For the class of Employee
class Employee { String name; // An instance variable String gender; // An instance variable static long count; // A class variable because of the static modifier }
To declare a reference variable to store a reference of an instance of the Employee class.
Employee jack;
Employee is the class name, and jack is a variable of that type.
jack is a reference variable of Employee type.
jack variable can store a reference of an instance of the Employee class.
To store the reference returned by the new operator in a reference variable.
jack = new Employee();
You can also combine the above two statements into one.
Employee jack = new Employee();