Java How to Program Fourth Edition - DCC

Chapter 6 Methods 275
6.11 Scope Rules
The scope of an identifier for a variable, reference or method is the portion of the program
that can reference the identifier. A local variable or reference declared in a block can be
used only in that block or in blocks nested within that block. The scopes for an identifier
are class scope and block scope. There is also a special scope for labels used with the
break and continue statements (introduced in Chapter 5, “Control Structures: Part
2”). A label is visible only in the body of the repetition structure that immediately follows
the label.
Methods and instance variables of a class have class scope. Class scope begins at the
opening left brace, {, of the class definition and terminates at the closing right brace, }, of
the class definition. Class scope enables methods of a class to invoke directly all methods
defined in that same class or inherited into that class (such as the methods inherited into our
applets from class JApplet) and to access directly all instance variables defined in the
class. In Chapter 8, we will see that static methods are an exception to this rule. In a
sense, all instance variables and methods of a class are global to the methods of the class
in which they are defined (i.e., the methods can modify the instance variables directly and
invoke other methods of the class). [Note: One of the reasons we use mainly applets in this
chapter is to simplify our discussions. We have not as yet introduced a true windowed
application in which the methods of our application class will have access to all the other
methods of the class and the instance variables of the class.]
Identifiers declared inside a block have block scope. Block scope begins at the identifier’s
declaration and ends at the terminating right brace (}) of the block. Local variables
of a method have block scope, as do method parameters, which are also local
variables of the method. Any block may contain variable or reference declarations. When
blocks are nested in a method’s body and an identifier declared in an outer block has the
same name as an identifier declared in an inner block, the compiler generates a syntax
error stating that the variable is already defined. If a local variable in a method has the
same name as an instance variable, the instance variable is “hidden” until the block terminates
execution. In Chapter 8, we discuss how to access such “hidden” instance variables.
Common Programming Error 6.14
Accidentally using the same name for an identifier in an inner block of a method as is used
for an identifier in an outer block of the same method results in a syntax error from the compiler.
6.14
Good Programming Practice 6.7
Avoid local-variable names that hide instance-variable names. This can be accomplished by
avoiding the use of duplicate identifiers in a class. 6.7
The applet of Fig. 6.10 demonstrates scoping issues with instance variables and local
variables.
This example uses the applet’s start method (lines 27–40) for the first time.
Remember, when an applet container loads an applet, the container first creates an
instance of the applet class. It then calls the applet’s init, start and paint methods.
Method start always is defined with the line shown on line 27 as its first line.
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