Java
Inheritance
Inheritance
• Same inheritance concept of C++ in Java with some
modifications
– One class inherits the other using extends keyword
– The classes involved in inheritance are known as
superclass and subclass
– Multilevel inheritance but no multiple inheritance
– There is a special way to call the superclass’s constructor
– There is automatic dynamic method dispatch
• Inheritance provides code reusability (code of any
class can be used by extending that class)
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 2
Simple Inheritance
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 3
Inheritance and Member Access
• A class member that has been
declared as private will remain
private to its class
• It is not accessible by any code
outside its class, including
subclasses
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 4
Practical Example
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 5
Superclass variable reference to
Subclass object
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 6
Using super to call Superclass
Constructors
super( ) must always be the
first statement executed inside
a subclass’ constructor
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 7
Using super to call Superclass
Constructors
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 8
Using super to access Superclass
hidden members
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 9
Multilevel Inheritance
Inside X's constructor
Inside Y's constructor
Inside Z's constructor
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 10
Method Overriding
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 11
Dynamic Method Dispatch
For practical example please
refer to FindAreas.java
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 12
Abstract Class
• abstract class A
• contains abstract method abstract method f()
• No instance can be created of an abstract class
• The subclass must implement the abstract method
• Otherwise the subclass will be a abstract class too
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 13
Abstract Class
For practical example please
refer to FindAreas2.java
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 14
Anonymous Subclass
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 15
Using final with Inheritance
To prevent overriding
To prevent inheritance
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 16
Local Variable Type Inference and
Inheritance
• A superclass reference can refer to a derived class
object in Java
• When using local variable type inference, the
inferred type of a variable is based on the declared
type of its initializer
– Therefore, if the initializer is of the superclass type, that
will be the inferred type of the variable
– It does not matter if the actual object being referred to by
the initializer is an instance of a derived class
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 17
Local Variable Type Inference and
Inheritance
For detail example please refer to
InheritanceVarDemo.java
The inferred type is determined by the return type of getObject( ),
not by the actual type of the object obtained. Thus, all three
variables will be of type A
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 18
Object Class
• There is one special class, Object, defined by Java
• All other classes are subclasses of Object
• That is, Object is a superclass of all other classes
• This means that a reference variable of type Object
can refer to an object of any other class
• Also, since arrays are implemented as classes, a
variable of type Object can also refer to any array
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 19
Object’s toString()
• The toString( ) method returns a string that contains
a description of the object on which it is called
• Also, this method is automatically called when an
object is output using println()
• Many classes override this method
• Doing so allows them to provide a description
specifically for the types of objects that they create
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 20
Object’s toString()
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 21
Object’s equals() and hashCode()
• == is a reference comparison, whether both
variables refer to the same object
• Object’s equals() method does the same thing
• String class override equals() to check contents
• If you want two different objects of a same class to
be equal then you need to override equals() and
hashCode() methods
– hashCode() needs to return same value to work properly
as keys in Hash data structures
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 22
Object’s equals() and hashCode()
Prepared By - Rifat Shahriyar 23
