looking at some code ('this', and a method)

[Jasper Vader]

Hi, here is some code below... i am wondering two things - first, the private ints a, b, and c are initialised to zero? and then the Constructor has to use 'this' to assign received args into these class variables. But i wonder why the toString method executes without being called?
class Abc {
private int a;
private int b;
private int c;
Abc(int a, int b, int c) {
this.a = a;
this.b = b;
this.c = c;
}
public String toString() {
return "a = " + a + ", b = " + b + ", c = " + c;
}
}
public class OwnString {
public static void main (String args[])
{
Abc theAbc = new Abc(11, 14, 19);
System.out.println ("Here it is, the result of my very own toString :-) : " + theAbc);
}
}

[Blake Minghelli]

Originally posted by Jasper Vader:
first, the private ints a, b, and c are initialised to zero?

Yup.

Originally posted by Jasper Vader:
But i wonder why the toString method executes without being called?

If you concatenate a String with some other object, like you did in your code, the jvm automatically calls the toString() on the object. It's just one of those cool things built into the language.
So when you have this:

System.out.println ("Here it is, the result of my very own toString :-) : " + theAbc);

Java automatically does the equivalent of this:

System.out.println ("Here it is, the result of my very own toString :-) : " + theAbc.toString());

[Jasper Vader]

oh wow, what a trip!
yes, it is a cool thing thanks for saying that, as being new to this i would be tempted to initially think, 'this is a confusing thing about java', but no, as you say, it is one of those cool things built into the language.

[Ilja Preuss]

Originally posted by Blake Minghelli:

System.out.println ("Here it is, the result of my very own toString :-) : " + theAbc);

Java automatically does the equivalent of this:

System.out.println ("Here it is, the result of my very own toString :-) : " + theAbc.toString());

Well, actually it's a little bit more complicated; typically (depending on the compiler) it gets compiled to

System.out.println(new StringBuffer().append("Here it is, the result of my very own toString :-) : ").append(theAbc).toString());

It's the append method of StringBuffer which will call String.valueOf(theAbc), which checks that the string isn't null and finally calls the toString method on the object.
Well, I am not sure wether this did help at all... :roll:

[Jasper Vader]

well, it is interesting, and informative to know that there is a bit more going on behind the scenes. In terms of getting certification, of course i want to attain that rather 'blunt' goal, but in terms of actually coding graceful incisive well formulated comprehensive code (one day), this information is very helpful to my understanding thankyou Ilja .

[Ilja Preuss]

You're welcome!

[Eric Fletcher]

Ilja's post also brings up another point to remember about writing efficient String-handling code:

Use a StringBuffer and append instead of using the concatenation operator for Strings.
This is a classic performance enhancement tip in Java. Since a StringBuffer is being used "under the hood", just use it in your code instead and save the JVM a step.
Cheers,
E