Askar Khaimuldin
Senior-lecturer
askar.khaimuldin@astanait.edu.kz
Astana IT University
▪ Run-Time Type Identification (RTTI)
▪ Reflection
▪ Generics
▪ Lambda Expressions
▪ Default methods in Interfaces
▪ Static methods in Interfaces
▪ Although polymorphism and dynamic binding are powerful
tools, they are not sufficient to take care of all the issues that
arise when dealing with an inheritance hierarchy.
▪ Consider having classes as Shape, Circle, Rectangle and
ShapeList which has several shapes. What if we need to
calculate a quantity of circles in a ShapeList?
▪ instanceof operator
▪ Downcasting
▪ Anything else?
▪ Reflection allows an executing Java program to examine or
"introspect" upon itself, and manipulate internal properties of the
program
▪ Based on the notion of a special class known as Class
▪ A reference to Class can be obtained using the getClass() method
▪ A Class has several methods that can be invoked to find out
various properties of the class (name, list of fields and methods,
etc.)
▪ Generics (generic types and methods)
allow us to get away from the rigid
definition of the types used
▪ In the example, we assume that all
numbers are integers, therefore, it could
not be used for doubles
▪ Should create a class DoubleNumbers
and provide the same content?
▪ Java Generic methods and generic
classes enable programmers to specify,
with a single method declaration, a set of
related methods, or with a single class
declaration, a set of related types,
respectively
▪ Generics (generic types and methods)
allow us to get away from the rigid
definition of the types used
▪ In the example, we assume that all
numbers are integers, therefore, it could
not be used for doubles
▪ Should create a class DoubleNumbers
and provide the same content?
▪ Java Generic methods and generic
classes enable programmers to specify,
with a single method declaration, a set of
related methods, or with a single class
declaration, a set of related types,
respectively
▪ A lambda expression represents an anonymous method—that is, a
method without a name.
▪ A lambda consists of a parameter list followed by the arrow token
(->) and a body
▪ Lambda expressions (or lambdas for short) enable you to create
methods that can be treated as data.
▪ you can pass lambda expressions as arguments to other methods,
▪ assign lambda expressions to variables for later use
▪ and return lambda expressions from methods.
▪ Introduced in Java SE 8
▪ interfaces also may contain public default methods with concrete
default implementations
▪ They specify how operations are performed when an
implementing class does not override the methods
▪ If a class implements such an interface, the class also receives the
interface’s default implementations (if any)
▪ To declare a default method, place the keyword default before the
method’s return type and provide a concrete method
implementation
▪ Diamond problem could occur when we deal with
multiple inheritance
▪ The core problem is that an object of type D could
have more than one implementation of the same
method
▪ Initially, it was assumed that Java cannot have a
Diamond problem, since it does not provide multiple
inheritance
▪ But with the help of default methods in interfaces it
becomes possible
▪ Static Methods in Interface are those methods, which are
defined in the interface with the keyword static
▪ Unlike other methods in Interface, these static methods contain
the complete definition of the function
▪ Since the definition is complete and the method is static,
therefore these methods cannot be overridden or changed in
the implementation class
Object-Oriented Analysis, Design and Implementation, 2nd
Edition, Brahma Dathan and Sarnath Ramnath, Springer
▪ Chapter 4.4
Java: How to Program (Early Objects), 11th Edition, by Paul Deitel
and Harvey Deitel, Pearson
▪ Chapters 8.4, 17.3, 10.9 – 10.13
