En el mundo real a menudo se encontrará con muchos objetos individuales del mismo tipo. Puede haber miles de otras bicicletas, todas de la misma marca y modelo. Cada bicicleta ha sido fabricada a partir de los mismos planos y, por lo tanto contiene los mismos componentes. En términos de orientación a objetos decimos que su bicicleta es una instancia de la clase de objetos conocida como bicicletas. Una clase es el plano del que se crean objetos individuales.

La siguiente clase Bicycle es una posible implementación de una bicicleta:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1995 - 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 *
 *   - Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 *
 *   - Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 *
 *   - Neither the name of Sun Microsystems nor the names of its
 *     contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
 *     from this software without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS
 * IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
 * THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 * PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
 * CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
 * EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
 * PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
 * PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
 * NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 */ 

class Bicycle {

       int cadence = 0;
       int speed = 0;
       int gear = 1;

       void changeCadence(int newValue) {
            cadence = newValue;
       }

       void changeGear(int newValue) {
            gear = newValue;
       }

       void speedUp(int increment) {
            speed = speed + increment;   
       }

       void applyBrakes(int decrement) {
            speed = speed - decrement;
       }

       void printStates() {
            System.out.println("cadence:"+cadence+" speed:"+speed+" gear:"+gear);
       }
}
 

La sintaxis del lenguaje Java le podrá resultar nueva, pero el diseño de esta clase está basada en la anterior discusión sobre los objetos bicicleta. Los campos cadence, speed y gear representan el estado del objeto, y los métodos (changeCadence, changeGear, speedUp etc.) definen su interacción con el mundo exterior.

Quizás se habrá fijado en que la clase Bicycle no contiene un método main. Eso es porque no es una aplicación completa, solamente es el plano para bicicletas que se podría utilizar en una aplicación. La responsibilidad de crear y usar nuevos objetos Bicycle pertenece a otra clase de su aplicación.

A continuación hay una clase BicycleDemo que crea dos objetos Bicycle distintos e invoca sus métodos:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1995 - 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 *
 *   - Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 *
 *   - Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 *
 *   - Neither the name of Sun Microsystems nor the names of its
 *     contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
 *     from this software without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS
 * IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
 * THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 * PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
 * CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
 * EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
 * PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
 * PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
 * NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 */ 

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

          // Create two different Bicycle objects
          Bicycle bike1 = new Bicycle();
          Bicycle bike2 = new Bicycle();

          // Invoke methods on those objects
          bike1.changeCadence(50);
          bike1.speedUp(10);
          bike1.changeGear(2);
          bike1.printStates();

          bike2.changeCadence(50);
          bike2.speedUp(10);
          bike2.changeGear(2);
          bike2.changeCadence(40);
          bike2.speedUp(10);
          bike2.changeGear(3);
          bike2.printStates();
     }
}

 

La salida de esta prueba muestra la cadencia de pedaleo, velocidad y marcha para las dos bicicletas:

cadence:50 speed:10 gear:2
cadence:40 speed:20 gear:3