArrayList object's reference of type ArrayList class. So again how can we write following without passing object to myList.
ArrayList<Egg> myList;
myList.add(a);
Complete code:
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class DotCom {
private ArrayList<String> locationCells;
public void setLocationCells(ArrayList<String> loc)
{
locationCells = loc;
}
public String checkYourself(String userInput)
{
String result = "miss";
int index = locationCells.indexOf(userInput);
if (index >= 0) {
locationCells.remove(index);
if (locationCells.isEmpty()) {
result = "kill";
}
else
{
result = "hit";
}
}
return result;
}
//TODO: all the following code was added and should have been included in the book
private String name;
public void setName(String string) {
name = string;
}
}
PS
I am referring heads first java book.

The ArrayList reference is being set in the setter method:
public void setLocationCells(ArrayList<String> loc)
{
locationCells = loc;
}
If this method is not called, and the reference not set before trying to use the ArrayList, then the code will throw a NullPointerException.
Side note: This does not look to be safe code, since it can be easily run incorrectly and so a NPE is easy to create. Better perhaps to set the ArrayList (List is even better) in a constructor.

How can I assign instance of a class from an array to a class initializer in java?

In a Android application I am making I have an array of instances of a certain class I made, and later in the program I need to use the getter and setter methods from that class on an instance of the class from the array. Do I need to assign the instance of the class from the array to a new class initializer? Here is some code to clear this up:
Class
public class ProfileInformation {
private String console;
private String gamertag;
public String getConsole() {
return console;
}
public void setConsole(String console) {
this.console = console;
}
public String getGamertag() {
return gamertag;
}
public void setGamertag(String gamertag) {
this.gamertag = gamertag;
}
}
Array
ArrayList<ProfileInformation> ProfTags = new ArrayList<>();
Some instances of ProfileInformation are then added to arraylist, and then I get one of the instances from the arraylist and try to use getGamertag() to set it to a string:
ProfileInformation profNew = ProfTags.get(ProfTags.size()-1);
String example = profNew.getGamertag();
The problem is example will equal null. Why is this?

First, an Arraylist is a List, try not to confuse that with actual arrays.
Do I need to assign the instance of the class from the array to a new class initializer?
You don't need to get an element out of the Arraylist, no. You can chain many methods together
String example = ProfTags.get(ProfTags.size()-1).getGamertag();
example will equal null. Why is this?
For the same reason any object is null... You never set it equal to anything else

This code runs on my laptop:
public static void main(String[] args) {
ArrayList<ProfileInformation> ProfTags = new ArrayList<>();
element = new ProfileInformation();
element.setGamertag("Actual Gamer tag value");
ProfTags.add(element);
ProfileInformation profNew = ProfTags.get(ProfTags.size()-1);
String example = profNew.getGamertag();
}
Output is:
Actual Gamer tag value
I guess you didn't call setGamertag(String).

Calling an array from a different class - Java

How can I access my array from a different class? I have 3 classes; Main (where I want to access the array from) FramePanel (my GUI and where the value from UserInputNum is taken from) and StoryArray (where my array is saved).
I need to access the array in the nested If loop in the Main class, this is because I want too save the specific array data to a string and eventually append it into a JTextArea.
Here are the two classes needed:
Main.java
public class Main
{
public static String UserInput;
public static int UserInputNum;
public static void main(String[] args)
{
FramePanel.main();
StoryArray.main();
UserInputNum = Integer.parseInt(UserInput);
if (UserInputNum >= 0)
{
if (UserInputNum <= 399)
{
StoryArray.storyLine[UserInputNum];
}
else
{
}
}
else
{
}
}
}
StoryArray.java
public class StoryArray
{
public static String storyLine[] = null ;
public String[] getStoryLine()
{
return storyLine;
}
public static void main()
{
//String[] storyLine;
storyLine = new String[399];
storyLine[0] ("1")
storyLine[1] ("2")
storyLine[2] ("3")
storyLine[3] ("4")
storyLine[4] ("5")
storyLine[5] ("6")

In another class you can call the array like this:
String value = StoryArray.storyLine[index];

As it is a static public field you can access it directly by StoryArray.storyLine. But as you have a getter ethod I would suggest to make this getter setter static and the array field private and access it through getter method like that: StoryArray.getStoryLine() (to see why read about encapsulation).
You also shouldn't start your class (main) name from lower case, here are standard coding conventions for java language: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/codeconvtoc-136057.html

Once you've called StoryArray.main(), then you should be able to do StoryArray.storyLine[/*element id*/] = "whatever you want" to get or set any element in storyLine. Additionally, you aren't defining any default array values. In StoryArray.main(), you need to have lines of the form storyLine[n] = "n".

How to use setters and getters for array

okay so on my class diagram it shows
void setVegetable( String veg[] )
String veg[] getVegetables()
Just wondering how I would code the statement for this?
public void setVegetables( String veg[] )
{
}
also how would I write the instance variables?
do I still write it as
private string vegetables = "";

The simple answer is to use a member definition like this:
private String[] vegetables;
And a setter like this:
public void setVegetables( String veg[] ) {
vegetables = veg;
}
However you should keep in mind that a array is modifiable meaning that if you store the array directly like in the setter described above the caller will still be able to modify the content of the array so it's a good practice to copy the array content if you want a better encapsulation. Though this will have impact on performances if you manipulate large arrays.
In this case the setter and getter will look like this
public void setVegetables( String veg[] ) {
vegetables = Arrays.copyOf(veg, veg.length);
}
public String[] getVegetables() {
return Arrays.copyOf(vegetables, vegetables.length);
}

I would change the variable:
private String vegetables;
to an array:
private String vegetables[];
then normally set and get the instance array using the setter and getter methods.

It should be like this :
public void setVegetables( String[] veg ) { }

You can assign values to the local variable when you initialise it like this:
private String[] vegetables = new String[]{"Carrot", "Parsnip"};

As per your class diagram, the instance variable you are looking at is a String array. So the instance member has to be a String[] as well.
The declaration should be like
private String[] vegetables;
public void setVegetables( String vegetables[] ) {
this.vegetables = vegetables;
}
public String[] getVegetables() {
return vegetables;
}

You would need something like
private String[] vegetables;
and the setter method
public void setVegetables( String[] veg ) { this.vegetables = veg; )
or suffer a compile error - An array of String's is not the same as a String.

Dynamically return a list of all class variable values in Java

I am creating a helper class in parsing XML elements, so the developer do not need to know the exact name and capitalization of the XML fields.
private static class TagNames{
public static String RESOURCE_ID = "ResourceId";
public static String RESOURCE_NAME = "ResourceName";
public static String RESOURCE_PRICE = "ResourcePrice";
}
This makes it easier to do things like:
someXMLParser.getValueByTagName(TagNames.RESOURCE_ID);
My question is this. If I want to iterate over all the fields declared in class TagNames, how do I do that? Pseudocode:
For tag in TagNames:
someXMLParser.getValueByTagName(tag)
I know I will probably have to restructure all of this. But I can't figure out a way to make the names easily accessible as well as iterable, without any duplication.
Any suggestions?

You're literally asking for a solution based on reflection, but I think a Java Enum may be a better choice in this case. Building on Frederick's example:
public class EnumTest {
public enum Tags {
RESOURCE_ID("ResourceId"),
REOURCE_NAME("ResourceName"),
RESOURCE_PRICE("ResourcePrice");
private final String tagName;
Tags(String tagName) {
this.tagName = tagName;
}
public String getTagName() {
return tagName;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
for(Tags tag : Tags.values()) {
System.out.println("const:" + tag.name()
+ " tagName:" + tag.getTagName());
}
// API user might do e.g.:
// document.getValueForTag(Tags.REOURCE_NAME);
}
}

Although I agree that you should probably use enums or ResourceBundles, here's a solution to your actual question. A method that generates a Map name -> value from all public constants in a given class (the only thing that's missing should be try / catch or throws)
public static Map<String, Object> getConstantValues(Class<?> clazz){
Map<String, Object> constantValues = new LinkedHashMap<String, Object>();
for(Field field : clazz.getDeclaredFields()){
int modifiers = field.getModifiers();
if(Modifiers.isPublic(mod)
&& Modifiers.isStatic(mod) && Modifiers.isFinal(mod)){
constantValues.put(field.getName(), field.get(null));
}
}
return constantValues;
}

You may want to consider using a ResourceBundle instead of a class to store the tag names. May require a little bit of reworking of your code but it will be easier to produce a list of tags compared to what you are doing now, and adding a new tag won't require much work other then adding a line to the properties file.

You can do this quite easily using enum and an accompanying array:
public class Main {
public enum TagName { RESOURCE_ID, REOURCE_NAME, RESOURCE_PRICE }
private static String[] tags = {"ResourceID", "ResourceName", "ResourcePrice"};
public static String getValueByTagName(TagName tag) {
return tags[tag.ordinal()];
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Calling by getValueByTagName:");
System.out.println(getValueByTagName(TagName.RESOURCE_ID));
System.out.println("Calling TagName.values() for loop:");
for (TagName t : TagName.values()) {
System.out.println(getValueByTagName(t));
}
}
}

Using an enum is a good fit, especially if you use a custom constructor and the built in "values" method:
public class Main {
public static enum TagName {
RESOURCE_ID("ResourceId"),
RESOURCE_NAME("ResourceName"),
RESOURCE_PRICE("ResourcePrice"),
;
private String s;
private TagName(String s) { this.s = s; }
public String toString() { return this.s; }
public static String[] strings() {
List<String> ss = new ArrayList<String>();
for (TagName tagName : TagName.values()) {
ss.add(tagName.toString());
}
return ss.toArray(new String[ss.size()]);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Use TagName.values() for the enums, or for strings...
for (String s : TagName.strings()) {
System.out.println(s);
}
}
}
This way you can simply add new tags and they'll automatically get picked up by the "strings" method; for extra performance you could compute that string array just once, statically, since you can't change the set of enums dynamically. You could get even fancier by auto-generating the tag strings from their constant values, if they are really normalized...