Why is a non existing object used as a parameter?

Question about the task

Implement the fight method

Java Syntax, Level 5, Lesson 5

Under discussion

I do not understand why in this code:

public boolean fight(Cat anotherCat) {
    //write your code here
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

}

... The object anotherCat is used as a parameter, but this object is not made into the main method?

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Love Patel

Level 5 , San Leandro, United States

8 April 2019, 00:39

that is a blueprint method. An object of Cat type can be passed there. anotherCat is not an object its just a variable that will hold an object. so imagine the word anotherCat being replaced by whatever object you pass like cat1. Then the method will work on the cat1 object. That method is a blueprint method like a design which will be used to do things on the object you actually create. To use this blueprint method you use something like:

cat2.fight(cat1);

Here we are calling the blueprint method for cat2 object that you created, and passing another object cat1 that you created as its argument. When cat1 is passed as argument imagine that the word "anotherCat" is replaced by the word cat1. and the method works on cat1 and returns true or false. Hope that helps. If you have more questions feel free to ask me.

Vatsal Patel

Level 15 , Naperville, United States

7 February 2019, 22:41

anotherCat is just a variable that is going to get passed in when fight method is called.

Syed Tayyab ul Mazhar

Level 12 , Karachi, China

6 January 2019, 10:54

useful

Cat anotherCat is not an object but, a variable that can hold the reference of a Cat object.

Ritesh Kumar Mandal

Level 9 , Delhi, India

6 January 2019, 10:05

useful

When the fight method is called we need two objects to compare the values of and determine which cat wins. The first object was used to call the method, So now the question is how to get the other object to compare. So, we passed the second object as a parameter that way to hold the other object we had given the parameter anotherCat. e.g. cat1.fight(cat2). Also, a fight can't be done without at least two cats so, you need to create at least two cat objects to call the fight method.