instance variables of Abstract Classes

[Rajat Sarkar]

Abstract classes can have instance variables.But abstract classes can't never be instantiated.So where do the instance variables live in?

[Vijitha Kumara]

Rajat Sarkar wrote:Abstract classes can have instance variables.But abstract classes can't never be instantiated.So where do the instance variables live in?

Abstract classes can have certain method implementations in it which are not abstract. Those methods can use those variables.

[Omar Al Kababji]

in addition the instance variables could be used by the concrete class that extends the abstract class, for example if you have an abstract class named Person and you specify that it has an instance variables named Head, then if a class named Employee extends Person, it can acceess the head instance variable.

public abstract class Person{
protected Head head;

//... abstract methods and other stuff
}

public class Employee extends Person{
   public void doHeadStuff(){
      System.out.println("you can play with the Head instance variable here too..." + head.toString());
   }
}

(peace)

[Omar Al Kababji]

hope you got my point ;)