classes, help

[Tim Tock]

newbie here, hi all
Could someone show me how to read a variable from one class to another for example, i have a file called program1 and program 2, heres a snippet. In program2 I want to pull the value from program1 but the code doesnt seem to work, in program1 i have made the values public i.e. public int ... , ...;
program1:
public String toString() {
stringA += "my name"+myname+"last name" + lastname;
return stringA
}
program2:
System.out.println(program1.lastname);

[Angel Dobbs-Sciortino]

Using program1.lastname goes against proper encapsulation. You should use a get method. Also, you need to instantiate an instance of your Program1 object. Here's some example code:

class Program1 {
    ....
    public String toString() {
        stringA += "my name"+myname+"last name" + lastname;
        return stringA
    }
    public String getLastname() {
        return lastname;
    }
}
class Program2 {
    ....
        Program1 myProgram1 = new Program1();
        System.out.println(myProgram1.getLastname()); 
    ....
}

Angel
[ January 15, 2004: Message edited by: Angel Dobbs-Sciortino ]