Using Methods

In this lab you will create and use methods in the Person class.

Deliverable

A zipped NetBeans project with 2 classes

App

Person

Classes:

Suggestion:

Use Netbeans to copy your last lab (Lab 01) to a new project called Lab02.

Close Lab01.

Work on the new Netbeans project Lab02 then.

The Person Class

Attributes

String firstName

String lastName

String hometown

String state

Methodspublic String toString()

returns this object as a String, i.e., make each attribute a String, concatenate all strings and return as one String.

toString() is a special method, you will learn more about it in the next lessons

it needs to be public

it needs to have @override notation (on the line above the method itself). Netbeans will suggest you do it.

regarding state, the toString method will have a similar functionality as App had in the first lab.

if the state attribute is "PA", display the object's attribute name plus the message "is from Pennsylvania"

if the state attribute is not "PA", display the object's attribute name plus the message "is from out-of-state"

In short, the toString() method returns all the data from each object as a String

public void initials( )this method

gets firstName and lastName

extract the initials of each one of them

adds a "." period to each of them

and uses "System.out.println" to display them as one String

public void initials( int option)

this method overloads public void initials( ). This means, it has the same name, but a different number of parameters.

if the value of "option" is 1 gets firstName

extract its initials

adds a "." period to the extracted initial

adds the lastName to this String

and uses "System.out.println" to display the String

for instance, Joe Paterno would lead to the following display: J. Paterno

if the value of "option" is 2

adds firsName to a String

gets lastName

extract its initials

adds a "." period to the extracted initial

adds it to the String

and uses "System.out.println" to display the String

for instance, Joe Paterno would lead to the following display: Joe P.

The App class

Create 2 Person objects called p1 and p2.

p1 data:

firstName - Jillian lastName - Jennings hometown - Montclair state - NJ

p2 data:

firstName - Keaton lastName - Ellis hometown - State College state - PA

Then use System.out to display the data from the 2 objects:

System.out.println(p1.toString()); System.out.println(p2.toString());

Display a separator like System.out.println("=================="); Then call the initials( ) method from each object: p1.initials(); p2.initials();

Display a separator like System.out.println("==================");

Then call the initials( ) method from each object using parameters: p1.initials(1); p2.initials(2);

Output

The output should be

Person{firstName=Jillian, lastName=Jennings, hometown=Montclair, state=out-of-state} Person{firstName=Keaton, lastName=Ellis, hometown=State College, state=Pennsylvania} ================== J.J. K.E. ================== J. Jennings Keaton E. ==================