Creating objects question

[sergm]

Hi All,

I'm a Java beginner, so, don't be angry if I'm asking really stupid things.
But please help me to understand the following:
I have a simple Java program.



import java.util.*;

public class EmployeeTest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
// fill the staff array with three Employee objects
Employee[] staff = new Employee[3];

staff[0] = new Employee("Carl Cracker", 75000, 1987, 12, 15);
staff[1] = new Employee("Harry Hacker", 50000, 1989, 10, 1);
staff[2] = new Employee("Tony Tester", 40000, 1990, 3, 15);

// raise everyone's salary by 5%
for (Employee e : staff)
e.raiseSalary(5);

// print out information about all Employee objects
for (Employee e : staff)
System.out.println("name=" + e.getName()
+ ",salary=" + e.getSalary()
+ ",hireDay=" + e.getHireDay());
}
}

class Employee
{
public Employee(String n, double s, int year, int month, int day)
{
name = n;
salary = s;
GregorianCalendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar(year, month - 1, day);
// GregorianCalendar uses 0 for January
hireDay = calendar.getTime();
}

public String getName()
{
return name;
}

public double getSalary()
{
return salary;
}

public Date getHireDay()
{
return hireDay;
}

public void raiseSalary(double byPercent)
{
double raise = salary * byPercent / 100;
salary += raise;
}

private String name;
private double salary;
private Date hireDay;
}


My question is about this part:
for (Employee e : staff)
System.out.println("name=" + e.getName()
+ ",salary=" + e.getSalary()
+ ",hireDay=" + e.getHireDay());

How is it possible to create such an object Employee e and use it afterwards without instantiation? I mean without using the operator new?
Please explain it to newbie thanks a lot in advance

[ShoeNinja]

Code:

 for (Employee e : staff)

This means 'for each employee in the array staff' right? Well to be able to do stuff to each of those employees, you need a way to identify them. So there is really no object being created. 'e' just represents each employee in the staff array that was created here:

Code:

 Employee[] staff = new Employee[3];

[sergm]

Great! Thanks!