Using one class object in other package's class

[vishrut_n_shah]

Hello,

I am using netBeans 7.0 for developing java application. I have multiple packages containing multiple classes. The question is that i want to create on class such that when i instantiate that class , i want to use that object into other packages's classes without re-instantiating the same one because i have stored some values inside that class.

How can i do this?

Thanks in advance.

[Norm]

Pass a reference to the object to the methods where you want to access its contents.

[sehudson]

I think you may be hung up on how to make the reference to the object. Just an on the fly example, not the best, but to illustrate.

Let's say you have a class called Customer, that has name and age attributes. Then, you have a 2nd class called Claim(as in insurance claim) that has a Customer attribute, and a method called process() that processes customer data, along with any other information relative to the claim. The reference to a customer from within the Claim class may look like:

package mypackage;
import com.Customer;

public class Claim {
    private Customer customer;
    private int number;
    
    public Claim(Customer customer, int number){
        this.customer = customer;
        this.number = number;
    }
    
    public Customer getCustomer(){
        return customer;
    }
    
    public int getNumber(){
        return number;
    }
    
    public void processClaim(){
        //do something with Customer
    }
    
}

package com;

public class Customer {
    private String name;
    private int age;
    
    
    public Customer(String name, int age){
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }
    
    public String getName(){
        return name;
    }
    
    public int getAge(){
        return age;
    }
    
    public void setName(String name){
        this.name = name;
    }
    
    public void setAge(int age){
        this.age = age;
    }
    
}