toString Methods
Print methods are common in some languages but most Java programs operate differently. You can use System.out.println() to print any object. However for good results your class should have a toString() method that formats the objects data in a sensible way and returns a String. Here's how we'd implement it in the website example:
public class ClassTest { public static void main(String args[]) { website x = new website("Cafe Au Lait, "http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/, "Really cool!); System.out.println(x); } } class website { String name; String url; String description; public website(String n, String u, String d) { name = n; url = u; description = d; } public website() { name = ; url = ; description = ; } public String toString() { return (name + at + url + is + description); } }
Unfortunately the object oriented language that took hold was C++. Among much fitter contenders for object languages, notably Smalltalk, C++ had the unique advantage of being downward compatible with the C programmers were already familiar with. Unfortunately this advantage had the huge side effect of forcing C++ to accept all of C's obfuscated macros, pointer arithmetic, and now redundant structs. The baggage imposed on C++ by the need to be compatible with C went a long way toward wiping out the advantage of object oriented programming.
Java is the latest and possibly the greatest third generation programming language. Here I need to explain why Java is a better OOP language than C++.