Dependency vs Association

Folks
I am doing my partII assignment and having a tough time trying to distinguish if a relationship is either a dependency or association.
I know the definitions, any insights or rules of thumb that I can use from a practical perspective???
Eric

Eric,
Association is stronger than dependency. Association can be further specified as extends, implements, aggregation relationships.
From programming point of view, if you use class A as a paramater of a method or return type of a method in class B, then class B has dependency relationship with class A.
Victor
SCJP, SCWCD, SCEA

Victor
On the same note, say a class A instantiates Class B and calls its methods, then its an association ??

-@RIC

That could be stronger than association. It might
be aggregation or composition.
The experts disagree about what's what.

Eric,
Don't think too deep. I mean don't think at very detailed level. If you want to think in detail, do it with the following perspectives:
1) does class A hold class B as member variable?
2) does class A extends class B
3) does class A implements interface C
4) does class A's methods depend on class B or does changes to class B reflect class A behavior?

I highly suggest you design your system not in very detail level.

Victor , Rufus
Thanks for ur suggestions.
One more clarification, So does it imply that relationships are implementation dependant and varies from each person who designed the application???
eRIC

Eric,
No. Your design should be as less implementation dependent as possible. But for assignment, you can stick to J2EE implementation perspective.
Yes. It varies from each person who designed the application??? Every design is unique for each architect.

In the strictest UML sense, I would not term 'extends' or 'implements' as association. They indicate relashionships between classes, but not association.
There are 4 types of relashionships - Association (Aggregation and Composition are stronger forms), Dependency, Generalization (extends) and realization (via implements or via delegation.)
For more on association and the stronger forms check threads:
http://www.coderanch.com/t/149591/java-Architect-SCEA/certification/UML-composition-vs-aggregation
http://www.coderanch.com/t/150298/java-Architect-SCEA/certification/Aggregation-Composition
HTH.

A UML diagram is implemetatin dependent. UML
Modeling is like speaking a language. It's
a new language and different speakers do things
different ways.

Peter Coad gave an example of aggregation
as the relationship between an organization and
its clerks; Jim Rumbaugh stated that a company
is not an aggregation of its employees. When
gurus can't agree what are we to do?

from UML Distilled by Addison-Wesley

Thanks for ur insight folks, if was very helpfull.
Now I feel like I am relationships expert, jus kidding.
eRIC