5.7. Using Objects

You'll create a program to do some simple 2D geometry. This will give you an opportunity to use more than one class. You'll define two classes, a class that represents point objects and a class that represents line objects; you'll then use these to find the point at which two lines intersect. Call the example TryGeometry, so this will be the name of the directory or folder in which you should save the program files. Quite a few lines of code are involved, so you'll put it together piecemeal and get an understanding of how each piece works as you go.

Try It Out: The Point Class

You first define a basic class for point objects:

import static java.lang.Math.sqrt;

class Point {
  // Coordinates of the point
  double x;
  double y;

  // Create a point from coordinates
  Point(double xVal, double yVal) {
    x = xVal;
    y = yVal;
  }

  // Create a point from another Point object
  Point(final Point oldPoint) {
    x = oldPoint.x;                    // Copy x coordinate
    y = oldPoint.y;                    // Copy y coordinate
  }

  // Move a point
  void move(double xDelta, double yDelta) {
    // Parameter values are increments to the current coordinates
    x += xDelta;
    y += yDelta;
  }

  // Calculate the distance to another point
  double distance(final Point aPoint) {
    return sqrt((x - aPoint.x)*(x - aPoint.x) + (y - aPoint.y)*(y - aPoint.y));
  }

  // Convert a point to a string
  public String toString() {
    return Double.toString(x) + ", " + y;    // As "x, y"
  }
}

You should save this as Point.java in the directory TryGeometry.

5.7.1.

5.7.1.1. How ...

Get Ivor Horton's Beginning Java™ 2, JDK™ 5th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial