CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javastatic
The Guy with The Hat
The Guy with The Hat

Reputation: 11132

Static methods & variables in instantiated classes

Say I have a class Person, which has a method doSomething(). I create a static ArrayList<Person> people, and a method doSomethingToAllPeople() which calls doSomething() for each Person in people. Should I put people and doSomethingToAllPeople() in the Person class or in a different PersonManager class? Does it even matter? Here is some example code:

class Person
{
    public void doSomething()
    {
        //stuff here
    }
}

//where should the following code go?
static List<Person> people = new ArrayList<Person>();
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    people.add(new Person());
}
static void doSomethingToAllPeople()
{
    for(Person person : people)
    {
        person.doSomething();
    }
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 105

Answers (1)

DeathByTensors
DeathByTensors

Reputation: 941

In short, it doesn't matter and is a matter of preference. However, if you want my opinion, I would consider keeping your Person class independent of your collection of Persons. Keeping these two parts separate preserves flexibility of the class, and one of the great things about Java is that it enables you to create nice, contained, reusable classes.
Consider a PersonRegistry class that implements a factory design pattern. It might have a method that creates an instance of Person and adds this instance to a collection before returning. This will enable to achieve your desired functionality while keeping Person independent and flexible.

Upvotes: 1

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