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§ 10 Tutorial 10

This tutorial teaches you how to create single dimensional and multi-dimensional arrays of objects. The object types are all types execpt for boolean, char, int, float and double. A helpful convention in Java is that the Object types start with an uppercase letter, while non-object types start with a lowercase letter, such as for example the String class as an example of an object type. In addition to this, two different array initialization syntaxes are presented.

§ 10.1 Single dimensional arrays

Question 10.1: Here is an example of a convenient one dimensional array initialization syntax. Study, compile and run the following code. The code Person[] should be read out loud as person array indicating the variable a is a person array, also known as an array of persons.

class Person 
begin 
   private property String name; 

   public constructor Person(String aName) 
   begin 
      name = aName; 
   end 

   public String toString() 
   begin 
      return name; 
   end 
end 

class PersonTest 
begin 
   beginMain 
      var Person[] a = { new Person("Person # 1"), new Person("Person # 2"), new Person("Person # 3") }; 

      for (var int i=0; i<3; i=i+1) 
      begin 
         System.out.println("a[" + i + "]=" + a[i]); 
      end 
   endMain 
end 

Due to a design oversight by the creators of Java you cannot use this syntax to re-initialize an array like so:

// Compilation error 
a = { new Person("Person # 4"), new Person("Person # 5"), new Person("Person # 6"), new Person("Person # 7") }; 

Luckily there is a way array around this oversight and that is to use a design pattern where you introduce a temporary variable like so:

// No error 
var Person[] temp = { new Person("Person # 4"), new Person("Person # 5"), new Person("Person # 6"), new Person("Person # 7") }; 
a = temp; // Array "a" now holds Person # 4,Person # 5,Person # 6,Person # 7 

Later you will learn why this design pattern is useful for re-initialising multi-dimensional arrays.

Question 10.2: Write a function in the class PersonTest called print that takes a Person array argument and prints out the array. You will need to use the length property of the array parameter so your function works with arbitrary sized arrays. Change the main function to what follows so that it contains a call to the print function.

var Person[] a = { new Person("Person # 1"), new Person("Person # 2"), new Person("Person # 3")}; 
print(a); 

Question 10.3: Write your own class called Mine similar to the Person class with a one int parameter constructor, a private int property p and a toString method that converts p to a string. Then write a function in the PersonTest class with same name as the previous print function, except that this one takes a Mine[], also known as a Mine array. You might recall from Tutorial 7 that this practice of having two functions with the same name is called function name overloading. Change the main function to what follows so that it initializes an array of Mine point variables and then calls the second print function.

var Mine[] b = { new Mine(1), new Mine(2), new Mine(3) }; 
print(b); 

Here is an example of a second initialization syntax. For this particular example it is better to use the simpler, earlier initialization syntax, but when the size of the array to be created is to be determined at run-time, then the second syntax should used. The next question will show you an example of this.

beginMain 
   var Person[] a = new Person[3]; 
   // at this point the array is all nulls 
   for (var int i=0; i<3; i=i+1) 
   begin 
      a[i] = new Person("Person # " + (i+1)); 
   end 
   print(a); 
endMain 

Question 10.4: Write a function create takes one int argument, the size of the array to create and returns a Person array of that size. Make it so the i^th element of the array is initialized to "Person # " + i. Call this function from the main function like so:

beginMain 
   var Person[] a = create(3); 
   print(a); 
endMain 

Question 10.5: Write a function create2 takes one int argument, the size of the array to create and returns a Mine array of that size. Make it so the i^th element of the array's toString method prints out "Mine # " + i. Why is it not possible to overload that create function? Try it and see what the compiler says. Call create2 from the main function like so:

beginMain 
   var Mine[] a = create2(3); 
   print(a); 
endMain 

Question 10.6: Write a function doubler that takes a Person array x and returns a new Person array called result twice as big as x. Copy x into the result before you return it. The extra elements in result should all be null.

Question 10.7: Change the doubler function so that every null in the array result is set to a new Person make it so that every new Person object has a different name property.

§ 10.2 Two dimensional arrays

Question 10.8: Here is an example of a convenient two dimensional array initialization syntax. Study, compile and run the following code. The code Person[][] should be read out loud as person array array indicating the variable a is a person array array, also known as a two-dimensional array of persons.

beginMain 
   var Person[][] a = { { new Person("Person # 1"), new Person("Person # 2"), new Person("Person # 3") }, 
                     { new Person("Person # 4"), new Person("Person # 5") }, 
                     { new Person("Person # 6") } }; 

   for (var int y=0; y<a.length; y=y+1) 
   begin 
      for (var int x=0; x<a[y].length; x=x+1) 
      begin 
         System.out.print(" " + a[y][x]); 
      end 
      System.out.println(); 
   end 
endMain 

Question 10.9: By copying the pattern of the code above, do some more overloading of the print function by writing two new print functions, one taking a two dimensional array of Person, the other taken a two dimensional array of Mine. The call both of these functions from the main function.

Since a[0] is a Person array,you would naively expect it to be able to be re-initialized like so:

a[0] = { new Person("Person # 4"),
         new Person("Person # 5"),
         new Person("Person # 6") }; 

so that after this code a0 holds the four element long array Person # 4,Person # 5 and Person # 6,but it does't work owing to a design oversight by the creators of Java. Luckily as mentioned above there is a way around this oversight and that is to use a temporary variable like so:

var Person[] temp = { new Person("Person # 4"),
                        new Person("Person # 5"),
                        new Person("Person # 6") }; 
a[0] = temp; // Array "a[0]" now holds Person # 4,Person # 5,Person # 6 

Like with one dimensional arrays,there is a second initialisation syntax for two dimensional arrays and here it is. Unlike the above code the sub-arrays a[0],a[1] and a[2] are all of equal size,namely three.

var Person[][] a = new Person[3][3]; 
a[0][0] = new Person("Person # 1"); 
a[0][1] = new Person("Person # 2"); 
a[0][2] = new Person("Person # 3"); 
a[1][0] = new Person("Person # 4"); 
a[1][1] = new Person("Person # 5"); 
a[1][2] = new Person("Person # 6"); 
a[2][0] = new Person("Person # 7"); 
a[2][1] = new Person("Person # 8"); 
a[2][2] = new Person("Person # 9"); 

Question 10.10: Write a function create3 and create4 that takes an int argument size and returns a two dimensional array of Person or Mine, respectively. Make is so that each Person or Mine object has its own number, using a separate counter variable int count.

§ 10.3 Three dimensional arrays

Question 10.11: Using the knowledge you have gained so far about arrays, create, initialize and print a three dimensional array of Person. Make it so that each Person object is given its own number using a separate counter variable int count.