Refer to an object from an array/for loop

[Chro]

E.g. I have an objects called elephant1, elephant2 and elephant3 from a separate class. Here are three kinds of things I would like to do.

1. Is there a way to do something like the following?

for(int i=1; i<4; i++){
  elepant(i).stampede();
}

So I want it to cycle through all my elephants and make them each stampede.

2. What about something like the following, where there is an array with values in it.

String array["elephant1","elephant2","elephant3"];
array[2].stampede();

3. Or combining those two things...

String array["elephant1","elephant2","elephant3"];
for(int i=1; i<4; i++){
  array[i].stampede();
}

I've tried out these and can't find a way to make them work.

Thanks, Alex

[KevinWorkman]

To access them by index, put them in a List or array.

To access them by String (or some other key), put them in a Map.

[m00nchile]

You can define arrays to hold anything, including your objects. Just like this:

int[] array;

designates an array that holds ints, this:

MyObject[] array;

designates an array of MyObject type elements. You can use instance methods on them just as if they were a single variable:

MyObject o = new MyObject();
o.doSomething();
MyObject[] array = {o};
array[0].doSomething(); //same effect