Book Image

Java 9 with JShell

By : Gaston C. Hillar
Book Image

Java 9 with JShell

By: Gaston C. Hillar

Overview of this book

The release of Java 9 has brought many subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the way in which Java programmers approach their code. The most important ones are definitely the availability of a REPL, known as JShell, which will make experiments and prototyping much more straightforward than the old IDE-based project-led approach. Another, more subtle change can be seen in the module system, which will lead to more modularized, maintainable code. The techniques to take full advantage of object-oriented code, functional programming and the new modularity features in Java 9 form the main subjects of this book. Each chapter will add to the full picture of Java 9 programming starting out with classes and instances and ending with generics and modularity in Java.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Java 9 with JShell
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

Understanding members composing a class


So far, we have been working with a very simple Rectangle class. We created many instances of this class in JShell and we understood how the garbage collection works. Now, it is time to dive deeper into the different members that compose a class in Java 9.

The following list enumerates the most common element types that we can include in a class definition in Java 9. Each member includes its equivalent in other programming languages to make it easy to translate our experience with other object-oriented languages into Java 9. We have already worked with a few of these members:

  • Constructors: A class might define one or more constructors. They are equivalent to initializers in other programming languages.

  • Class variables or class fields: These variables are common to all the instances of the class, that is, their value is the same for all the instances. In Java 9, it is possible to access class variables from the class and from its instances. We don't...