| public class Object is the root of the Class hierarchy. Every java class has Object as its ultimate parent and so any object (object with a small o is any instance of any class) can use methods of Object |
| Methods of Object (used as object.Method()) include: |
| clone() Creates a clone of the object |
| equals(another object) compares two objects returning boolean answer |
| getClass() returns a descriptor of type Class (a child of Object) defining class of object |
| toString() returns a String which represents "value" of object. It is expected that each subclass will override this method |
| wait() in various forms is used to cause threads to wait |
| finalize() contains code to perform when object is deleted by system (I.e. garbage collected) |