serialization..

[Preethi Dev]

can anyone explain me what exactly object state means?

i read that only instance variables are part of object state and not even instance methods(from whizlab).
i thought methods also part of object state.

please someone clear this...

Thanks
Preetha

[Punit Singh]

No, no only instance variable are object's state.

Instance methods are shared between all objects of a class.
While instance variable are provided different memory for all objects.

[Ruben Soto]

That's a good point (only instance variables are part of an object's state.)
Static references are not considered part of an object-specific state, even though they represent some sort of state. What thing do they represent the state of? The class. And like Punit mentioned about instance methods being shared by all objects of the class, the same happens with static references (and methods, of course.)

Above, when I say object-specific state, what I mean is that every object is affected by the state of the class (represented by the values of static references,) but this is not state specific to the object itself, which only encompasses the state of instance references.
[ December 19, 2008: Message edited by: Ruben Soto ]

[Preethi Dev]

Hi,
still i am not clear. could someone please explain me with an example...

thanks
Preeth

[K Raj Kumar]

Hi,
Every class describes what an object knows and what an object does.
What Object knows is Instance variable(State) and What object does is Method(Behavior)

For example:
Consider this;

class Animal
{
Instance variables/State: like weight, location, color etc.
Methods/Behavior: like eat(),roam()and so on.
}

Hope this may help you in understanding better.

[Preethi Dev]

Thanks Rajkumar, it's clear now.

Preparing for Scjp5
Preetha