class and instance variables

[charu latha]

my program is given below:

public class classVariable {
  // class variable declaration
  int s;
  String p;
   
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    // local variable
    int j = 0;
     // creating two instances of the class
     classVariable cv = new classVariable();
     classVariable cvs = new classVariable();
     // printing of variables to check what values they hold
     System.out.println ("value of j is " + j);
     System.out.println ("value of cv.s is " + cv.s);
     System.out.println ("value of cv.p is " + cv.p);
     // initializing the class variables however in a specific instance
     cv.s = 1000;
     cv.p = "firststring";
     // would expect the variables to print the values that have been initialized above 
     System.out.println ("value of cvs.s is " + cvs.s);
     System.out.println ("value of cvs.p is " + cvs.p);
     
     System.out.println ("value of cv.s is " + cv.s);
     System.out.println ("value of cv.p is " + cv.p);
    }
  }

the output is :
value of j is 0
value of cv.s is 0
value of cv.p is null
value of cvs.s is 0
value of cvs.p is null
value of cv.s is 1000
value of cv.p is firststring
i have initialized the values of s and p. i was under the impression that class variables belonged to the class and not to the instance and it did not matter if they were prefixed with the instance name their values would still remain the same. Am i missing something basic here???
[ Jess added UBB [CODE] tags to preserve whitespace. ]
[ October 01, 2002: Message edited by: Jessica Sant ]

[Jessica Sant]

I think you're getting a bit confused by local variables, static variables and non-static variables.
int j is a local variable -- it belongs only to the method it is defined in.
int s and String p are non-static variables -- it belongs to the instance of a class. You have created two instances: cv and cvs.
you don't have any static variables defined. Try modifying one of the non-static variables to use the 'static' modifier, and see what happens, I think you'll get more the behavior you expected. But realize, its VERY bad practice to access a static variable through an instance.

[charu latha]

Thanks for the information. I was under the impression that if i declared a class variable then it automatically became a static variable. I think that is not the case. I did my program again with static prefixed the class variables and it worked as i wanted it to.