Object Class in Java

What is object class in Java? In Java, the Object class is the root or superclass of all classes. Directly or indirectly every predefined and user-defined Java class is a subclass of the Object class. Object class contains the most commonly required methods for every Java class.

The most commonly required methods for every Java class (whether it is a predefined class or a customized class) are defined in a separate class which is nothing but an Object class.

This class name is chosen as Object, because as per coding standards, generally name will be chosen based on the operations it is performing. This class has methods to perform operations related to the object of a class, so its name is chosen as an Object.

All classes in Java are inherited from which class?

All classes in java are inherited from java.lang.Object class. Every class in Java is the child class of java.lang.Object class either directly or indirectly. Therefore, Object class methods are directly available for every Java class. Hence Object class is considered as the root of all Java classes.

class A {}
class B extends A {}

Here class A is a direct subclass of the Object class. Class B is a subclass of A, so indirectly B class is also the subclass of Object.

If our class doesn’t extend any class then only, our class is the direct child class of the Object class. For example, in the above case, class “A” is the direct subclass of the Object class. But if our class extends any other class then our class is an indirect child class of the Object class. For example in the above case, B is the subclass of A, and class A is the subclass of the Object class. Hence it is an indirect child class of the Object class. It is called a multi-level inheritance.

class A { }
class A extends Object { }
class A extends java.lang.Object { }

These three are the same class declaration, there is no difference between them.

Reasons to Create Object Class as Super Class

Object class is created as the superclass for all java classes due to below 2 reasons,

1. To achieve reusability to subclasses:- Every object will have some common behaviors. These common behaviors must be implemented in every class with the same signature by every class developer. So for informing these methods signature and to reduce the burden in implementing these methods, SUN developed a class called Object by implementing all these common behaviors with some methods common to all classes. All these methods have generic logic common for all subclasses. If this logic is not satisfying to subclass requirement then the subclass should override these methods.

2. To achieve loose coupling and runtime polymorphism in user class:- If we want to define a method receive and to return any type of object, and further to invoke and execute from this passed object class, we must have one common superclass to all classes.

Object Class Methods in Java

Every object will contain some common operations. To perform these operations separate methods are given.

Methods	Description
Class<?> getClass()	Returns the runtime class of this Object.
int hashCode()	Returns a hash code value for the object.
boolean equals(Object obj)	It is used to compare two objects. It returns true if this object is the same as the obj argument; false otherwise.
String toString()	Returns a string representation of the object.
Object clone()	Creates and returns a copy of this object.
void finalize()	It is used to execute object clean-up code just before the object is being destroyed.
void notify(), & void notifyAll()	Notifying about object lock availability to waiting threads
void wait(), void wait(long mills), & void wait(long mills, int Nanos)	Releasing object lock and sending thread to waiting-state

These methods are discussed in detail in their own topic, all links are given. The finalize() method is related to the garbage collection features of Java. The notify(), notifyAll(), and wait() methods are related to the multi-threading feature of Java OOP.

The finalize() method is deprecated since Java 9. The finalization mechanism is inherently problematic. Finalization can lead to performance issues, deadlocks, and hangs. Errors in finalizers can lead to resource leaks;

11 methods of the Object class in Java:-

• public final native Class<?> getClass();
• public native int hashCode();
• public boolean equals(Object obj)
• public String toString()
• protected native Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException;
• protected void finalize() throws Throwable { }
• public final native void notify();
• public final native void notifyAll();
• public final void wait() throws InterruptedException
• public final native void wait(long timeoutMillis) throws InterruptedException;
• public final void wait(long timeoutMillis, int nanos) throws InterruptedException

Java Object Class Methods Demonstration

• The getClasss() method is used to get class information.
• In the Object class hashCode() method is implemented to return the reference of the object as an integer number format.
• The equals() method is implemented to compare two objects based on their reference. If two objects are having the same reference then the equals() method returns true else it returns false.
• The toString() method of java.lang.Object class internally calling getClass() and hashCode() method of Object class to return getClass().getName() + "@" + Integer.toHexString(hashCode()) value.
• The clone() method is used to create duplicate objects.

Demonstrating methods of java.lang.Object class.

class Student {
   int id;
   Student(int id) {
      this.id = id;
   }
}

public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) {

     Student s1 = new Student(1001);
     Student s2 = new Student(1002);
     Student s3 = new Student(1001);
     Student s4 = s1;

     // getClass() method
     Class cls = s1.getClass();
     String name = cls.getName();
     System.out.println("Class name of s1:: " 
                       + name );

     // invoke hashCode() method
     System.out.println("hashCode():: " + 
                    s1.hashCode() + " " + 
                    s2.hashCode() + " " + 
                    s3.hashCode() + " " +
                    s4.hashCode() );

     // invoke equals() method
     System.out.println("equals():: " +
                  s1.equals(s2) + " " + 
                  s1.equals(s3) + " " + 
                  s1.equals(s4) );

     // toString() method
     System.out.println("toString():: " +
                    s1.toString() + " " +
                    s2.toString() + " " +
                    s3.toString() );
  }
}

Output:-

Class name of s1:: Student
hashCode():: 1259475182 1300109446 1020371697 1259475182
equals():: false false true
toString():: Student@4b1210ee Student@4d7e1886 Student@3cd1a2f1

Demonstrating clone() method of java.lang.Object class. To invoke the clone() method on an object, the class must implement the Cloneable interface. Since it is a protected method so we can call it only with the subclass, not in the user class.

class Student implements Cloneable {

   int id;
   Student(int id) {
      this.id = id;
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) 
          throws CloneNotSupportedException {

      Student s1 = new Student(1001);
      // clone() method
      Student s2 = (Student) s1.clone();
      
      System.out.println(s1 + " " + s2);
      System.out.println(s1.id + " " + s2.id);
   }
}

Output:-

Student@5acf9800 Student@4617c264
1001 1001

Overriding Object Class Methods

In the Object class, all the above methods logic is implemented based on the object’s reference common to all subclasses. If we want these methods to perform operations based on the object’s state, we must override these methods in subclasses. For example, consider the toString() method, this method has logic to display current objects classname@hascode and output will be displayed based on the object’s reference. Rather than displaying classname@hascode, if we want to display data of the object then we must override the toString() method in the subclass.

We can override only non-final methods. Among these 11 methods, 6 methods are the final methods. Therefore we can override only five methods, they are not given as the final methods. Those methods are,

1) equals() Method
2) hashcode() Method
3) toString() Method
4) clone() Method
5) finalize() Method

To learn more on these methods see:- getClass(), hashCode(), toString(), equals(), == vs equals(), Relation between hashCode() & equals(), Clone()

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