stackoverflow error in class constructor

Question

Please excuse what is probably a very basic question, but I am writing a program to store employee info and it works fine until it tries to set the info inside my employee class. It gives a stackoverflow error and I cannot figure out why. Thanks for any help.

Main class:

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Main
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        Scanner Input = new Scanner(System.in);

        System.out.println("Enter the number of employees to enter.");
        int employeeCount = Input.nextInt();
        Input.nextLine();

        Employee employee[] = new Employee[employeeCount];
        String namesTemp;
        String streetTemp;
        String cityTemp;
        String stateTemp;
        String zipCodeTemp;
        String address;
        String dateOfHireTemp;

        for(int x = 0; x < employeeCount; x++)
        {
            System.out.println("Please enter the name of Employee " + (x + 1));
            namesTemp = Input.nextLine();
            System.out.println("Please enter the street for Employee " + (x + 1));
            streetTemp = Input.nextLine();
            System.out.println("Please enter the city of Employee " + (x + 1));
            cityTemp = Input.nextLine();
            System.out.println("Please enter the state of Employee " + (x + 1));
            stateTemp = Input.nextLine();
            System.out.println("Please enter the zip code of Employee " + (x + 1));
            zipCodeTemp = Input.nextLine();
            address = streetTemp + ", " + cityTemp + ", " + stateTemp + ", " + zipCodeTemp;
            System.out.println("Please enter the date of hire for Employee " + (x + 1));
            dateOfHireTemp = Input.nextLine();
            System.out.println("The employee ID for employee " + (x + 1) + " is " + (x + 1));
            employee[x] = new Employee(x, namesTemp, address, dateOfHireTemp);
        }
    }
}

Employee class:

public class Employee
{
    private int employeeID;
    private Name name;
    private Address address;
    private DateOfHire hireDate;

    public Employee()
    {

    }

    public Employee(int employeeID, String name, String address, String hireDate)
    {
        String temp;
        Name employeeName = new Name(name);
        this.employeeID = employeeID;
    }
}

Name class:

public class Name 
{
    public Name name;

    public Name(String name)
    {
        Name employeeName = new Name(name);
        this.name = employeeName;
    }
}

Answer 1

The most common cause of StackoverflowExceptions is to unknowingly have recursion, and is that happening here? ...

public Name(String name)
{
    Name employeeName = new Name(name);  // **** YIKES!! ***
    this.name = employeeName;
}

Bingo: recursion!

This constructor will create a new Name object whose constructor will create a new Name object whose constructor will... and thus you will keep creating new Name objects ad infinitum or until stack memory runs out. Solution: don't do this. Assign name to a String:

class Name {
    String name; // ***** String field!

    public Name(String name)
    {
        this.name = name;  // this.name is a String field
    }

Answer 2

Typically a class is used to group data together with functionality. It appears that the Name class is simply a wrapper for a String without adding any functionality. At this point in your Java career, it is probably better to declare String name; in the Employee class and remove the Name class all together. (Note that this would remove the error from your code that Hovercraft Full of Eels described.)