Information Technology

Applications Programming

LECTURE 3
Inheritance

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Inheritance
Learning Objectives
At the end of the lecture, you should be able to:

Describe inheritance, giving examples of both types

Define Overriding
Differentiate between interfaces and abstract classes
Describe ways a child class can access parent methods

WU Chapter 13.1-13.2 & 13.4-13.7

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What is Inheritance?

Inheritance is the passing on of characteristics or attributes

from one entity to another

A child inherits certain characteristics e.g. eye colour, from a

parent
Now lets look at Class Inheritance….

Remember: A class has a set of characteristics

• methods
• attributes

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What is Class Inheritance?

Class Inheritance allows a new (child) class to be created based

on an existing (parent) class.

- The child (or derived) class inherits all characteristics of the

parent (or base) class.

The derived (or specialised) class inherits methods and

attributes from the base (or generalised) class

A base class never does more than a derived class

That is, a parent can not do more than a child

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Terminology

Super Class Sub Class

• Parent • Child
• Base • Derived
• Generalised • Specialised

Inheritance creates an “is a” relationship between 2

classes

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Multiple Inheritance

Multiple Inheritance – where a child class inherits

from more than one parent class.
Java handles this in a unique way

Implementation
Inheritance
• Parent class has coded
methods, child class extends
Interface Inheritance
the code • Child class implements methods
defined by the Interface

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Types Of Inheritance

• Inherits all methods & attributes from the

Implementation parent class
Inheritance • class A extends B
• There can only be one parent class
(keyword
extends)

• Inherits from an interface (skeleton – empty

Interface methods & constant attributes only)
Inheritance • class A implements InterfaceB
• A class can inherit from many interfaces
(keyword • Example: Class A extends B implements C, D

implements)

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The “Is A” Relationship

A Ballerina “is a” Dancer
A ballerina wears a tutu and dances on
her toes. To call a ballerina a dancer,
would be a generalisation. A ballerina is a
special type of dancer.

A Diamond “is a” Gemstone

A diamond is a specific type of precious
gemstone. It has all the properties of a
gemstone, plus some additional
characteristics. So, a diamond is a
specialised type of gemstone.

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Implementation Inheritance Example

A square “is a” rectangle

A square is a specialised type of rectangle

– A rectangle is a shape with 4 sides and 4 right angles
A square has all the properties of a rectangle plus some
unique properties
– A square has 4 equal sides

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Class Inheritance Diagram

Rectangle
SIDES = 4
ANGLE = 90
length
width
area()
perimeter()

Square

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Example: Rectangle

A Rectangle “is a” shape, with 4 sides and 4 right angles.

Attributes: (SIDES and ANGLE are not used, so don’t write

them).
– width:
– length:

Methods:
– area() = l*w
– perimeter() = 2l+ 2w

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The Rectangle Class

public class Rectangle
{
private double length;
private double width;
public Rectangle(double length, double width)
{
this.length = length;
this.width = width;
}
public double area()
{
return length*width;
}
public double perimeter()
{
return 2*(length + width);
}
}
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Example: Square

A square “is a” rectangle with 4 equal sides

Attributes:
– Length

Methods:
– area() = l*l
– perimeter() = 4l

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The Square Class

public class Square
{
private double length;
public Square(double length)
{
this.length = length;
}
public double area()
{
return length*length;
}
public double perimeter()
{
return 4*length;
}
}

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Rectangle & Square

Now look at the 2 classes

Notice the similarities:

– Attributes
– Methods

What is different?

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Implementation Inheritance

Implementation Inheritance: keyword extends

Inherits all methods & attributes from the parent class

class A extends B
There can only be one parent class

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Rewrite Square to Inherit

Use keyword extends

public class Square extends Rectangle

Square no longer needs attributes

– length is defined in Rectangle, so is no longer needed in
Square because Square already has this attribute through
inheritance
Private attributes in Rectangle need to be protected

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Accessing Parent Methods

• Call a parent method – this

is called Vanilla Inheritance
A child • Effect (provide
implementation of) a parent

may method – if it is abstract

• Redefine an effective parent
method (override)

A child method cannot have less visibility than its parent

– If the parent is public than the child must be public.
– If the parent is protected the child must be public or protected.
A child method should do more than its parent

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Super
The keyword super is used to call the parent class.

• super.show() calls the

parent method show()
• super(a, b) is used to
call a parent
Super constructor with 2
arguments
• super() calls the parent
default constructor

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Quick Quiz
What is the keyword used to call the parent class?
Consider the following parent constructor:

public Parent(int id, Customer customer)

{
this.id = id;
this.customer = customer;
}
And the following child class constructor

public Child(int id, Customer customer)

{…}
How do I call the parent constructor ?

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Derived Class Constructors

Usually, the derived (or child) class constructor(s) have the

same parameter list as the parent, or contain additional
parameters.

For Example

Parent(int id, Customer customer){..}

Child(int id, Customer customer, String name) {..}

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Overriding

A child may override a parent method

– The child class can provide an alternate implementation

for a parent’s method
– Method signature must be the same
– A child must override an abstract method in the parent
class

– A parent method cannot be overridden if it is declared

final

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Overriding Vs Overloading

Overloading Overriding

• Method • Method
signature cannot signature must
be the same be the same

• Multiple • 1 method,
methods with multiple
same name implementations

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Quick Quiz
What is the term for having multiple methods with the same
name in a class?

When a subclass provides a different implementation for a

parent method, what is this called?

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Concrete Class

ConcreteA concrete
Class class is a standard class:
• Can be instantiated (create objects by calling the
constructor)
• Can be sub classed
• Contains only implemented methods
• Can contain changeable attributes

So far, we have only looked at concrete classes.

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Abstract Class

Abstract Class
• May contain abstract methods (method
declarations without implementation).
• Cannot be instantiated but it can be sub-classed.
• May contain some implemented methods.
• May contain changeable attributes

If a class contains an abstract method the class must be declared

abstract

If an abstract class only contains abstract methods it should be

declared as an interface
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More on Abstract Classes

An Abstract class usually has one or more Abstract Methods.
Classes which inherit from it need to provide some effective
methods but some methods will already be implemented.

Therefore, all classes that inherit from a particular abstract

class have some common code

Classes which inherit from an abstract class use

Implementation Inheritance

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public abstract class Door //notice the keyword abstract in the class declaration
{
private double height;
private double width;
private boolean locked = false;
public Door(double height, double width)
{ //you cannot create an object from this class directly ie new Door(10.0, 5.0);
this.width = width;
this.height = height;
}
public void lock()
{
locked = true;
}
public void unlock()
{
locked = false;
}
public double area()
{
return height*width;
}
public abstract void open(); //notice the missing implementation
}

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Interface
Interface
• is a special type of class-like structure
• only contains constant declarations and method signatures.
• Cannot be instantiated (ie no objects)
• Can only be implemented by another class or extended by another
interface
• An interface contains only abstract methods.

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More on Interface

• An Interface has all abstract methods

• Classes that inherit from an interface must provide all the
effective methods

Therefore, all classes that inherit from an interface effect

the same methods (have the same method signatures) but
have no common code.

Classes which inherit from an interface use Interface

Inheritance

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Example: Shape

A shape has an area and a perimeter.

Methods:
• area()
• perimeter()
There is no generic formula for the area or perimeter of a
shape, so the methods should be abstract.
Since there are no other methods or attributes – shape should
be an interface.
A circle, rectangle and triangle are all shapes

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Interface Vs Abstract

Interface Abstract

• Cannot be instantiated • Cannot be instantiated

• Only contains abstract • Can contain abstract
methods methods
• Cannot contain • Can contain
changeable variables changeable variables
• Uses Interface • Uses Implementation
Inheritance Inheritance

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Quick Quiz

With a partner, answer these questions:

– What is one difference between an interface and an
abstract class ?

– What do abstract classes and interfaces have in common ?

– Why can’t the Door class be an Interface ?

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Design Steps

1. Identify
3. Create
objects
group classes
• create classes
• implement list
lookup pattern • add attributes
and methods

2. Find
common
behaviour
• refactor for
parent class

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Key Concepts
Summary
A child object can always be
used in place of a parent
object, because the child has a
parent object (remember - it
calls the parent constructor).
This is the basic behaviour of
inheritance: the child can do
everything the parent can plus
more.
A child can never do less than
its parent.

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