Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

21.2 Self-Referential Classes

A self-referential class contains an instance variable that refers to another object of the same class type. For example, the generic Node class declaration

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class Node<T>{    private T data;    private Node<T> nextNode; // reference to next linked node    public Node(T data) { /* constructor body */ }    public void setData(T data) { /* method body */ }    public T getData() { /* method body */ }    public void setNext(Node<T> next) { /* method body */ }    public Node<T> getNext() { /* method body */ }}

has two private instance variables—data (of the generic type T) and Node<T> variable nextNode. Variable nextNode references a Node<T> object, an object of the same class being declared ...