Composition

In most cases, objects will contain data members that are references to other objects. For example, we might have a Student class and an instance of Student has a reference to an instance of Name.

Student Record - Two Ways

public class Name {

    private String first;
    private String last;

    public Name(String first, String last) {
        this.first = first;
        this.last = last;
    }

    public void setLast(String last) {
        this.last = last;
    }

}

public class Student {
    private Name name;
    private int id;

    public Student(Name name, int id) {
        this.name = name;
        this.id = id;
    }

    public Name getName() {
        return this.name;
    }

}

public class Driver {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Name n = new Name("Bob", "Jones");
        int id = 1234;
        Student s = new Student(n, id);

        //change the last name
        Name curname = s.getName();
        curname.setLast("Smith");
    }

}

In this first example, the Driver must be aware of how the Student object stores the Name. It creates a Name object and passes it to the Student constructor. When the Driver wishes to change the last name stored in the Name object, it first retrieves the object from the Student object and then invokes the appropriate method.

public class Name {

    private String first;
    private String last;

    public Name(String first, String last) {
        this.first = first;
        this.last = last;
    }

    public void setLast(String last) {
        this.last = last;
    }

}

public class Student {
    private Name name;
    private int id;

    public Student(String first, String last, int id) {
        this.name = new Name(first, last);
        this.id = id;
    }

    public void changeLast(String last) {
        this.name.setLast(last);
    }

}

public class Driver {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String first = "Bob";
        String last = "Jones";
        int id = 1234;
        Student s = new Student(first, last, id);

        //change the last name
        s.changeLast("Smith");

    }

}

In this second example, the Driver does not have to be aware of how the Student stores the Name. In many ways, this is preferable since Student can change the way it stores the name and the API it exposes does not need to change. No other code that uses Student's API must change. Notice that the Name class remains the same.

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Student Record - Two Ways

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