Department of Computer Science

Faculty of Physical Sciences

Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

COSC 211 : Object Oriented Progr amming I - LAB06

Objectives:

Learn how to overloads constructors and methods

Learn how to use thethis keyword
Learn how to write and use thetoString() method

1. Oveloading

Overloading means having more than one constructor in a class or having more than one method with the same
name in a class. In the case of constructor, the purpose of overloading is to allow the user to have as man
y
options as possible when creating an object of the class,thus making the class more flexible to use.
In the case of methods, overloading alows the same name to be used for methods that performs similar tasks –
Imagine having two plus operators, one for integer addition and another for double addition!
The condition for overloading is that the overloaded methods and/or constructors must have different
signatures. The signature of a constructor is determined b y the number, the type and the order of its
parameters.

Example 1: The following example implements the Emplo yee class. Notice how the constructors are
overloaded. Also notice the overloading of the deductions methods.
public class Employee1 {
private int iDNumber;
private String name;
private double salary;

public Employee1(int iD, String employeeName, double employeeSalary){

iDNumber = iD;
name = employeeName;
salary = employeeSalary;
}
public Employee1(String employeeName, int iD, double employeeSalary){
iDNumber = iD;
name = employeeName;
salary = employeeSalary;
}
public Employee1(int iD, String employeeName) {
iDNumber = iD;
name = employeeName;
salary = 0.0;
}
public Employee1(String employeeName, int iD) {
iDNumber = iD;
name = employeeName;
salary = 0.0;
}
public void setSalary(double employeeSalary) {
 salary = employeeSalary;
}
public int getIDNumber() {
return iDNumber;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public double getSalary() {
return salary;
}
public void deductions(double telephoneBills) {
salary -= telephoneBills;
}
public void deductions(double telephoneBills, double medicalBills){
salary -= (telephoneBills + medicalBills);
}
public void raiseSalary(double percentIncrease) {
salary += salary * percentIncrease/100;
}
public void printDetails() {
System.out.println("\nID Number: "+iDNumber+"\nName: "+name+"\nSalary:
"+salary);
}
}

The following shows how the constructors and the overloaded methods in the above example ma
y be used:
import java.util.Scanner;
public class TestEmployee1 {
public static void main(String[] args){
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);

int number;
String name;
double salary;

System.out.print("Enter Name for Employee 1: ");

name = input.nextLine();
System.out.print("Enter ID Number for Employee 1: ");
number = input.nextInt();
System.out.print("Enter Salary for Employee 1: ");
salary = input.nextDouble();

//any of the following constructors be used to create the object

Employee1 emp1 = new Employee1(number, name, salary);
// or Employee1 emp1 = new Employee1(name, number, salary);
System.out.print("\nEnter Name for Employee 2: ");
name = input.nextLine();
System.out.print("Enter ID Number for Employee 2: ");
number = input.nextInt();

//if we do not know the salary, we can use one of the following constructors
Employee1 emp2 = new Employee1(number, name);
//or Employee1 emp2 = new Employee1(name, number);
emp2.setSalary(emp1.getSalary());
emp1.deductions(50);
emp2.deductions(60, 40);
emp1.printDetails();
emp2.printDetails();
}
}

2. The this keyword

this is an implicit reference variable (i.e

variable that doesn’t need to be declared)
that refers to the current object. At the point
of defining the class, it is used for two
purposes as follows:
· To refer to the instance variables of the class, especially when their names happen to be the same with
parameters or local variables of a methodor constructor.
· To call a constructor from within another constructor of the same class.
The advantages of usingthis as can be seen from the following example is that the program becomes shorter and
that we do not have to think of different names for the parameters of constructors and methods.

Example 2: The following example modifies the above b

y using the this keyword
public class Employee2 {
private int iDNumber;
private String name;
private double salary;

public Employee2(int iDNumber, String name, double salary) {

this.iDNumber = iDNumber;
this.name = name;
this.salary = salary;
}
public Employee2(String name, int iDNumber, double salary) {
this(iDNumber,name,salary);
}
public Employee2(int iDNumber, String name) {
this(iDNumber, name, 0.0);
}

public Employee2(String name, int iDNumber) {

this(iDNumber, name, 0.0);
}
public void setSalary(double salary) {
this.salary = salary;
}
public int getIDNumber() {
return iDNumber;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public double getSalary() {
return salary;
}
public void deductions(double telephoneBills) {
salary -= telephoneBills;
}
public void deductions(double telephoneBills, double medicalBills) {
salary -= (telephoneBills + medicalBills);
}
public void raiseSalary(double percentIncrease) {
salary += salary * percentIncrease/100;
}
public void printDetails() {
System.out.println("\nID Number: "+iDNumber+"\nName: "+name+"\nSalary:
"+salary);
}
}

To test the above class, you need to run the fileTestEmployee2.java which is the same asTestEmployee1.java
except of the creation of objects of typeEmployee2 class instead of objects of classEmployee1

3. The toString() method

Sometimes we would like to print the values of the instance variable of an object. One way of doing this is to
have a method such as theprintDetails() method in the above examples. However, this is not a good idea since
in java, there are different output targets such as gr
aphical windows which usesdrawString() method of
Graphics/Graphics2D object or output files which require a different object instead of System.out.
Thus, what is normally done is to provide atoString() method which returns a representation of the object as a
String. The application can then use the string returned b y this method as it wishes.
the name toString() is very special in that it does not need to be called explicitly lik
e other methods. The java
system automatically calls thetoString() method whenever the object reference variable is used in an oper ation
that requires a string.

Example 3: The file Employee3.java is the same as Employee2.java except for the replacement of the
printDetails() method with toString() method.
public String toString() {
return "\nID Number: "+iDNumber+"\nName: "+name+"\nSalary:"+salary;
}

The file TestEmployee3.java accordingly modifiesTestEmplyee2.java to print the two employee objects by
implicitly calling thetoString() method as follows.
. . . .
System.out.println(emp1);
System.out.println(emp2);
. . .

4. Assignment.

1. Download the folder lab06.

a) Open the files Employee1.java and TestEmployee1.java, study then to

understand what each is doing, then compile and execute TestEmployee1.java.

b) Try the alternative constructor calls in the TestEmployee1.java by removing

the comments on them and commenting the lines before each of them, then
compile and execute the program again. You should notice no difference.

c) Open the files Employee2.java and TestEmployee2.java, study them, then

compile and execute TestEmployee2.java.

d) Open the files Employee3.java and TestEmployee3.java, study them, then

compile and execute TestEmployee3.java.

2. (a) Design a class called Author that contains the following.

(i) Three private instance variables: name (String), email (String), and gender
(char of either 'm' or 'f').

(ii) One constructor to initialize name, email and gender with given values.
 (iii) Public getters and setters: getName(), getEmail(), setEmail(), and
getGender().

There are no setters for name and gender, as these attributes cannot be
changed.

(iv) A toString() method that returns "author-name (gender) at email", eg, "Aliyu
Garba (m) at [email protected]".

(b) Write a test program called TestAuthor to test the constructor and the public
methods.
Try changing the email of an author.

3. Modify the Box.java and BoxDemo.java of Example 1 of lab04 as follows:

a) add methods getLength(), getWidth() and getHeight() that returns the length,
width and height of the box object.

b) add another constructor which receives only the length. It then calls the other
constructor supplying this length for all of length, width and height (i.e. it forms
a cube).

c) add another constructor that receives another Box object as parameter and
then uses its length, width and height to initialize the current box object (i.e it
creates a box object with same dimension as the one it receives as parameter)

d) add a toString() method that returns the langth, width, and height as a string
that prints on one line as shown in the figure below.

The class BoxDemo.java should be modified to create three Box objects using each of
the three constructors and then prints it (Note: no need to read input). Use the first
box object to create the second.