Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

Records

Several related fields can be used to compose a record (implemented as a class in Java). In a payroll system, for example, the record for an employee might consist of the following fields (possible types for these fields are shown in parentheses):

• Employee identification number (a whole number)

• Name (a string of characters)

• Address (a string of characters)

• Hourly pay rate (a number with a decimal point)

• Year-to-date earnings (a number with a decimal point)

• Amount of taxes withheld (a number with a decimal point)

Thus, a record is a group of related fields. In the preceding example, all the fields belong to the same employee. A company might have many employees and a payroll record for each.