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Java Java Data Structures Efficiency! Custom Serialization

Posted by Edward Eastwood
Edward Eastwood
Courses Plus Student 3,839 Points

Comparing Song Titles. Why not use getTitle()?

At about 14:20, when fixing the getSongsForArtist method to sort the songs alphabetically, why did we change the member variables to be protected instead of just using song1.getTitle()/song2.getTitle() ?

1 Answer

Craig Dennis
STAFF
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher
Craig Dennis
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher

Honestly, for two reasons.

First, and not satisfying, I needed a way to introduce the protected keyword. You don't use it often, but when you see it, I want you to know why it is used.

Secondly, getter methods can have other associated tasks in them, sometimes accessing the instance variable directly is preferred. Sometimes using a getter will cause a db hit and is in fact what you want to have happen. So it is contextual, but I wanted to show the concept, albeit blurry. :/ Sorry.

Hope that helps!

Edward Eastwood
Edward Eastwood
Courses Plus Student 3,839 Points

Thank you!