Solution to implement category in Java

Question

You want to create a program for the management of a telephone book. For each person are provided for the following personal information:
Surname
Name
Title
E-mail address (can not contain spaces and must contain the @ symbol)
Company
Position
For every person you can store the following telephone numbers (one for each category)
Home
Office
Mobile Phone.
You can also store a list of other phone numbers. For each of the other numbers, you must store over to the phone number a description of the number.

Here it is a homework I have to make for this evening in Java. My issue is how I can implement the various category: Home,Office,ecc...Which is the best solution to implement those category? maybe an enum?

Here it is my implementation:

import java.util.*;

public class Persona {

private String Name;
private String surname;
private String title;
private String mail_addr;
private String company
private String position;
private Phone homePhone;
private Phone officePhone;
private Phone mobilePhone;
private Collection<Phone> otherphonesList

public Persona(String n,String s,String t,String m,String c,String p,Phone hp,Phone of,Phone mp,Collection<Phone> otherphones)
{
    name=n;
    surname=s;
    title=t;
    mail_addr=m;
    company=c;
    position=p;
    homePhone=hp;
    officePhone=of;
    mobilePhone=mp;
    otherphonesList=new ArrayList<Phone>(otherphones);
}

public String getName()
{
    return name;
}

public String getSurname()
{
    return surname;
}

public String getTitle()
{
    return title;
}

public String getMail()
{
    return mail_addr;
}

public String getCompany()
{
    return company;
}

public String getPosition()
{
    return position;
}
}


public class Phone {

private String  phone;
private String description;

public Phone(String phone,String description)
{
    this.phone=phone;
    this.description=description;
}

public String getPhone()
{
    return phone;
}

public String getDescription()
{
    return description;
}


}

and don't forget the title field :)

Matten
– Matten

2011-12-06 12:55:46 +00:00
Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 12:55 — Matten
– Matten, Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 12:55
And, please, follow Java Code Conventions. s/Name/name.

Artem
– Artem

2011-12-06 13:01:38 +00:00
Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 13:01 — Artem
– Artem, Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 13:01

Artem · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-06 12:55:10Z

2

You can write a PhoneBook class with fields you need:

public class PhoneBook {
    private Phone homePhone;
    private Phone officePhone;
    private Phone mobilePhone;
    private List<Phone> otherPhones;
    ..getters/setters..
}

public class Phone {
    private String phone;
    private String description;
    ..getters/setters..
}

answered Dec 6, 2011 at 12:55

Artem

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6 Comments

Mazzy Over a year ago

I tought to this solution...create a type phone

Aaron Digulla Over a year ago

And use an enum for the categories. Note: For homework-type questions, it's usually better to give suggestions instead of complete solutions.

Mazzy Over a year ago

why use enum if I have already created the attributes homePhone,officePhone...?

Matten Over a year ago

@Mazzy you don't use separate attributes for homePhone, ... but a List<Phone> to store the numbers and an enum type in the Phone class to define the type of the instance (home, office,...)

Mazzy Over a year ago

@Matten the exercise ask me to create the list only for other numbers.the numbers of home,office,eccc must be simple attributes

|

Aaron Digulla · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-06 13:02:19Z

1

enums are a good solution if:

The number of items is fixed
All the information of the item is fixed as well (no loading of external files/resources/etc).

In a real application, you probably need to display the category on a display. This includes translating the category into the user's language which means there is an external dependency.

In such a case, you would use the enum as a key for a factory that gives you the text for each entry in the enum. The factory decouples your constant enum from the variables in the real world (like different/changing translations in the UI).

answered Dec 6, 2011 at 13:02

Aaron Digulla

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Comments

Matten · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-06 13:04:43Z

1

You may have a look at the Map class to store the phone numbers and add accessors for home, office and mobile phone entries.

edited Dec 6, 2011 at 13:04

answered Dec 6, 2011 at 12:55

Matten

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4 Comments

Aaron Digulla Over a year ago

-1 for suggesting a deprecated class. Since Java 1.2, Map should be used.

Matten Over a year ago

@Aaron Digulla - of course you're right. I edited my post. As a C# developer Dictionary was the first class which came up in my mind :) Should have read the linked page more carefully, especially the bold part at the top...

Aaron Digulla Over a year ago

And I can't undo the downvote because SO insists that the answer hasn't been edited since I downvoted it :-((( damn:-(

Matten Over a year ago

@Aaron Digulla now it should work. Thanks for hinting me to the Map object.

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