Passing data back and forth between classes

[Jeff Koch]

I need to understand how to pass data gathered in one .java file to another.java file.
For instance, I ask a user for their name and age. The I want to send the name and agae variable to another .java file to compute their birth day by subtracting their age from the current year. I then want to send the data bak to the first .java file to output the birth year.
I know I need to use instantiation, but I don't know where or how.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[Susilo Saja]

Hi Jeff,
You will understand better if you look at this tutorial :
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/
Susilo

[James Chegwidden]

Why do you need to use two different classes to solve this problem? Is this an assignment?

[Jeff Koch]

This question is in reference to a assignment. My specific example is not part of the assignment but just the type of assignment.
I essentially as supposed to pass data from one .java file to another. THe variables have to be gathhered in the first file and computed in the second?
THanks.

[Jeff Koch]

THe tutorial was good but not much help. Any other suggestions?

[Michael Dunn]

I really don't know the answer, I just played around with this - using the constructors to pass info - and it seems to work OK, but I don't know if there are any pitfalls doing it this way

import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
class PassData
{
  public static void main(String args[])
  {
    new PassData();
    System.exit(0);
  }
  public PassData()
  {
    String yob = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("enter your year of birth");
    new CalculateAge(yob);
  }
  public PassData(int age)
  {
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"you are/will be "+age+" this year");
  }
}
class CalculateAge
{
  public CalculateAge(String yearOfBirth)
  {
    int age = 2003 - Integer.parseInt(yearOfBirth);
    new PassData(age);
  }
}