Week 08
Inheritance and Polymorphisms
Learning Outcomes
•Upon completion of this lecture, student
should be able to:
• To implement a subclass from a superclass
through inheritance
• To invoke the superclass’s constructors and
methods using the super keyword
• To override instance methods in the subclass
• To distinguish differences between overriding and
overloading
• To restrict access to data and methods to
subclasses using the protected visibility modifier
Contents
• What Is Inheritance?
• Calling the Superclass Constructor
• Overriding Superclass Methods
• Access Control Modifiers
• Chains of Inheritance
• The Object Class
• Polymorphism
• Casting Object
Inheritance (Is-A relationship)
Insect
Contains those attributes
and methods that are
shared by all insects.
BumbleBee Grasshopper
Contains those attributes and Contains those attributes and
methods that specific to a Bumble methods that are specific to a
Bee. Grasshopper.
11-4
Inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance
• The Java keyword, extends, is used on the class
header to define the subclass.
<modifier> class <name> extends <superclass>
{
…….
}
public class Manager extends Employee {
11-8
Constructor
Constructor
Constructor
Recall
Overriding
Overriding Methods
Rule of Overriding
Overriding Methods
Question
Overloading Vs Overriding
11-18
final keyword
• The final modifier will prevent the overriding of a
superclass method in a subclass.
public final void message()
• If you do not want a class to be subclassed, precede the
class declaration with the keyword final.
• If you do not want a method to be overridden by a
subclass, precede the method declaration with the
keyword final.
• If you want a variable to be read-only (that is, a
constant), precede it with the keyword final.
11-20
Example of final
final class MyClass {
final int x = 3;
public static final double PI = 3.14159;
final double getPI() { return PI; }
}
The Object Class
Some Methods in the Object Class
Method Purpose
Object clone( ) Creates a copy of this object
boolean equals(Object obj) Tests whether two objects are equal
void finalize( ) Called before recycling the object
Class<?> getClass( ) Returns the class of the object
int hashCode( ) Returns the hash code of the object
void notify( ) Resumes execution of a thread waiting on the
object
void notifyAll( ) Resumes execution of all threads waiting on
the object
String toString( ) Returns a string describing the object
void wait( ) Waits on another thread of execution
The equals Method
An equals example
An equals example
Practice 1
Chains of Inheritance
• A superclass can also be derived from another class.
Object
GradedActivity
PassFailActivity
PassFailExam
11-31
Chains of Inheritance
• Classes often are depicted graphically in a class
hierarchy.
• A class hierarchy shows the inheritance
relationships between classes.
GradedActivity
FinalExam PassFailActivity
PassFailExam
11-32
Polymorphism
Employee e = new Employee ();
Employee e1= new Manager();
Employee e2= new Engineer ();
Employee e3= new Secretary();
Virtual Method Invocation
GradedActivity exam = new GradedActivity();;
GradedActivity exam = new FinalExam(50, 7);
GradedActivity exam2 = new PassFailActivity(70);
GradedActivity exam3 = new PassFailExam(100, 10, 70);
In Java, a reference variable is polymorphic because it can reference
objects of types different from its own, as long as those types are
subclasses of its type.
• The GradedActivity class has three methods: setScore,
getScore, and getGrade. GradedActivity
- score : double
+ setScore(s : double) : void
+ getScore() : double
+ getGrade() : char
• A GradedActivity variable can be used to call only those
three methods.
GradedActivity exam = new PassFailExam(100, 10, 70);
System.out.println(exam.getScore());
System.out.println(exam.getGrade());
System.out.println(exam.getPointsEach());
ERROR!
11-37
Polymorphism and Dynamic
Binding
• If the object of the subclass has overridden a method in the
superclass:
• If the variable makes a call to that method the subclass’s version of
the method will be run.
GradedActivity exam = new PassFailActivity(60);
exam.setScore(70);
System.out.println(exam.getGrade());
• Java performs dynamic binding or late binding when a variable contains
a polymorphic reference.
• The Java Virtual Machine determines at runtime which method to call,
depending on the type of object that the variable references.
11-38
Casting Objects
Inheritance AND Polymorphism
Main Reference :
I. Savitch, W. Absolute Java. 4th Edition, Pearson International Edition.
2010.
II. Tony Gaddis. “Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures
through Objects”. 4th Edition. Addison-Wesley. 2010
III. Y. Daniel Liang. “Introduction to Java Programming, Comprehensive”.
8th Edition. Prentice Hall. 2011
Lecturer: Tan Soo Fun
KS20603 Object-Oriented Programming
The End
