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Re: Constructor, setters and getters
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Posted: May 4, 2009 11:43 PM
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> Ok, I am an green Java programmer in a Java class for
> college (online) I am having trouble getting my instructor
> to respond to my questions so I figure that I will ask
> them here.
>
> If we initialize variables via a constructor such
> such as:
>
> private String firstName
> private String lastName
>
> public employee (String first, String last)
>
>
> Why do we include setter methods that initialize the
> e the string parameters "first" and "last" to "firstName"
> and "lastName"?
>
> Why do we not just initialize these variables via the
> a the constructor with the same variable names("firstName"
> and "lastName" instead of "first" and "last") in the
> first place?
>
> Would the constructor not assign these values to the
> correct variables anyways so we could just skip the
> "setter" methods and go straight to creating "getter"
> methods to access these variable values?
You can initialize the variables via a Constructor, but in the case of Getters and Setters they are really accessor methods to your object. You could still access your variables via reflection (but that's a different path for frameworky stuff).
Employee emp = new Empoyee("Someone", "Surname");
// now firstName = "Someone" and lastName = "Surname"
Now say the last name has changed, do you really want to go and instantiate emp again?
emp.setLastName("NewMarriedName");
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