The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A data member, also known as an instance variable, is a component of an object. Objects are miniature programs that consist of both code and data. It is these data items that are referred to as data members.
A data member is not accessible directly via the object. Rather, access is through the use of what is termed a member function. A member function is the code component of the object.
The qualities of an object can be divided into two categories—form, and behavior. The form of a class of objects comprises the qualities that separate objects in a certain class from objects in another class. In the Java programming language, the data members specify the form of an object. In other words, in a given class, the data members of the constituent objects represent those qualities that are common to the objects in that class.
Each data member has an identifier. The identifier is the name of the data member, expressed as a unique combination of letters, digits, and underscore characters. An identifier always begins with a letter.