Isn't this contradictory ?

[Netty poestel]

Page 1 of section[4.5] Marcus Green tutorial states:-

"Essentially a class level variable will always be assigned a default value and a member variable (one contained within a method) will not be assigned any default value. "

but

"Certified Programmer & Developer for Java 2 Study Guide...by Kathy Sierra and Bates " states on page 33[1st chapter- Language fundamentals]:-
Instance variables[ also called as member variables] are variables defined at the class level.

Isn't this contradictory ?

[Jay Pawar]

Netty,

Here are my views...

"Essentially a class level variable will always be assigned a default value and a member variable (one contained within a method) will not be assigned any default value. "

I wouldn't call member variable which is within a method. Variables within a method are called local variables and they need to be initialized before you use them.
I perfectly agree with Kathy & Bert's terminology for member variables

[Jay Pawar]

Typo...
I meant to say I wouldn't call a variable which is within a method as MEMBER variable. I believe it's a local variable

[Colin Fletcher]

There is a difference in termanology here.

Instance Variables = member variables = class level variable
local variable = METHOD variables = are defined within a method.

public class Person {
  private String userName;  // instance or member variable
 
  public void doSomething() {
     String aVariable;           // method variable
      ...
   }
 
}

From the code snippet above, you can see the userName variable is an instance variable or a member variable. The aVariable variable in doSomething is a method variable.

Hope this helps

[Jay Pawar]

Netty,
I would appreciate if you could give me a link to Marcus Green tutorial ?
Thanks in advance

[Corey McGlone]

Just as my own nitpick, be careful when you refer to "class-level" variables. When someone says "class-level" to me, I immediately think static variable. The terminology I use is like this, and usually seems to be appropriate:

Local Variable - A variable defined within a method
Instance Variable / Member Variable - A non-static variable declared within a class
Class Variable / Static variable - A static variable declared within a class

[Barry Gaunt]

Originally posted by Jay Pawar:
Netty,
I would appreciate if you could give me a link to Marcus Green tutorial ?
Thanks in advance

Marcus' Java Certification HeadQuarters (JCHQ)

I started out there before I came over to JavaRanch. Marcus has helped a lot towards my SCJP 1.4 - especially the Question Of The Day

[Netty poestel]

Marcus tutorial page URL [Objective 5, Unassigned variables]:-

http://www.jchq.net/certkey/0405certkey.htm

and thx. all for all the feedbacks.