Does the System.out object belong to class System or class PrintStream? [closed]

Question

I'm new to programming and I just started learning Java. I'm curious that does the object System.out belong to class System or class PrintStream?

I referred to a textbook, JAVA CONCEPTS 4/e. The textbook states that to use the out object in the System class, you must refer it as System.out but later in the book it states that the System.out belongs to class PrintStream.

I've searched google and stackoverflow but all the answers are too hard for me to understand.

Riding

You could check it via System.out instanceof PrintStream?System.out.println("Ok, I'm PrintStream"):System.out.println("No, I'm not aPrintStream") – Acidity

Define 'belong to'. It has no meaning in Java. System.out is a member of System and it is of type PrintStream. – Steam

Answer 1

"out" belongs to class "System" and is of type "PrintStream" :)

Monacid

Answer 2

It depends what you mean by "belongs to".

Usually, people would say out "belongs" to System because it is a static field declared in that class. Note, though, that this concept of belonging is only a weak one, basically implying only a namespace ownership. There is no special relation between a class and its static fields.

You may also say the object referred to by the out variable belongs to the PrintStream class because it is an instance of that class (or a subclass), just as "beagle" belongs to the "dog" class. This is not standard usage in Java parlance, but it makes perfect sense from the perspective of type theory, where a type is really a set of values, and the value of out "belongs" to that the type / set defined by the PrintStream class.

Maryannamaryanne

Community wiki answer? – Gwenngwenneth

@LuiggiMendoza See, I liked the idea! – Maryannamaryanne

Great then. By the way, I would remark the last sentence: There is no special relation between a class and its static fields. – Gwenngwenneth

Answer 3

System.out is a PrintStream object. It is defined in System (so, it is member of System) class as :

static PrintStream out

See: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/System.html

Reviviscence

Answer 4

It is defined as:

static PrintStream  out 

Shrovetide

Answer 5

out is a static field in System. Its type is PrintStream.

Institutionalism

Answer 6

In loose simple terms, 'out' is a field (i.e. an object) in class 'System' of type 'PrintStream'.

Mistress

Answer 7

Out is the static reference variable in class System and is of PrintStream(class) type.

Tomkin