Using strings as objects

Question

hi.
i get user input of type string but if the string is the same as the name of an object is there any way of using the methods within that object.
for example
class Object{
String name, description;
Object(String nameIn, String descriptionIn){
name=nameIn;
description=descriptionIn;
void showDescription(){
System.out.println(description);
when i create a new object
Object brick = new Object("brick", "it's hard");
and i get user input of type String
"brick"
how would i get
brick.showDescription();
i didn't think this was possible so i created an array of Objects
Object objectHolder = new Object[10];
but i couldn't figure out how to add the Object to the array when it was being created.
class Object{
String name, description;
static Object objectHolder = new Object[10];
int store=0;
Object(String nameIn, String descriptionIn){
name=nameIn;
description=descriptionIn;
objectHolder[store] = Object // this doesn't work, i want it to be
// the Object that is being created
store = store + 1;
then i can compare the String to each Object.name in the array to find the Object, and then get the Object.showDescription
what do you think?
also i would like to know how to add the object to the array as it is being created even if you think it is not a good way of doing it.
thanks

Answer 1

First off, never ever name your objects "Object", since that is very, very confusing. The reason for this is because ALL objects are derived from java.lang.Object, and the less ambiguity with that name the better.
Now, let's look at your object. We'll call it "DungeonObject" for lack of a better name.
The "objectHolder" should probably not actually be inside of DungeonObject. Instead, make it external to your object.
Let's assume you have a container object called "Dungeon" which makes use of DungeonObjects.
You could write the following for Dungeon:
public class Dungeon {
  DungeonObject[] objectHolder;
  int nIndex;
  public Dungeon(int nObjectSize) {  // constructor
    objectHolder = new DungeonObject[nObjectSize];
    nIndex = 0;
  private boolean addObject(DungeonObject obj) {
    if (nIndex < objectHolder.length) {
      objectHolder[nIndex++] = obj;
      return true;
    return false;
  public boolean createObject(String name, String desc) {
    return addObject(new DungeonObject(name, desc));
}When you want to create an object, use createObject.
The DungeonObject it references could be defined as:
public class DungeonObject {
  String m_name;
  String m_description;
  public DungeonObject(String name, String description) {
    m_name = name;
    m_description = description;
  // add gets and sets as described in previous post