Setters
A setter is simply a function that sets a value for you.
In Java, we normally declare setters as public functions that
can access the private member variables of a class’s objects and set their
values.
A setter normally has a parameter and its return type is void,
meaning that it returns nothing after it executes.
For example:
Let us define a Person
class with two member variables: an age and a name. Age is of type int while
name is of type String. Then, we create a setter for the age variable and
another setter for the name variable.
public class Person {
private int
age;
private
String name;
public void setAge(int
age) {
this.age
= age;
}
public void
setName() {
this.name
= name;
}
public static void main (String[]
args) {
Person
person1 = new Person();
person1.setAge(15);
person1.setName(“Jacob”);
}
}
Getters
A getter is simply a function that gets a value for you.
In Java, we normally declare getters as public functions that
can access the private member variables of a class’s objects and retrieve their
values.
A getter does not have any parameters and its return type is
similar to the datatype of the parameter whose value it gets.
For example:
Let us define a Person
class with two member variables: an age and a name. Age is of type int while
name is of type String. Then, we create a getter for the age variable and
another getter for the name variable.
public class Person {
private int
age;
private
String name;
public int
getAge() {
return
age;
}
public
String getName() {
return
name;
}
public static void main (String[]
args) {
Person
person1 = new Person();
System.out.println(“Person1’s
name is ” + person1.getName());
System.out.println(“Person1’s
age is ” + person1.getAge());
}
}
Now that we know how to define getters and setters, let us
put everything together into one class.
A getter is simply a functions that gets a value for you.
In Java, we normally declare getters as public functions that
can access the private member variables of a class and retrieve their values.
A getter does not have any parameters and its return type is
similar to the datatype of the parameter whose value it gets.
For example:
Let us define a Person
class with two member variables: an age and a name. Age is of type int while
name is of type String. Then, we create a getter for the age variable and
another getter for the name variable.
public class Person {
private int
age;
private
String name;
public void setAge(int age) {
this.age
= age;
}
public void
setName(String name) {
this.name
= name;
}
public int
getAge() {
return
age;
}
public
String getName() {
return
name;
}
public static void main (String[]
args) {
Person
person1 = new Person();
person1.setAge(15);
person1.setName(“Jacob”);
System.out.println(“Person1’s
name is ” + person1.getName());
System.out.println(“Person1’s
age is ” + person1.getAge());
}
}
Figure 1: Getters and Setters. You can even use a getter and
setter from another class, within the same package or after importing another
package.
It is important that I mention that most IDEs can generate
getter and setter functions for you. You have to first define your member
variables. In Eclipse, you can right-click within the body of the file
containing the file, go to Source
and select Generate Getters and Setters.
So, practice creating your getters and setters, try using
them from another class within the same package and from different packages and
see what happens. Also, try to get your IDE to generate getters and setters for
you and see whether or not they look identical to what we’ve discussed above.
If you have any questions or comments, please drop them in
the comments section below and I will address them as soon as possible.
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