Instance Variables

The pieces of data that make up an object are sometimes called components, records, or fields. In Java they are called instance variables because each object, which is an instance of its type, has its own copy of the instance variables.

It's like the glove compartment of a car. Each car is an instance of the type "car," and each car has its own glove compartment. If you asked me to get something from the glove compartment of your car, you would have to tell me which car is yours.

Similarly, if you want to read a value from an instance variable, you have to specify the object you want to get it from. In Java this is done using "dot notation."

The expression blank.x means "go to the object blank refers to, and get the value of x." In this case we assign that value to a local variable named x. Notice that there is no conflict between the local variable named x and the instance variable named x. The purpose of dot notation is to identify which variable you are referring to unambiguously.

You can use dot notation as part of any Java expression, so the following are legal.

The first line prints 3, 4; the second line calculates the value 25.