Question

Is there a way to have a static method such that it returns a Vector object (with a simple integer x and y value as fields) which is a Vector multiplied by an int value argument. However, there are no new objects made, i.e, the object assigned to the return value is changed instead of there being a new Vector created?

The following code does not achieve this:

public class Vector{
  public int x,y;

  public Vector(int x,int y){
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
  }

  //Important code starts

  public static Vector mult(Vector v,int a){
    return new Vector(v.x*a,v.y*a);
  }

  //Important code stops
}

This code is what I’m after but it’s too messy:

public static Vector mult(Vector v1,Vector v2,int a){
  v1.x = v2.x*a;
  v1.y = v2.y*a;
}

Is there an alternative?

Answer 1

Why not add:

public void multiply(Vector otherVector, int a){
  x = otherVector.x * a;
  y = otherVector.y * a;
}

to your Vector class.