Question

For example, a custom component needs to know what String to paint as its title.

Overriding

CustomComponent c = new CustomComponent(){
    @Override
    public String getTitle(){
        return "A given title";
    }
};

Fields

CustomComponent c = new CustomComponent()
c.setTitle("A given title");

Using the first method, I don’t need to create a String field in CustomComponent, but the code is much cleaner. Is there a strongly preferred / suggested way, and if so why?

Note that this is just a simple example.

Thanks

Answer 1

If all CustomComponents have a simple string title then a data field is the way to go.

Move to a method once things become a bit more complicated (e.g. the title needs subclass specific info [like how many children it “owns”]).