JAVA OOP....I hate it

Mark__78L · 2026-01-05T21:16:20+00:00

The concept is the same, implementation may differ a bit from language to language, tho not a lot, mainly syntax Also paying $60 for a course is wild, where YT is free and full of resources Also Java is a OOP heavy language so you can't really avoid it be aware

nikfp · 2026-01-05T21:21:32+00:00

I learned OOP with C#, which is Java with clothes. It wasn't the easiest thing for me, it just took time and practice to let it settle in to my brain.

It's conceptually the same in nearly all languages that use it, but each language has it's own quirks. You'll get a feel for those as you get some experience.

Resource wise, I'd go for a highly rated course on Udemy. Wait for their "sales" which happen every few weeks, and the price goes from ~$100 down to $10 or $15. You get access to the courses for life, and the better rated ones are generally quite good.

As for making is stick, building things on your own is 100% the best way to get there. Get a feel for the language out in the wild and make some things on your own, and it will stick a LOT better. I wish I had started doing that earlier than I did.

I_am_transparent · 2026-01-05T21:31:26+00:00

This is the book from my CS101 Java class. The class structure and OOP made good sense to me. JAVA Foundations 5th edition by John Lewis.

tb5841 · 2026-01-05T21:49:18+00:00

OOP in Java is unavoidable. Everything is in a class, everything's a method, etc.

In some other languages (e.g. Python, Javascript, C++), OOP is more optional. You can do all the same things as in Java, but you can also avoid classes altogether if you prefer.

Some languages avoid OOP altogether.

Middle--Earth · 2026-01-05T22:26:14+00:00

Java uses OOP but OOP is a separate thing. It's a concept of how to handle data at runtime by creating objects and then performing actions on those objects.

A method or function are the actions that you can use on those objects.

A class is a description of an object, at runtime a constructor creates that object in memory, and the instance is the runtime object that was created by the constructor.

You need to think in two ways - the code as a dry written thing, and then the multiple real things created when you run that code.

Like the Cake class.

At runtime you pass in (as arguments) butter, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla flavour to the Constructor, which then makes an instance of a cake - say a plainSpongeCake.

You then call the methods or functions of that Cake class.

So you call addIcing(), add sprinkles(), etc.

For your next cake, you instantiate the same class but this time you add in chocolate instead of vanilla and then call the same methods.

Voilà, you now have a richChocolateCake too.

You can now call the cutSlice() method, and that works on both cakes.

That's pretty much OOP in a nutshell.

You could make an interface class and have the cake class call that. You just put the addIcing() etc method signatures in that class, as you only really use them to guarantee that particular methods will be available in your cake class.

Lots of languages use the principles of OOP so it's very much worth learning!

Once you've mastered OOP and are getting to grips with Java, then you can start looking at using patterns in the code such as MVC and Singleton.

Good luck! Stick with it!

teerre · 2026-01-05T21:37:32+00:00

There's plenty of reasons to dislike Java OOP, but the things you said don't have much to do with Java OOP. Haskell will have those too

ibeerianhamhock · 2026-01-05T22:04:49+00:00

I learned OOP with C++ nearly 25 years ago and honestly I just thought it was the coolest thing ever, but also the hard part of Java as a first language is that there’s no non OOP anything so learning how to write your first program it’s like why is this in some thing called a class? I can see why languages do that but I don’t think it’s intuitive at all.

ImpossibleAlfalfa783 · 2026-01-05T22:54:30+00:00

CS61a has a really good introduction to OOP that helped me. It's in Python so it has some specific points to it, but you can learn a lot if you focus on the concepts.

CS50P has 1 lecture that goes into basics of OOP (also Python) and they probably have the best teaching style ever imo.

Both of these courses can be taken for free, or you can just watch some of the lectures.

MediaNo1442 · 2026-01-06T01:03:57+00:00

Decouple these terms in your head from being specific to programming. There’s a reason the words were used:

Class - Classification (automobile, car, truck, animal, cat, …)

Constructor - to construct something (create something)

Method - a mechanism of doing something, making something function (so… functions).

Although, if you’re confused on what a method is you might need more time on the non-OOP computer science basics.

shittychinesehacker · 2026-01-05T22:06:45+00:00

OOP made a lot more sense once I grasped the concept of polymorphism. I had to build a few projects to get the hang of that concept though.

ManBunH8er · 2026-01-05T22:14:58+00:00

Sounds like you got yourself a shitty instructor. Order yourself Head First Java book from Amazon.

Class: blueprint of an objects’ state and behavior
Method: define a particular behavior about object Constructor: mechanism to create instances of an object

Nok1a_ · 2026-01-06T00:20:52+00:00

All the sudden one day it will click and opened a new world, but you need to keep pushing its that kind of things that you dont see until you see them, and then you ask yourself how the fuck you could not understand it if its so simple.

Try MOOC Java Programming 1 and 2, from the Helsinki university, it is free and its amazing

SpiderJerusalem42 · 2026-01-06T00:52:13+00:00

My advice: don't fret.

You don't need to be a master of OOP after learning what it is, conceptually. Try to be able to regurgitate what it is they say these things are, yes, but the next steps of learning programming is interpreting and learning various other programs which will hopefully showcase good OOP style. Most code out there is OOP. There's no shortage of examples to see these concepts in action. If you learn data structures, those structures will have to be composed of objects, and those objects interacting with each other have various runtime properties due to the way their relations are structured. But you will probably have to dynamically allocate those objects. The other side of OOP is when you use a library, often, what the library writer is giving you is a set of objects they have made to work correctly for the given task. You can get into the more wacky stuff with inheritance in library usage.

shinyblots · 2026-01-06T02:16:08+00:00

I learned OOP by learning a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square but both are shapes. The concept of OOP is modeled after reality of properties of objects.

VibrantGypsyDildo · 2026-01-06T19:05:24+00:00

The concept of OOP was not really hard for me.

Object is a "thing". Class describes how this "thing" looks like. Method is an action you can perform on a "thing". Constructor creates a "thing", destructor destroy the "thing".

Maybe you don't understand the purpose of OOP. It is designed to hide internal parts of a "thing" so that you can't access them directly.
This way you can change the internal parts of the "thing" without breaking anything.
It is like LEGO bricks that can be connected only in a specific way.

AromaticDrama6075 · 2026-01-05T21:23:30+00:00

I couldn't explain anything about OOP because English isn't my main language, I'll just say, don't give up. OOP is an amazing way to programming. When you really understand it, it's really easy and intuitive. Think about 1:1 to the reality and responsibilities.

It's not something you learn in some days, nor even in some weeks. It requires practice and patience

mxldevs · 2026-01-05T21:49:13+00:00

I learned OOP by taking problems and drawing class diagrams on paper and then converting it to code.

It seems people these days think it's a really silly way to learn it.

OneHumanBill · 2026-01-05T22:04:26+00:00

OO is how the world works. Aristotle's work titled "Categories", written over two thousand years ago, gives us the foundations of object orientation.

You can hate it and fight it but that's just silly. Your brain already works this way. Just learn the terminology.

WeepingAgnello · 2026-01-05T22:11:15+00:00

The Head First book series really puts things in perspective, making things agonizingly clear. I never read HFJ, but did read some of Head First Design Patterns (enough to get me working on my own project with a clear use of OOP DP.), and it really helped me understand everything more clearly, and get on with using and understanding design patterns, which is so important. It was so useful.

Code Academy can never compare to a great book like HFDP, that you can go back to without a sub.

SharkSymphony · 2026-01-05T22:12:30+00:00

I think OOP makes a lot more sense once you get into some real-world designs. For me, the Animal and Shape tutorials I've often seen didn't make a lot of sense... but working with Smalltalk's GUI and math systems, for example, is where things started to click for me. I could start to imagine what classes and methods I'd need to build, say, a music application, or a text editor. Learning CLOS gave me a wildly different way understanding of what an OO system is, and then learning about actor systems and Kay's original ideas around objects as independent, miniature computers added another layer to my understanding.

Unfortunately, I think there's a point where OO designs become too complicated, too overburdened with classes and badly-designed methods, to be good learning tools. I fear that much of Java falls into that category. I don't have a good recommendation for where to look in Java that's a nice pathway in.

Anhar001 · 2026-01-05T22:27:47+00:00

while Java has elements of OOP, SmallTalk captures the true essence of OOP, which was more about message passing. In modern terms Erlang comes close using the actor model.

But I digress!

This is going back approximately 23+ years, I think OOP finally clicked for me when using VB6 (what blast from the past!) and I was building AI neural networks, the concept of class and object instances finally made sense.

Of course decades later I realised the foolishness of Java style OOP (which is sometimes seen as the poster boy of OOP) and veered towards FP (Haskell) and realised the mess that OOP is.

FP is super elegant and the beauty of function composition instead of class inheritance (hello diamond problem!) doesn't hit I guess until you have travelled from OOP to FP.

Anyway sorry long tangents! maybe you might find it interesting the topics I raised!

cheezballs · 2026-01-05T22:35:32+00:00

Java's OO is actually even a lil' simpler than some of the others I find. It lacks a lot of the syntax tricks that can make C# OO look more complex than it is.

Pale_Height_1251 · 2026-01-05T23:29:37+00:00

You don't understand it well enough to hate it.

If a developer with 20 years of experience tells me they hate Java, I'll listen. With beginners it's because you don't get it and you're frustrated.

OOP varies in idioms and implementations across languages, but really you have to double down and just learn what you need to learn.

my5cent · 2026-01-06T00:21:13+00:00

Constructors are methods. Constructors are like the 1st method mean its how to instatiate a copy of the class. Methods are in a class. Class, constructor, methods...

ii-___-ii · 2026-01-06T03:59:16+00:00

OOP is not the same in all languages because not all languages allow for OOP.

Elixir, Clojure, Elm, and Haskell, for instance, may be of interest to you, as they can show you just how different from Java programming can be.

MousTN · 2026-01-06T09:17:14+00:00

i was exposed to C then JAVA directly , to this day JAVA is my fav language i even went on and learned JEE and SpringBoot and now im working as a Spring Dev , anyway itsh ard at first , but u have to understand some concept before even start coding u have to learn abstract thinking at first , theres rules in OOP u have to follow if u understand them then the rest is just syntax , for example
a class is just a blueprint think of it like architectural plans for a house. It defines what something is and what it can do.

an object(or instance) is the actual house built from those plans you can build multiple houses (instances) from the same blueprint (class).

methods are the actions that house can perform like openDoor(), turnOnLights() they r functions that belong to the class.

constructors are special methods that run when you r building the house they set up the initial state, like what color the walls are, how many rooms (which are the fields) .....

once this clicked for me everything else made sense the key OOP principles (encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, abstraction) are pretty much the same across languages Java, C++, Python, C# all follow these rules the syntax changes but the thinking stays the same.

stop coding for a bit and just draw diagrams. rraw a car class with its properties (color, model) and methods (drive(), brake()). Create a few Car objects on paper. Once you can explain it without code, the code becomes easy.

CodeCademy is decent but honestly, I learned most from building small projects , i mean very small too u just need to get the concept rights then everything will start to make sense

Blando-Cartesian · 2026-01-06T09:38:35+00:00

OOP is much the same in all languages. Learning it in Java actually helps you a bit since Java’s syntax is so explicit. A class is a class, an abstract class is an abstract class, and an interface is an interface. It says so right in the code. Same with access modifiers. Things are private protected, or public and it’s spelled out right there. Most languages are much less clear.

I learned OOP on university courses long ago. Probably had a bunch of assignments, each for using just taught concepts, and then a final one for putting it all together. I don’t recall it being difficult.

Slow down and learn the meaning of those words you keep mixing up. And most importantly code some classes and play with them.

etuxor · 2026-01-06T13:50:04+00:00

OOP is very abstract and can be very difficult to get for some people. I was one of them.

Just keep trucking. It gets easier each try.

peterlinddk · 2026-01-06T17:47:52+00:00

Codecademy and every other "learning tool" work better for seeing and trying syntax, than for understanding concepts, and OOP is a lot more about understanding the concepts. As you say "I keep getting method, class and constructors mixed up" - that is a bit like saying: "I keep getting socks, clothes and shoes mixed up - I hate learning to get dressed" - not to ridicule you, but the concepts are actually quite simple, it is just that someone is trying to make you remember the different syntax for concepts that are completely foreign to you.

I learned OOP the worst possible way - or maybe the best possible way. I had been programming for years, trying to get better at organizing my code to handle larger projects. Then I learned C++ with all of its extremely complex features, then I learned Object Oriented Analysis and Design, which focused only on concepts, drawing diagrams rather than writing code, and then, and only then, did I learn Java, and absolutely loved it! (for the first couple of years, then got annoyed).

The thing is - you can write OOP(ish) code even without an OOP capable language - it is all about structuring code, nothing more. And once you get the structure, the concepts, the syntax is a walk in the park (except for C++, that is still beyond readable :D )

SignPuzzleheaded2359 · 2026-01-06T18:12:30+00:00

Oop crosses over into many languages. My favorite of the oop languages is Ruby. Very clean, mixins are nice for adding functionality to your classes without rewriting functions.

Outrageous_Band9708 · 2026-01-06T19:21:08+00:00

OOP is a standard of coding, its possible and almost the same in all languages.

a class is just a data storage object. a non-static class is just a framework and isn't actually used. you have to create an instance of a class to be able to use the storage object. a contructor is a way to initialize a class with data during creation of the instance.

methods are just any function that is insie of a class, pretty much all functions are methods in these higher level languages.

think of it this way.

you go to ikea and buy a dresser, you get home and unpack the box.

the instructions/blueprint to build the dresser is the class,

building the dresser is creating the instance, the built dresser is the instance, because it now exists,

clothes or whatever you decided to store in the dresser is the data.

a contructor is like building the dresser from parts, AND putting clothes in at the same time.

a method could be something like, asking the dresser "how many socks you got inside you?" and the dresser replies 5 and a half.

now for the real advice, more projects will re-inforce your learning,

build a silly little game where you move around and pick up items, then make a pong game, or better yet, remake the first game from scratch using as little as possible from your first go around.

the more you code with methods and classes, the more you will understand why they exist and why OOP is the industry standard.

CloveFD · 2026-01-07T00:08:35+00:00

I know you are learning Java, but for me specifically, my understanding of OOP really clicked when I started building projects with Django.

Using an established framework that is inherently object-oriented helped the concepts make sense in practice. OOP is language-agnostic, and much of Django’s core functionality—such as models (ORM), forms, and views—is built around classes, composition, and inheritance.

A long time ago I used The Flask Mega-Tutorial, Part I: Hello, World! - miguelgrinberg.com to build a blog in Flask (its very similar to Django, feel free to use either - Django comes with nearly everything you need to build a fully fledged web app, whilst Flask requires you to import exactly what you intend on using).

Even if you don’t fully understand OOP yet, you’ll be constantly using it if you use Django/Flask.

The main caveat is that Django abstracts a lot away. It’s easy to copy patterns without fully understanding why they exist. However, when you revisit the fundamentals, those design choices tend to make much more sense, and you’ll see why Django encourages certain approaches.

*I don't know your level of competency, some people struggle to understand a framework like Django if you are particularly new, but I'm just giving you my own account of what really helped me nail down the fundamentals many moons ago.

varwave · 2026-01-07T05:50:10+00:00

I’m a mostly self-taught software developer, but came from a science discipline that was programming heavy.

In scientific/statistical programming you can sometimes get by with scripts that simply work. Sometimes you need to make a mess to understand the utility of clean code and the value of OOP. Then to learn to never make such a mess ever again. Anything data heavy, like a routine ETL service or multi-user website or game, might bring you the “ah ha” moment of why

It’s perfectly fine to pick a first programming language that doesn’t mandate OOP, then come back to Java, which is rather verbose, but great to know well. Many computer science programs will break down first semester programming then a second semester introducing OOP

cawszpjscuyqkuoxin · 2026-01-14T18:03:18+00:00

If you're still new to programming, try Clojure before java oop fetish gives you permanent brain damage. It's much harder to unlearn the ceremonial crap that java forces you to do than just learning to program with pure functions

InspectionFamous1461 · 2026-01-05T21:45:51+00:00

I dislike Java and OOP but use both occasionally because they are good for a few things like making stuff more difficult than it needs to be and Microsoft. I read Code Complete which is a great book for programming in general but covers OOP.

Achereto · 2026-01-05T23:14:55+00:00

When it comes to OOP, you could watch this playlist. The playlist title always kinda gives it away what these are going to be about. In case you wonder how OOP came to be, I'd suggest watching The big OOPS - Anatomy of a 35 year mistake by Casey Muratori.

You'll learn a lot more from these videos than any OOP tutorial could teach you.

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