Grouping objects - Objects First with Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ - page 134

Code 4.10
continued
The Auction class

else {
System.out.println( "Lot number: " + lotNumber +
" does not exist." );

return null ;

}

}

}

The lots field is an ArrayList used to hold the lots offered in this auction. Lots are entered
in the auction by passing a simple description to the enterLot method. A new lot is created by
passing the description and a unique lot number to the constructor of Lot . The new Lot object
is added to the collection. The following sections discuss some additional, commonly found
features illustrated in the Auction class.

4.14.5 Anonymous objects
The enterLot method in Auction illustrates a common idiom—anonymous objects. We see
this in the following statement:

lots.add(new Lot(nextLotNumber, description));

Here, we are doing two things:

■ We are creating a new Lot object.

■ We are also passing this new object to the ArrayList 's add method.

We could have written the same statement in two lines, to make the separate steps more explicit:

Lot furtherLot = new Lot(nextLotNumber, description);
lots.add(furtherLot);

Both versions are equivalent, but if we have no further use for the furtherLot variable, then
the original version avoids defining a variable with such a limited use. In effect, we create
an anonymous object—an object without a name—by passing it straight to the method that
uses it.

Exercise 4.47 The makeABid method includes the following two statements:

Bid bid = new Bid(bidder, value);
boolean successful = selectedLot.bidFor(bid);

The bid variable is only used here as a placeholder for the newly created Bid object before it
is passed immediately to the lot's bidFor method. Rewrite these statements to eliminate the
bid variable by using an anonymous object as seen in the enterLot method.