title: java accessing an objects data from within another object
body: <p>Ive recently started learning java and for the most part its going well. To help understand what I am learning Ive decided to write a card game engine. Ive build the card and deck class using what i believe is proper abstraction and encapsulation methods. However while building the dealer class I've run into an issue, I don't know how to access the card classes data from within the dealer class. From the deck class I have all the access I need to the card class but once I get to the dealer class I'm just not sure how to access the data that is encapsulated 2 classes deep. </p>
  
  <p>Here is what I have so far , while code to solve the problem is appreciated , if someone could point me in the direction of a document or book to help better understand what I am experiencing would be greatly appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Just to be clear. I'd like to be able to access the data pertaining to the individual cards in the deck array such as the instance variable values from the dealer class. I know that if I reference the a card from a println statement it invokes the cards to string method. But what im looking for is the cards actual data.</p>
  
  <p>The last class is just something I was using to test the methods I wrote.</p>
  
  <pre><code>   import java.util.*;
     public class Card {
  
          public Card() {
              suit = 0;
              value = 0;
              setName(value);                             
          }
  
          public Card(int cSuit, int cValue) {
              suit = cSuit;
              value = cValue;
              setName(cValue);
          }
  
          public String getNewCard() {
                  suit = rgen.nextInt(4)+1;
              value = rgen.nextInt(13)+1;
              setName(value);
  
              return name +" of " +getSuitAsString();             
          }
  
          public int getValue() {
              return value;
          }
  
          public int getSuit() {
              return suit;
          }
  
          public String getName() {
              setName(value);
              return name;
          }
  
          public String getName(int val) {
              setName(val);
              return name;
          }
  
          public String getSuitAsString() {
  
              switch(suit) {
              case 1: return "Diamonds";
              case 2: return "Hearts";
              case 3: return "Spades";
                          case 4: return "Clubs";
                        default: return null;
              }
          }
  
          public String getSuitAsString(int cSuit) {
              switch (cSuit) {
                  case 1: return "Diamonds";
              case 2: return "Hearts";
              case 3: return "Spades";
                      case 4: return "Clubs";
                  default:return null;
              }
          }
  
          public String toString() {
              return name +" of "+ getSuitAsString();
          }
  
          private void setName(int value) {
              switch (value) {
              case 0 : name = "null";
              break;
              case 1 : name =  "Ace";
              break;
              case 2 : name =  "Two";
              break;
              case 3 : name =  "Three";
              break;
              case 4 : name =  "Four";
              break;
              case 5 : name =  "Five";
              break;
              case 6 : name =  "Six";
              break;
              case 7 : name =  "Seven";
              break;
              case 8 : name =  "Eight";
              break;
              case 9 : name =  "Nine";
              break;
              case 10 : name = "Ten";
              break;
              case 11: name =  "Jack";
              break;
              case 12 : name = "Queen";
              break;
              case 13 : name = "King";
              break;
              }
  
  
          }
  
      private int suit;
      private String name;
      private int value;
  
  
      private Random rgen = new Random();
      }
      import java.util.Random;
  
  
      public class Deck {
  
      //Constructor assembles an initial deck of 52 cards in order by suit.
      //Array element [0] is never used.
          public Deck(){
              int cards = 1;
              int cardsPerSuit = 13;
              int suits = 4;
              while(cards &lt; DECK_ARRAY_SIZE){
                  for(int i = 1; i &lt;= suits ; i++){
                      for(int j = 1; j &lt;= cardsPerSuit; j++){
                      deck[cards++] = new Card(i , j);
  
  
                  }
              }
          }   
      }
  
      //  Constructor creates and empty deck of 53 indexes set to null.
      //  Array element [0] is never used.
          public Deck(int deckArraySize){
              for(int i = 1; i &lt; deckArraySize ; i++){
                  deck[i] = new Card();
                  }
          }
  
          public Deck(int suitCount , int cardsPerSuit , int deckArraySize){
      //  Constructor for special deck configuration.     
      }
  
  
  
          public void shuffle(){
              int SHUFFLE_COUNT = 100000;
              int arrayPos1 = 0;
              int arrayPos2 = 0;
              int count = 0;
  
              while(count &lt; SHUFFLE_COUNT){
                  Card card1 = deck[rgen.nextInt(DECK_ARRAY_SIZE)];
                  if(card1 == deck[0]) card1 = deck[1];//This prevents the NullPointerException error.broke the always use braces rule.
                  Card card2 = deck[rgen.nextInt(DECK_ARRAY_SIZE)];
                  if(card2 == deck[0]) card2 = deck[52];//This prevents the NullPointerException error.broke the always use braces rule.
  
  
  
                  for(int i = 1; i &lt; DECK_ARRAY_SIZE; i++){
                      for (int j = 1; j &lt; DECK_ARRAY_SIZE; j++){
                          if (deck[i].equals(card1)){
                              arrayPos1 = i;
                              if (deck[j].equals(card2)){
                              arrayPos2 = j;
  
                              }
                          }
                      }   
                      Card temp = deck[arrayPos1];
                      deck[arrayPos1] = deck[arrayPos2];
                      deck[arrayPos2] = temp;
                      count++;    
  
                  }       
  
          }           
  
      }
  
  
      //  Gets the top card of the deck.
          public Card getTopCard(){
              Card topCard = deck[1];
              return topCard;
  
          }
      //  Gets a card at specified index. 
          public Card getCardAt(int cardAtPos){
              Card cardAt = deck[cardAtPos];  
              return  cardAt; 
  
          }
  
  
      //This method makes an implicit call to the Card classes toString method when string manipulation is performed .    
      //This is done by the compiler automatically.
          public void getDeckInfo(){
              for(int i = 1; i &lt; DECK_ARRAY_SIZE ; i++){
              System.out.print(i +" ");
              System.out.println(deck[i]);
              }
          }
  
  
          public String toString(){
      //      getDeckInfo();
              return "Nothing to see here, move along.";
  
          }
  
      private Random rgen = new Random();
      public static final int DECK_ARRAY_SIZE = 53;
      private Card[] deck = new Card[DECK_ARRAY_SIZE];
  
      }
      public class Dealer {
  
      public Dealer(){
          playDeck = new Deck();
          discardStack = new Deck(Deck.DECK_ARRAY_SIZE);
      }
  
      public int getDeckCardCount(){
  // this count should go down anytime a card is dealt to a player 
          return deckCardCount;
      }
  
      public int getDiscardCount(){
  // this count should go up anytime a card is removed from the deck or from play.        
          return discardCount;
      }
  
      public void dealCards(){
  
  // should be self explanatory.      
      }
  
      public void shuffle(){
  // need to make sure that shuffle compensates for cards removed 
  // from deck and move cards to the front of the array before the shuffle.
  // make sure that the empty indexes at the end of the array are not included in the shuffle.
  // also need a shuffle method for shuffles at the end of the game. or just 
  // throw out he deck and get a new deck.... 
  // maybe pass the remaining cards in the deck to the shuffle method .
  
      }
  
      public String toString(){
  
          return "Nothing to see here , move along.";
  }
  public Deck playDeck;   
  public Deck discardStack;
  private int deckCardCount;
  private int discardCount;
      }
  
  public class CardTest  {
  
  public static void main(String[] args){
  
  
      Card singleCard = new Card();
      Deck deck = new Deck();
      Deck playDeck = new Deck();
      Deck discardStack = new Deck(53); 
      Dealer dealer = new Dealer();
  
  System.out.println("value: "+singleCard.getValue());
  System.out.println("Name: "+singleCard.getName());
  System.out.println("Suit: "+singleCard.getSuitAsString());
  System.out.println("Card to string: "+singleCard.toString());
  System.out.println("New card: " +singleCard.getNewCard());
  System.out.println("New card: " +singleCard.getNewCard());
  System.out.println("New card: " +singleCard.getNewCard());
  System.out.println("Pass a 4 to the getSuitAsString() method:    "+singleCard.getSuitAsString(4));
  System.out.println("Pass a 12 to the getName() method: "+singleCard.getName(12));
  deck.getDeckInfo();
  System.out.println("Top card is: "+deck.getTopCard());
  
  System.out.println("Shuffling...");
  int count =0;
  while(count &lt; 500){
  dealer.playDeck.shuffle();
  discardStack.shuffle();
  count++;
  }
  
  deck.getDeckInfo();
  System.out.println("Top card is: "+deck.getTopCard());
  System.out.println("Card at position ??: "+deck.getCardAt(5));
  playDeck.getDeckInfo();
  discardStack.getDeckInfo();
  playDeck.shuffle();
  playDeck.getDeckInfo();
  discardStack.shuffle();
  discardStack.getDeckInfo();
  dealer.playDeck.getDeckInfo();
  dealer.playDeck.shuffle();
  System.out.println("Shuffling...");
  dealer.playDeck.getDeckInfo();
  System.out.println(dealer.playDeck.getCardAt(5));
  System.out.println(dealer.discardStack.getCardAt(5));   
  
  
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>}</p>