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What type of parameter does the System.out.println() method expect?

Answer:

It expects a reference to a String as a parameter.


Automatic Call of toString()

It looks like the following will not work:

Point a = new Point();  // a is a Point reference

System.out.println( a ); 
                    |
                    +--- should be String reference 

However, it does work, for the following reason:

When a parameter should be a String reference, but is a reference to another type of object, Java calls the object's toString() method to create a String and then uses the resulting String reference.

All objects (of any type at all) have their own toString() method, so this trick works with any object.


QUESTION 10:

(Puzzle: ) Does a String object have a toString() method?