Dynamically creating a new instance in Java
I have a class called CD
with the following private variables:
private String artist = "";
private String year = "";
private String albumName = "";
private ArrayList<String> songs = new ArrayList<String>();
This class is used to store input data, which is in this format:
Led Zeppelin
1979 In Through the Outdoor
-In the Evening
-South Bound Saurez
-Fool in the Rain
-Hot Dog
-Carouselambra
-All My Love
-I'm Gonna Crawl
I have a class CDParser
that is responsible for parsing a file named sample.db
line by line to store it in our CD
object. After parsing, the object, CD
after initialization with using, CD newCD = new CD()
has the following structure:
artist = "Led Zeppelin"
year = "1979"
albumName = "In Through the Outdoor"
songs = {"-In the Evening", "-South Bound Saurez", "-Fool in the Rain", "-Hot Dog"}
Now .. For this project sample.db
contains many albums which look like this:
Led Zeppelin
1979 In Through the Outdoor
-In the Evening
-South Bound Saurez
-Fool in the Rain
-Hot Dog
-Carouselambra
-All My Love
-I'm Gonna Crawl
Led Zeppelin
1969 II
-Whole Lotta Love
-What Is and What Should Never Be
-The Lemon Song
-Thank You
-Heartbreaker
-Living Loving Maid (She Just a Woman)
-Ramble On
-Moby Dick
-Bring It on Home
Bob Dylan
1966 Blonde on Blonde
-Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
-Pledging My Time
-Visions of Johanna
-One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
-I Want You
-Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
-Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
-Just Like a Woman
-Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
-Temporary Like Achilles
-Absolutely Sweet Marie
-4th Time Around
-Obviously 5 Believers
-Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
I have so far been able to parse all three different albums and save them to my object CD
, but I came across a roadblock where I just save all three albums to the same object newCD
.
My question: is there any way to initialize the software designer CD
, who will follow the format newCD1
, newCD2
, newCD3
etc., as I can make out sample.db
?
This means that when parsing this file:
-
newCD1
there will be an albumIn Through the Outdoor
(and its corresponding private vars) -
newCD2
there will be an albumII
(and its corresponding private vars) -
newCD3
there will be an albumBlonde on Blonde
, etc.
Is this a smart way to do it? Or could you suggest me a better way?
EDIT:
Attached code for my parser. ourDB
is ArrayList
containing each line sample.db
:
CD newCD = new CD();
int line = 0;
for(String string : this.ourDB) {
if(line == ARTIST) {
newCD.setArtist(string);
System.out.println(string);
line++;
} else if(line == YEAR_AND_ALBUM_NAME){
String[] elements = string.split(" ");
String[] albumNameArr = Arrays.copyOfRange(elements, 1, elements.length);
String year = elements[0];
String albumName = join(albumNameArr, " ");
newCD.setYear(year);
newCD.setAlbumName(albumName);
System.out.println(year);
System.out.println(albumName);
line++;
} else if(line >= SONGS && !string.equals("")) {
newCD.setSong(string);
System.out.println(string);
line++;
} else if(string.isEmpty()){
line = 0;
}
}
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You have a single object CD
, so you rewrite it. You can store a collection CD
s instead . For example:.
List<CD> cds = new ArrayList<>();
CD newCD = new CD();
int line = 0;
for(String string : this.ourDB) {
if(line == ARTIST) {
newCD.setArtist(string);
System.out.println(string);
line++;
} else if(line == YEAR_AND_ALBUM_NAME){
String[] elements = string.split(" ");
String[] albumNameArr = Arrays.copyOfRange(elements, 1, elements.length);
String year = elements[0];
String albumName = join(albumNameArr, " ");
newCD.setYear(year);
newCD.setAlbumName(albumName);
System.out.println(year);
System.out.println(albumName);
line++;
} else if(line >= SONGS && !string.equals("")) {
newCD.setSong(string);
System.out.println(string);
line++;
} else if(string.isEmpty()){
// We're starting a new CD!
// Add the one we have so far to the list, and start afresh
cds.add(newCD);
newCD = new CD();
line = 0;
}
}
// Take care of the case the file doesn't end with a newline:
if (line != 0) {
cds.add(newCD);
}
The problem is that you are using the same object reference CD
to populate the parse values of the file.
Just make sure you initialize and save each instance CD newCD
every time you start parsing the contents of a new album.
You can do the following:
List<CD> cdList = new ArrayList<>();
for (<some way to handle you're reading a new album entry from your file>) {
CD cd = new CD();
//method below parses the data in the db per album entry
//an album entry may contain several lines
parseData(cd, this.ourDB);
cdList.add(cd);
}
System.out.println(cdList);
Your current way of parsing the file works, but doesn't read as readable as it should. I would recommend using two loops:
List<CD> cdList = new ArrayList<>();
Iterator<String> yourDBIterator = this.ourDB.iterator();
//it will force to enter the first time
while (yourDBIterator.hasNext()) {
//do the parsing here...
CD cd = new CD();
//method below parses the data in the db per album entry
//an album entry may contain several lines
parseData(cd, yourDBIterator);
cdList.add(cd);
}
//...
public void parseData(CD cd, Iterator<String> it) {
String string = it.next();
int line = ARTIST;
while (!"".equals(string)) {
if (line == ARTIST) {
newCD.setArtist(string);
System.out.println(string);
line++;
} else if(line == YEAR_AND_ALBUM_NAME){
String[] elements = string.split(" ");
String[] albumNameArr = Arrays.copyOfRange(elements, 1, elements.length);
String year = elements[0];
String albumName = join(albumNameArr, " ");
newCD.setYear(year);
newCD.setAlbumName(albumName);
System.out.println(year);
System.out.println(albumName);
line++;
} else if(line >= SONGS && !string.equals("")) {
newCD.setSong(string);
System.out.println(string);
line++;
}
if (it.hasNext()) {
string = it.next();
} else {
string = "";
}
}
}
Then your code
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I suggest using the Builder design pattern to create a CD object. If you read the lines always in the same order, it won't be difficult to implement and use. Nice tutorial: http://www.javacodegeeks.com/2013/01/the-builder-pattern-in-practice.html
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