Association

in Java

Dr.Rab Nawaz Jadoon

Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor
COMSATS University, Abbottabad
DCS Pakistan
COMSATS University, Islamabad
(Abbottabad Campus)

Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

 Association
◼ Association refers to the relationship between
multiple objects.
❖ It refers to how objects are related to each other and
how they are using each other's functionality.

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 Example program 1

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 Java application class

Andy is a driver of car Id: 9988

Note:
1. In the above example, there is a one to one relationship(Association)
between two classes: CarClass and Driver.
2. Both the classes represent two separate entities.

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 Example Program 2

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 Java application class

Note:
1. In above example two separate classes Bank and
Employee are associated through their Objects.
2. Bank can have many employees, So it is a one-to-
many relationship.

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 Type s of Association
◼ There are two forms of association
❖ Aggregation
❖ Composition

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 1. Aggregation in Java
◼ If a class have an entity reference, it is known
as Aggregation.
◼ Aggregation represents HAS-A relationship.
❖ Consider a situation, Employee object contains many
information such as id, name, emailId etc.
❖ It contains one more object named address, which
contains its own information's such as city, state,
country, zipcode etc. as given below.
Note:
In such case, Employee has an entity
reference address,
so relationship is Employee HAS-A
address.

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 Cont…
◼ Aggregation is a weak association.
◼ An association is said to be aggregation if both
Objects can exist independently.
❖ For example, a Team object and a Player object.
➢ The team contains multiple players, but a player can exist
without a team.

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 Aggregation Example 1
Circle
Operation op;
Double PI;
Area(int radius);

Operation
Square(int n);

Output:
78.5
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 Aggregation Example 2
◼ In this example, Employee has an object of
Address, address object contains its own
information such as city, state, country etc.
❖ In such case relationship is Employee HAS-A
address.

//Address.java

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 Cont…

//Emp.java

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 Cont…

//AggregationTest.java
public class AggregationTest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Address address1=new Address(“Abbottabad",“KPK",“Pakistan");
Address address2=new Address(“Haipur",“KPK",“Pakistan");
Emp e=new Emp(111,“Abdullah",address1);
Emp e2=new Emp(112,“KaleemUllah",address2);

e.display();
e2.display();

}
Output:
} 111 Abdullah
Abbottabad KPK Pakistan
112 KaleemUllah
Haripur KPK Pakistan

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 2. Composition in Java
◼ The composition is the strong type of
association.
❖ An association is said to composition if an Object
owns another object and another object cannot exist
without the owner object.
➢ Consider the case of Human having a heart. Here Human
object contains the heart and heart cannot exist without
Human.
➢ In other words when the classes (entities) are dependent on
each other and their life span are same (if one dies then
another one too) then its a composition.
➢ Heart class has no sense if Human class is not present.

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 Example
◼ In above example a library can have no.
of books on same or different subjects.
❖ So, If Library gets destroyed then All books within
that particular library will be destroyed. i.e. book can
not exist without library.
❖ That’s why it is composition.
➢ Example Code on the next slide

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 Example Code (composition)

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 Java main application class

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 Aggregation vs Composition
◼ Dependency:
❖ Aggregation implies a relationship where the
child can exist independently of the parent.
➢ For example, Bank and Employee, delete the Bank and the
Employee still exist. whereas Composition implies a
relationship where the child cannot exist independent of
the parent. Example: Human and heart, heart don’t exist
separate to a Human
◼ Type of Relationship:
❖ Aggregation relation is “has-a” and composition
is “part-of” relation.
◼ Type of association:
❖ Composition is a strong Association whereas
Aggregation is a weak Association.
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 UML Notation of Composition
◼ Composite aggregation is described as a binary
association decorated with a filled black
diamond at the aggregate (whole) end.

❖ The folder could contain many files, while each File

has exactly one Folder parent.
❖ If a folder is deleted, all contained files are removed
as well.

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 UML Notation of Aggregation
◼ Aggregation is described as a binary association
decorated with an un-filled diamond.

❖ Car may have passengers; they come and go.

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 Association, Aggregation and
Composition - UML

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