Referencing an object more than once in a line

Question

So I'm writing my version of Tetris. Here's what I'd like to do:

screen[0][1].setColor(Color.RED); screen[0][1].setStatus(1);

Is there a way to do this in only one line?

Answer 1

A few options spring to mind:

• Write a method in whatever class this is which knows about both the status and the color:

  // Implicitly sets color to red. Consider using an enum for statuses
  screen[0][1].setStatus(1); 
  

• Write a method accepting both state and color parameters:

  screen[0][1].setColorAndStatus(Color.RED, 1);
  

• Make setColor and setStatus (and other setters) return this so you can chain them:

  screen[0][1].setColor(Color.RED).setStatus(1);
  

• Abandon the "all in one statement" idea (which is what I think you really meant - you can put two statements on one line if you really want, but I'm not suggesting that you do) and actually write three statements:

  Tile tile = screen[0][1];
  tile.setColor(Color.RED);
  tile.setStatus(1);
  

Answer 2

Just for the same of accomplishing this, you could change methods setColor() and setStatus() to return this. Something like:

public MyObj setColor(int color) {
    this.color = color;
    return this;
}

But I wouldn't do this, it doesn't seem like a good pattern, unless other methods follow the same approach.

Answer 3

Direct possibilities.

• Yes

if setColor method returning the object of type screen[0][1] then you can do

screen[0][1].setColor(Color.RED).setStatus(1);

• No

if setColor method return type is void. Then only way is

screen[0][1].setColor(Color.RED);
screen[0][1].setStatus(1);

If you are able to edit the class , there are many other ways we have here so far :)

Answer 4

The possible method can be anyone given by others :

also try it

(screen[0][1].setColor(Color.RED)).setStatus(1);