can someone validate my code?

[alacn]

Hi i basically wanna know if im going about this the right way and if theres a more efficient way to do this.
I havent yet looked into databases or anything but i plan to in a few weeks time.

heres my code, any suggestions would be nice. (btw this isnt a full app or anything, ive just started it yesterday and want to know if its ok to start building on or can be improved. Ill be later adding a GUI, a database, events, etc etc.


main class

import java.util.*;

public class Main {


static food foodOb[] = new food[6];


static private int id = 0;

    private static void fillDB(){
        
        foodOb[0] = new catFood(++id,"felix",'S',4.99);
        foodOb[1] = new catFood(++id,"felix",'M',5.99);
        foodOb[2] = new catFood(++id,"felix",'L',7.99);

        foodOb[3] = new dogFood(++id,"butchers",'S',7.99);
        foodOb[4] = new dogFood(++id,"butchers",'M',10.99);
        foodOb[5] = new dogFood(++id,"butchers",'L',14.99);           
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Main.fillDB();
        List lstFood = Arrays.asList(foodOb);
        //lstFood.add(); << need work out syntax

    }
}

base class

public class food {


private int id;
private double price;
private char size;
private String name;

    public void setStats(int _id,String _name,char _size,double _price){

        setID(_id);
        setName(_name);
        setSize(_size);
        setPrice(_price);

    }

    public void setName(String _name){

        name = _name;
    }
    public String getName(){

        return name;
    }

    public void setPrice(double _price){

        price = _price;
    }
    public double getPrice(){

        return price;
    }
    public void setSize(char _size){

        size = _size;
        
    }
    public char getSize(){

        return size;
    }
    public void setID(int _id){

         id = _id;
    }
    public int getID(){

        return id;
    }

}

sub class

public class catFood extends food {

    public catFood(int _id,String _name,char _size,double _price){

        super.setStats(_id, _name, _size, _price);
        //additional things unique to catFood added here later
    }
}

public class dogFood extends food {

    public dogFood(int _id,String _name,char _size,double _price){

        super.setStats(_id, _name, _size, _price);
        //additional things unique to dogFood added here later
    }
}

[JosAH]

Why do you have a setStats( ... ) method in your food (Food?) class? i.e. why don't you have an appropriate constructor in that class as in the subclasses thereof?

kind regards,

Jos

[alacn]

Why do you have a setStats( ... ) method in your food (Food?) class? i.e. why don't you have an appropriate constructor in that class as in the subclasses thereof?

kind regards,

Jos

does the subclasses inherit the contructor from the super class?

[Fubarable]

No, constructors aren't inherited. Note however that a constructor of the super class is always called in any subclass constructor as the first call, be it by default or by explicit call to super(....). If you haven't done so, you should read the Sun/Oracle tutorial on constructors.

http://download.oracle.com/javase/tu...structors.html

[alacn]

i tried doing what u said but i got an error. Basically what i did was put the parenthesis in the contructor for the food class and also the same parenthesis in the catFood and dogFood class and it came back as "cannot find constructor food(), so i made a second contructor called food() so now and the errors went away, but now the values all come back as 0. ive made a mistake, please help.

public class food {


private int id;
private double price;
private char size;
private String name;

public food(){

}

public food(int _id,String _name,char _size,double _price){
        setID(_id);
        setName(_name);
        setSize(_size);
        setPrice(_price);

}

    public void setStats(){



    }

    public void setName(String _name){

        name = _name;
    }
    public String getName(){

        return name;
    }

    public void setPrice(double _price){

        price = _price;
    }
    public double getPrice(){

        return price;
    }
    public void setSize(char _size){

        size = _size;
        
    }
    public char getSize(){

        return size;
    }
    public void setID(int _id){

         id = _id;
    }
    public int getID(){

        return id;
    }

}

public class catFood extends food {

    public catFood(int _id,String _name,char _size,double _price){

       // super.setStats(_id, _name, _size, _price);
    }
}

public class dogFood extends food {

    public dogFood(int _id,String _name,char _size,double _price){

       

    }
}

[Norm]

As mentioned by Fubarable:

by explicit call to super(....)

For example:
super(_id, _name, _size, _price);

[alacn]

thanks guys i got it working and thanks norm for the source code. i know you guys prefer teaching people by making them do their own research but i prity much study this stuff hours a day and sometimes i need specific code because thats how i learn quickest, and i remember it and use it for other programs.

I've made the modifications to my code, is there anything else which can be improved?
thanks for taking the time to help

edit

the bit that im most concerned about is the code below. can this be improved any how?

        foodOb[0] = new catFood(++id,"felix",'S',4.99);
        foodOb[1] = new catFood(++id,"felix",'M',5.99);
        foodOb[2] = new catFood(++id,"felix",'L',7.99);

        foodOb[3] = new dogFood(++id,"butchers",'S',7.99);
        foodOb[4] = new dogFood(++id,"butchers",'M',10.99);
        foodOb[5] = new dogFood(++id,"butchers",'L',14.99);