Wrapper Classes

Christiane, Ralf, Ann, Tom

Hasso Plattner Institute

Problems we might have...

■  We have a String:
String myNumber = "1337";

■  How do we create an Integer out of it?

■  Casting? à NO!!!
□  We can only cast objects...
□  ...along their inheritance hierarchy.

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Primitives Lack Possibilities

■  Primitives are things like:

int i = 7;
double d = 3.1;

à We can't call methods on them. L

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Wrapper

■  Each primitive data type has a corresponding object data type

■  They offer:
□  Methods specifically for that data type, e.g. parsing:
Integer.parseInt(String s) to transform a String to an Integer
□  Constants, e.g. Integer.MAX_VALUE à 2147483647

Primitive Data Type Corresponding

Object Data Type
int Integer
double Double
boolean Boolean
char Character

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Wrappers:
Parsing Methods

1 double d = Double.parseDouble("1.234");
2 int i = Integer.parseInt("1234");
3 boolean b = Boolean.parseBoolean("true");
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NumberFormat

5 double d = Double.parseDouble("Hello"); Exception

Typical parsing method:

<<target data type>> parseTargetDT (<<source data type>> <<identifier>>){

<<target data type>> result;

[...] // logic to transform source variable 


to target data type goes here

return result;

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Wrappers:
Parsing Methods

1 double d = Double.parseDouble("1.234");
2 int i = Integer.parseInt("1234");
3 boolean b = Boolean.parseBoolean("true");

Parsing
Parsing transforms data types.
Java offers pre-defined parsing methods for all primitive data types.

Parsing is not casting. Parsing is done instead of casting.

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Wrapper Classes
Christiane, Ralf, Ann, Tom

Hasso Plattner Institute