Re: Array of something

From:
Merciadri Luca <Luca.Merciadri@student.ulg.ac.be>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.help
Date:
Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:24:06 +0100
Message-ID:
<8762r7c5jt.fsf@merciadriluca-station.MERCIADRILUCA>
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Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> writes:

Merciadri Luca wrote:

I am defining a `Tableau' array of `Cell' elements. Tableau and Cell


Show us some code. I don't know what you mean by "a `Tableau' array
of `Cell' elements".

are both classes, and some methods over `Tableau' and `Cell' are
defined.

Now, my Cell class comprises a State so that to each Cell
instanciation a State is associated, i.e. one can make

==
Cell myCell = new Cell();
myCell.state


What do you expect to happen as a result of that standalone expression?

==

Now, for the `Tableau' array, if I need to access a Cell's state, do I need to write, for a `Tableau'
element: myTableau.cell.state? It would mean that a `cell' (of type
Cell) is defined for each `Tableau' element, and that is not the
case. But using myTableau.state would mean that `state' is a variable of
myTableau (of type `Tableau'), which is not the case too, because
state is defined for each Cell element.


Remember that a reference variable can have a value of 'null', and
member variables always start at their "zero" value, which for
references is 'null'.

Whatever you do to get a 'Cell', it's clearly 'Cell#state' that you want.

Show us class definitions. You're not speaking Java so it's really,
really hard to figure out what you need help with.

You can have something like this:

 package tableaux;
 public class Tableau
 {
   /* p-p */ Cell [] cells;
   ...
 }

and

 package tableaux;
 public class Cell
 {
   /* p-p */ State state;
   ...
 }

Your code to access individual 'Cell' state would be similar to:

 package tableaux;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 import static org.apache.log4j.Logger.getLogger;

 public class Processor
 {
  /* p-p */ Tableau tableau;

  // various setter methods that should give 'tableau' a value

  public void process()
  {
    if ( tableau == null || tableau.cells == null )
    {
      return;
    }
    for ( Cell cell : tableau.cells )
    {
      if ( cell != null && cell.state != null )
      {
        doSomethingWith( cell.state );
      }
    }
  }
 }

I'm ignoring the convention and best practice to use accessor and
mutator (getter and setter) methods instead of raw access to fields.
I did not ignore variable accessibility; I deliberately chose
package-private
('/* p-p */') access.

Thanks for your help. I will try to be more explicit in this message.

Here is a more complete description.

* I've got a Cell class which should allow me to define a state State for
  every Cell instanciation. That is, I define

==
public class Cell
{
 public enum State
 {
 DEAD, LIVING
 }
public State state;
}
==
(these are either DEAD or LIVING `Cell' that will be instanciated).

* I want to compare the value of the state of a Cell with a State
  `constant,' i.e. do something like

==
if (tableau.setOfCells[i][j].state == State.LIVING)
{
....
}
==
but compiler complains: `cannot find symbol State.'

* In the last chunk of code, tableau is a Tableau element where I've
  got a class `Tableau' defined like this:

==
public class Tableau
{
       public Cell[][] setOfCells;

       public Tableau(int n, int s)
       {
       setOfCells = new Cell[n][n];
       }
}
==
and where tableau is created thanks to the call to the accessor:

==
Tableau tableau = new Tableau(n, s);
==

That is, my main goal is to create two instances of `Tableau': tableau
and tableau2, which should contain each one a `setOfCells' element,
which would be a n*n Cell array. This array would then be accessed
using habitual indices, and, an element of this Cell array being a
Cell, accessing a Cell would lead to the possibility of accessing its state.

- --
Merciadri Luca
See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/
- --

If you want a thing done right, do it yourself.
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