CH11 – More Constructors

  1. If you have not completed the exercise on The Time Class, do so now.
  2. Open TheTimeClass.java and add the toString method and add the following constructor.
public String toString(){
  return this.hour + ":" + this.minute + ":" + this.second;
}
public TheTimeClass(int hour, int minute, int second){
  this.hour = hour;
  this.minute = minute;
  this.second = second;
}
  1. Attempt to compile the class.
$ javac TheTimeClass.java
TheTimeClass.java:17: error: constructor TheTimeClass in class TheTimeClass cannot be applied to given types;
    TheTimeClass myTime = new TheTimeClass();
                          ^
  required: int,int,int
  found: no arguments
  reason: actual and formal argument lists differ in length
1 error

The class doesn’t compile due to the new constructor added. If a class has an overloaded constructor then Java does not create a default no-argument constructor.

  1. Add the following constructor.
public TheTimeClass(){
  this.hour = 0;
  this.minute = 0;
  this.second = 0;
}
  1. Compile and run the program.
$ javac TheTimeClass.java
$ java TheTimeClass
0:0:0
  1. Modify main to call the constructor that takes parameters.
public static void main(String[] args){
  TheTimeClass myTime = new TheTimeClass(3,33,55);
  System.out.println(myTime.toString());
}
  1. Compile and run the program.
$ javac TheTimeClass.java
$ java TheTimeClass
3:33:55

The complete class should appear as follows.

public class TheTimeClass {
  private int hour;
  private int minute;
  private int second;

  public String toString(){
    return this.hour + ":" + this.minute + ":" + this.second;
  }

  public TheTimeClass(){
    this.hour = 0;
    this.minute = 0;
    this.second = 0;
  }

  public TheTimeClass(int hour, int minute, int second){
    this.hour = hour;
    this.minute = minute;
    this.second = second;
  }

  public static void main(String[] args){
    TheTimeClass myTime = new TheTimeClass(3,33,55);
    System.out.println(myTime.toString());
  }
}

For more practice with constructors refer to the following video tutorial by LearningLad.
 

 
And for another tutorial on constructors and explaining the this keyword, refer to this tutorial by LearningLad.