Question about taks level 2 - Assigning reference variables

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Hello everyone , i managed to complete this task for the level 2 : public class Solution { public static void main(String[] args) { //write your code here Cat cat1 = new Cat(); Woman woman1 = new Woman(); cat1.owner = woman1; // i don't get well the meaning of this } } public static class Cat { public Woman owner; // and expecially this } but somehow i'm not quite sure if i understood the functionality of this in Java, creating an object alright, assigning the object to istance variables okay, but in this case what should this be? Assigning a reference to another reference? I don't know if i explained myself well , but could you explain this to me better ? Or maybe do you have some internet sources that explain this in a more detailed way? Thanks a lot!

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Gellert Varga

Level 23 , Szekesfehervar, Hungary

4 April 2021, 14:13

solution

public static class Cat {
     public Woman owner;
     public int age;
}

This is a class. That in itself does nothing. This is just a blueprint for later cat objects. It means each created cat object will have the following variables: age (primitive, int), and owner (reference type: Woman-type) When you write this:

Cat cat1 = new Cat ();

then you created a new Cat-type object. This cat1 object has an int age variable and a Woman-type owner variable. But you have not yet assigned a specific value to any of the variables. You can assign a number to the age variable:

cat1.age = 4;

And you can assign only a previously created Woman object's reference to this Woman-type owner variable:

Woman ladyGaga = new Woman();
cat1.owner = ladyGaga;

In this case the ladyGaga and the cat1.owner variables have the same reference to the same Woman object.

Luniae

Level 2 , Stuttgart, Germany

4 April 2021, 14:30

Thanks a lot , now is clear. And to be able to assign the Woman owner reference to the Cat class i have to respectively create another Woman class that act as a blueprint for the Woman object, right? public class Woman { }

Gellert Varga

Level 23 , Szekesfehervar, Hungary

4 April 2021, 20:19

Yes. 1) You have to have a Woman class. 2) You have to create an object from this Woman class, and to store its reference in a Woman-type variable. 3) You have to create an object from Cat class, and you have to store its reference in a Cat-type variable 4) Now you can assign the reference from the point 2 to the cat1.owner.