Class inside Class or not?

Programming Questions

Makio135

in Programming Questions • 1 year ago

Let's say you have an objectA defined by ClassA, containing an objectB defined by ClassB;

You can have two separate Class(es) like that:

ClassA object A = new ClassA();
class ClassA{
ClassB objectB = new ClassB();
ClassA(){}
}
class ClassB{
ClassB(){}
}

or a Class containing the other one like this:

ClassA object A = new ClassA();
class ClassA{
ClassB objectB = new ClassB();
ClassA(){}
class ClassB{
ClassB(){}
}
}

Discussing performance and architecture, is one is better than the other? and why?

Thanks

Replies(3)

tfguy44

Re: Class inside Class or not?

1 year ago

I would not define a class within another class. I don't know why you would want to.

PhiLho

Re: Class inside Class or not?

1 year ago

" I don't know why you would want to."
In real Java programming, it is used a lot. For example, you can have a class needing a small class, but only for its internal operations. But defining this class inside itself, it clearly marks it as internal usage only and prevents other classes to see it. That's encapsulation and information hiding.
We also often define internal anonymous classes, directly passed to functions.

If you search nested inner java classes, you will find better argued articles...

Note that "Class" should be written "class"...
Note also that all classes you define inside a .pde file are actually nested classes!

About the original question: performance isn't relevant here. Architecture is more important, for the reasons explained above.

Makio135

Re: Class inside Class or not?

1 year ago

Thank you PhiLho, i'll look for it, but you already confirmed my thoughts.

I corrected my Class/class mistake.

http://makio.free.fr/

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