Scribd
Upload
56 views3 pages

Renato Osses Carrizo - Worksheet - CodeHS - Inheritance and Polymorphism

Uploaded by

renato.osses.carrizo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
56 views3 pages

Renato Osses Carrizo - Worksheet - CodeHS - Inheritance and Polymorphism

Uploaded by

renato.osses.carrizo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Inheritance and Polymorphism

Corresponding Material
Inheritance, Polymorphism

Discussion
The topics of inheritance and polymorphism are closely related. Polymorphism is
only possible because classes are able to inherit from another class. What kind of
relationship do child classes have with their parent classes? (child IS-A parent, like
a lake IS-A body of water or a cat IS-A mammal). What parts of the parent class
do child classes inherit? (public and protected methods, NOT the constructor)

We can see that child classes and parent classes are very closely related. Just like
a child shares certain traits with his/her biological parents, a child class has certain
traits in common with its parent class. However, like human children are unique
people with traits that differ from their parents, child classes can also have different
traits.

For example, let’s say Emily is a 3-year-old child of Liam. Liam has brown hair, and
so does Emily. Liam lives in Huddersfield, and so does Emily. Liam has a dresser
full of clothes, and so does Emily. However, Liam’s drawers are filled with adult’s
clothes, while Emily’s drawers are filled with toddler’s clothes.

Now let’s think of Liam and Emily as Java classes. Let’s say that Liam has the type
Guardian, and Emily has the type Infant. Thus, the classes we have are Guardian
and Infant, where Infant and Guardian inherit from the class FamilyMember.
Furthermore, let’s say that Guardian, Infant, and FamilyMember have the following
variables and methods (in addition to others that are not listed).

FamilyMember Guardian extends Infant extends


FamilyMember FamilyMember
Variables:
name Variables: Methods:
Hometown Occupation
chooseClothes
Methods: Methods: play
getHometown chooseClothes
chooseClothes makeDinner

Note that both child classes have overridden the chooseClothes method.
Liam.getHometown() and Emily.getHometown() would both return “Huddersfield”,
since they both live in the same house in the same town. However,
Liam.chooseClothes() would return adult’s clothes, since his drawer is filled with
adult’s clothes. Emily.chooseClothes() would return toddler’s clothes since her
drawer is filled with toddler’s clothes.

That’s all polymorphism is! The definition of chooseClothes depends on who is


choosing the clothes! If Liam is choosing clothes, then he chooses from his drawer.
In Java, this would be the same as saying Liam is using the definition given in the
Guardian class. If Emily is choosing clothes, she chooses from her drawer. In Java,
the Emily object would use the Infant definition. Even though Liam and Emily are
both FamilyMembers, we have to consider who the actual person is in order to
choose the right clothes. In a nutshell, polymorphism just means that Java looks to
see what object is actually calling the method. Then, based on what the actual type
of the object is, it uses that class’s definition.

Class Exercise
Suppose you have a base class named Clothes. The classes Jeans, Shirt, and Socks
all inherit from Clothes. The methods and variables defined in each class are listed
below.

Clothes Shirt extends Clothes

Variables: Methods:

color getNeckType

materialType

size

Methods:

getColor

getMaterial

getSize

Jeans extends Clothes Socks extends Clothes

Methods: Variables:

getNumberOfPockets smells

Methods:

areSmelly
Given these definitions, which of the following numbered lines of code are illegal?
Why?

Clothes top = new Shirt(“red”, “cotton”, “M”);

Clothes bottom = new Jeans(“blue”, “cotton”, “10”);

Clothes footwear = new Socks(“black”, “wool”, “S”);

1. top.getColor();
2. bottom.getNeckType();
3. Socks gymSocks = new Clothes(“white”, “silk”, “M”);
4. Clothes dressShirt = new Shirt(“blue”, “spandex”, “XL”);
5. Clothes scarf = new Clothes(“flannel”, “wool”, “S”);
6. footwear.areSmelly()
7. Clothes extraSocks = footwear;
8. Shirt golfShirt = scarf;

You might also like