I’ve read the questions/answers saying that Java doesn’t have nor is it likely to get C# style properties. However, in this question: How to organize database access code in Android project?, there is an answer with some sample code like this:
c = localDBRW.rawQuery(sql, selectionArgs);
In the comments to that answer he says that localDBRW is “defined as a reference to getWritableDatabase().” To me that means that in the line above getWritableDatabase() is called and rawQuery is called on the result of getWritableDatabase().
So my question is: How is that done?
In C# it would be trivial. I’m new to Java, so I’m not even sure what the terminology is that would lead me to an answer. Searches on “properties”, “methods”, and “references” haven’t led to this particular usage.
Summary of answers:
I was grasping at a dream. I was interpreting the original statement in a way that would mean my wishes could come true. Alas, that is not the way of things. Java is without any hope of C# property syntax and I am banished to an eternity of writing obj.getX() instead of obj.X.
I believe this simply means that there was this statement prior to the usage, and nothing more:
There is currently no property-like semantics in Java. You can’t, using a field access syntax, invoke a method instead. The closest thing to this would be if a field is accessed for the first time and that triggers its initialization code, but that’s an entirely different construct.
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