Where to start? Need help with classes

Question

My question involves those classes he wants us to make. I don't really get the concept of classes, so could someone tell me what they think he wants us to do? And try to explain it to me in terms I might be able to understand. Does that mean for us to use subclasses or use separate files for each class? Or could I do either? I'm so confused :(
Assignment: Write a program that consists of the classes listed below.
Player Class: The Player Class consists of at least two elements -- the player name and a list of scores for
games. The score attribute is not used in Program #3 but will be needed in Program #4. Include in the
class appropriate accessor and mutator methods for each element in the class. You may have other
attributes if needed.
Team Class: The Team class consists of at least 6 elements -- the name of the team and five players from
the Player class. Include in the class appropriate accessor and mutator methods for each element in the
class. You may have other attributes if needed.
Course Syllabus Page 3
Input3 class: The Input3 class is provided for you. The Input3 class supplies data for your program. The
Input3 class has a public method called getNextString, which returns a string with the input for your
program, one after the other. You must use this class to get the data for your program. See Input3.java on
WebCT to understand the class construction.
Your program should display the roster of each team in alphabetical order by last name.
This is the Input3 that he gave us to work with if anyone needs to see it:
public class Input3
     private String[] input = new String[40];
     private static int StringNum = -1;
     public static final int NUMBER_OF_TEAMS = 3;
     public static final int NUMBER_OF_PLAYERS = 5;
     public Input3()
          //The first six inputs will be for the first team
          input[0] = "LAKERS";
          input[1] = "Kobe Bryant";
          input[2] = "Derek Fisher";
          input[3] = "Shaquille O'Neal";     
          input[4] = "Karl Malone";
          input[5] = "Brian Cook";
          //The next six inputs will be for the second team
          input[6] = "MAVERICKS";
          input[7] = "Antoine Walker";
          input[8] = "Dirk Nowitzki";
          input[9] = "Tony Delk";
          input[10] = "Shawn Bradley";
          input[11] = "Travis Best";
          //The next six inputs will be for the third team
          input[12] = "KNICKS";
          input[13] = "Mike Sweetney";
          input[14] = "Allan Houston";
          input[15] = "Howard Eisley";
          input[16] = "Kurt Thomas";
          input[17] = "Shanon Anderson";
     //This method returns the strings one after the other.
     public String getNextString()
          StringNum++;
          return input[StringNum];
}<br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks

Answer 1

You could put the classes in separate files, but it's not necessary. They wouldn't be called 'subclasses' here, as that word is specific to inheritance, which you don't need here. Here's an example of using multiple classes:
public class MainClass {
    public static void main(String [] args) {
     OtherClass1 oc1 = new OtherClass1(3);
     OtherClass2 oc2 = new OtherClass2("hello");
     System.out.println("" + oc1.getInt());
     System.out.println(oc2.getString());
class OtherClass1 {
    int someInt;
    public OtherClass1(int i) {
        someInt = i;
    public getInt() {
     return someInt;
class OtherClass2 {
    String someString;
    public OtherClass2(String s) {
        someString = s;
    public getString() {
        return someString;
}and like BDLH said above, it's preferred to put them in separate files. Just make sure the file name is EXACTLY the same as the class name, followed by .java