hi when i read a book it was given that "in" & "out" in system.in & system.out are variables but we can acess methods only through objects so how the method print() is called by the variables in & out.
Kanagaraj, Let me try to explain a little bit on this. System class contains the static fields public static final PrintStream out public static final InputStream in public static final PrintStream err which refers to the standard output, input and error streams. note that these fields are declared as static and hence can be accessed without instantiation. print() and println() are methods defined in the PrintStream class. out being defined as Printstream type can access println() using out.println(). Hope this is clear. Kalidas
Originally posted by Stan James: I think you'll find they are not final.
Ah. This is one of the hairy little corners of the Java API. They are final -- go check! The setOut(), setIn(), setErr() methods delegate to native methods, which aren't bound by ordinary mortal Java rules. Final variables which can change -- in the API! Aaaak!
A better implementation seems obvious to me: PrintStream isn't final, so they could have just used a package-private PrintStream class which allowed the underlying OutputStream to be changed, and then have setOut() merely twiddle that internal setting, without this crazy final variable modification.
Originally posted by Cindy Glass: The methods are static methods, and therefore do NOT require an object in order to use them.
The print() and println() methods are NOT static, but as mentioned above, you call them via static reference variables. This means that you are calling these methods on objects just as required for non-static methods.