img
The output produced by this program is shown here:
Volume is 3000.0
Volume is 162.0
As you can see, mybox1's data is completely separate from the data contained in mybox2.
Declaring Objects
As just explained, when you create a class, you are creating a new data type. You can use this
type to declare objects of that type. However, obtaining objects of a class is a two-step process.
First, you must declare a variable of the class type. This variable does not define an object.
Instead, it is simply a variable that can refer to an object. Second, you must acquire an actual,
physical copy of the object and assign it to that variable. You can do this using the new operator.
The new operator dynamically allocates (that is, allocates at run time) memory for an object
and returns a reference to it. This reference is, more or less, the address in memory of the object
allocated by new. This reference is then stored in the variable. Thus, in Java, all class objects
must be dynamically allocated. Let's look at the details of this procedure.
In the preceding sample programs, a line similar to the following is used to declare an
object of type Box:
Box mybox = new Box();
This statement combines the two steps just described. It can be rewritten like this to show
each step more clearly:
Box mybox; // declare reference to object
mybox = new Box(); // allocate a Box object
The first line declares mybox as a reference to an object of type Box. After this line executes,
mybox contains the value null, which indicates that it does not yet point to an actual object.
Any attempt to use mybox at this point will result in a compile-time error. The next line
allocates an actual object and assigns a reference to it to mybox. After the second line executes,
you can use mybox as if it were a Box object. But in reality, mybox simply holds the memory
address of the actual Box object. The effect of these two lines of code is depicted in Figure 6-1.
NOTE  Those readers familiar with C/C++ have probably noticed that object references appear to be
OTE
similar to pointers. This suspicion is, essentially, correct. An object reference is similar to a memory
pointer. The main difference--and the key to Java's safety--is that you cannot manipulate references
as you can actual pointers. Thus, you cannot cause an object reference to point to an arbitrary
memory location or manipulate it like an integer.
A Closer Look at new
As just explained, the new operator dynamically allocates memory for an object. It has this
general form:
class-var = new classname( );
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