Classes, fields, methods, constructors, and objects are the building blocks of object-based Java applications. This Java tutorial teaches you how to declare classes, describe attributes via fields ...

I may return a GregorianFoo, or a JulianFoo. etc. etc. Constructors (in java), have no ability to do this. Though it's potentially something that could be added to the language.

Joshua Bloch uses an example similar to mine above to illustrate Item 5 (“Avoid Creating Unnecessary Objects”) in the Second Edition of Effective Java. He points out that this extra ...