Polymorphism & Methods

COMP204 Bernhard Pfahringer

(with lots of input from Mark Hall)

poly + morphos (greek) “many forms”

Overriding

• Subclass redefines a method:– different behaviour– or maybe modified behaviour

class Rectangle {public String toString() {

return “<Rectangle @ ”+x+”/”+y+” “+width+” by “+height+”>”;

}

Inheritance

• Subclasses inherit everything from superclasses, but cannot directly access private fields or methods, only public and protected ones.

• Can still access overridden methods:public void roam() { super.roam(); // some additional local stuff}

Inheritance: Is-A (not Has-A)

• B should extend A if “B is-A A”– Triangle Is-A Shape– Surgeon Is-A Medical Doctor

• Bathroom Has-A Tub– Tub is an instance variable of Bathroom

(Composition)

Code Inheritance

• Use inheritance to implement shared behaviour (code) only once!

• Always avoid code duplication!– easier to change (only one place),

especially when debugging

Polymorphism

• what happens when one declares and initializes a reference variable:

Dog myDog = new Dog();• allocate space for reference variable of

type Dog• allocate space for a new Dog object on

the heap (and initialize it)• point the reference to the new object

Polymorphism

• Reference type can be any super class or Interface implemented by actual type:Animal myDog = new Dog();

• As generic as possible => more flexible code:

Map<String,Object> myMap = new HashMap<String,Object>();

Polymorphism

Animal[] animals = new Animal[]{new Dog(), new Lion(), new Cat(), new Wolf(), new Hippo()};

for(Animal a: animals) {a.eat();

a.roam();}

Polymorphism

• Parameters/Arguments and return values can be polymorphic too:class Vet { public void giveShot(Animal a) { a.makeNoise(); }}class PetOwner { public void start() { Vet v = new Vet(); Dog d = new Dog(); Hippo h = new Hippo(); v.giveShot(d); v.giveShot(h); }}

stop overriding

• final declaration:– class: cannot extend/subclass any further

final public class String { .. }– method: cannot be overridden in subclasses

class Cat {

final public void makeNoise() {…}– field: cannot change value

final int count = animals.length;

Overriding rules

• Argument and return type must be the same:

class Appliance {

public boolean turnOn();

}

class Toaster extends Appliance {

public boolean turnOn(int level);

// OVERLOADING

}

Overriding rules

• May NOT be less accessible:

class Appliance {

public boolean turnOn();

}

class Toaster extends Appliance {

protected boolean turnOn();

// illegal

}

Overloading

• Two (or more) methods with the same name but different argument lists (see code example)

• Usually best avoided, can be very confusing and counter-intuitive

Which method is executed

• Compile time: compiler ensures that method with appropriate signature (compile-time type info for arguments) exists in “compile-time” receiver class

• Runtime: given the actual runtime-type of the receiver, the most specific method of appropriate signature is located and executed

• ==> runtime types of arguments do NOT matter (again, see code examples)