Best way to handle multiple constructors in Java

Question

I\'ve been wondering what the best (i.e. cleanest/safest/most efficient) way of handling multiple constructors in Java is? Especially when in one or more constructors not al

Answer 1

I would do the following:

public class Book
{
    private final String title;
    private final String isbn;

    public Book(final String t, final String i)
    {
        if(t == null)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("t cannot be null");
        }

        if(i == null)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("i cannot be null");
        }

        title = t;
        isbn  = i;
    }
}

I am making the assumption here that:

1) the title will never change (hence title is final) 2) the isbn will never change (hence isbn is final) 3) that it is not valid to have a book without both a title and an isbn.

Consider a Student class:

public class Student
{
    private final StudentID id;
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;

    public Student(final StudentID i,
                   final String    first,
                   final String    last)
    {
        if(i == null)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("i cannot be null"); 
        }

        if(first == null)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("first cannot be null"); 
        }

        if(last == null)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("last cannot be null"); 
        }

        id        = i;
        firstName = first;
        lastName  = last;
    }
}

There a Student must be created with an id, a first name, and a last name. The student ID can never change, but a persons last and first name can change (get married, changes name due to losing a bet, etc...).

When deciding what constrructors to have you really need to think about what makes sense to have. All to often people add set/get methods because they are taught to - but very often it is a bad idea.

Immutable classes are much better to have (that is classes with final variables) over mutable ones. This book: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZZOiqZQIbRMC&pg=PA97&sig=JgnunNhNb8MYDcx60Kq4IyHUC58#PPP1,M1 (Effective Java) has a good discussion on immutability. Look at items 12 and 13.