Holding the State of an Object

The state of an object is the values held by its instance variables. These may change during the lifetime of the object. Here is a main() program that constructs a Car object.

class MpgTester
{
  public static void main ( String[] args )
  {
    Car myCar = new Car( 12000, 12340, 12.3 );

    . . . . . . 
  }
}

The state of the object is set to:

• startMiles = 12000
• endMiles = 12340
• gallons = 12.3

The object referenced by myCar holds these values as long as it exists.