What's the difference between global variables and instance variables?

Question

hi im just a biginner,
but what is the difference between these two?
both i declare them above the constructor right.
and both can access by any method in the class but my teacher said
global variables are not permitted in java....
but i don't know what that means....and i got started to confuse these two types,,
im confusing.......
and why my teacher said declaring global variables is not permitted,,,,,,
why.....

Answer 1

instance variables are kindof like Global variables. I'm not surprised you are confused.
The difference is not in how they are declared, but rather in how they are used.
There are two different "styles" of programming
- procedural programming.
- object oriented programming.
Global variables are a term from Procedural programming.
In this style of programming, you have only one class, and one "main" procedure. You only create one instance of the class, and then "run" it.
There is one thread of control, which goes through various methods/procedures to accomplish your task.
In this style of programming instance variables ARE "global" variables. They are accessible to all methods. There is only one instance of the class, and thus only one instance of the variables.
Global variables are "bad" BECAUSE you can change them in any method you like. Even from places that shouldn't have to. Also if you use the same name as a global variable and a local variable, you can cause great trouble. This can lead to very subtle bugs, as the procedures interact in ways you don't expect.
The preferred method in procedural programming is to pass the values as parameters to the methods, and only refer to the parameters, and local variables. This means that you can track exactly what your method is doing, and what it affects. It makes it simpler to understand. If you use global variables in your methods, it becomes harder to understand.
So when are instance variables not global variables?
When you are actually using the class as an Object, rather than just a program to run. If you are creating multiple instances of an object, all with different values for their instance variables, then they are not global variables. For instance you declare a Person object with an attribute "firstname". Your "main" program then creates many instances of the Person object, each with their own "firstname"
I guess at the end of all this, it comes down to definitions.
Certainly you can write procedural code in java. You can treat your instance variables, for all intents and purposes like global variables.
I can only think to show a sort of example
public class Test1
   User[] users;
   public void printUsers(){
     // loop through and print all the users
     // uses a global variable
      for(int i=0; i<users.length; i++){
        users.printUser();
public void printUsers(User[] users){
// preferred method - pass it the info it needs to do the job
for(int i=0; i<users.length; i++){
users[i].printUser();
public Test1(){
User u1 = new User("Tom", 20);
User u2 = new User("Dick", 42);
User u3 = new User("Harry", 69);
users = new User[3];
users[0] = u1;
users[1] = u2;
users[2] = u3;
printUsers();
printUsers(users);
public static void main(String[] args)
new Test1();
class User{
String firstName;
int age;
public User(String name, int age){
this.firstName = name;
this.age = age;
public void printUser(){
// here they are used as instance variables and not global variables
System.out.println(firstName + " Age: " + age);
Shit thats a lot of typing, and I'm not even sure I've explained it any good.
Hope you can make some sense out of this drivel.
Cheers,
evnafets