Object Oriented
Programming
Inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is a fundamental object-oriented
design technique used to create and organize
reusable classes
We will focuses on:
deriving new classes from existing classes
the protected modifier
creating class hierarchies
abstract classes
indirect visibility of inherited members
designing for inheritance
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Outline
• Creating Subclasses
• Overriding Methods
• Class Hierarchies
• Inheritance and Visibility
• Designing for Inheritance
• Inheritance and GUIs
• The Timer Class
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Creating a Subclass
A class is to an Object what a blueprint is to a house
A class establishes the characteristics and the
behaviors of the object
No memory space is reserved for the data (variables)
Classes are the plan; objects are the embodiment of
that plan
Many houses can be built from the same blueprint
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Inheritance
Inheritance allows a software developer to derive a new class from an existing
one
The existing class is called the parent class, or super class, or base class
The derived class is called the child class or subclass
As the name implies, the child inherits characteristics of the parent
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Inheritance
That is, the child class inherits the methods and data defined
by the parent class
We can refer to these inherited methods and variables as if
they were declared locally in the class
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Inheritance
Inheritance relationships are shown in a UML
class diagram using a solid arrow with an unfilled
triangular arrowhead pointing to the parent class
Vehicle
Car
• Proper inheritance creates an is-a relationship,
meaning the child is a more specific version of the
parent
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Inheritance
A programmer can tailor a derived class as needed
by adding new variables or methods, or by
modifying the inherited ones
Software reuse is a fundamental benefit of
inheritance
By using existing software components to create
new ones, we capitalize on all the effort that went
into the design, implementation, and testing of the
existing software
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Deriving Subclasses
In Java, we use the reserved word extends
to establish an inheritance relationship
class Car extends Vehicle
{
// class contents
}
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The protected Modifier
Visibility modifiers affect the way that class members can
be used in a child class
Variables and methods declared with private visibility
cannot be referenced by name in a child class
They can be referenced in the child class if they are
declared with public visibility -- but public variables
violate the principle of encapsulation
There is a third visibility modifier that helps in inheritance
situations: protected
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The protected Modifier
The protected modifier allows a child class to reference
a variable or method directly in the child class
It provides more encapsulation than public visibility, but is
not as tightly encapsulated as private visibility
A protected variable is visible to any class in the same
package as the parent class
The details of all Java modifiers are discussed in Appendix
E (Page 683) (Lotus Book)
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The protected Modifier
Protected variables and methods can be shown with a hash (
# )symbol preceding them in UML diagrams
NOTE:
All methods & variables (even those declared private) are inherited by
the child class
Their definitions exist and memory is reserved for the variables
However they CANNOT be referenced by name
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Class Diagram for Words
Book
# pages : int
+ pageMessage() : void
Words Dictionary
- definitions : int
+ main (args : String[]) : void
+ definitionMessage() : void
© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights 8-16
reserved
The super Reference
Constructors are not inherited, even though they have public visibility
Yet we often want to use the parent's constructor to set up the "parent's part" of
the object
The super reference can be used to refer to the parent class, and often is used
to invoke the parent's constructor
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The super Reference
A child’s constructor is responsible for calling the parent’s
constructor
If the child constructor invokes the parent (constructor) by
using the super reference, it
MUST be the first line of code of the constructor
The super reference can also be used to reference other
variables and methods defined in the parent class
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Multiple Inheritance
Java supports single inheritance, meaning that a derived class can have only one
parent class
Multiple inheritance allows a class to be derived from two or more classes,
inheriting the members of all parents
Collisions, such as the same variable name in two parents, have to be resolved
Java does not support multiple inheritance
In most cases, the use of interfaces gives us aspects of multiple inheritance
without the overhead
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Overriding Methods
A child class can override the definition of an inherited method in favor of its
own
The new method must have the same signature as the parent's method, but can
have a different body
The type of the object executing the method determines which version of the
method is invoked
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Overriding
A method in the parent class can be invoked explicitly using the super
reference
If a method is declared with the final modifier, it cannot be overridden
The concept of overriding can be applied to data and is called shadowing
variables
Shadowing variables should be avoided because it tends to cause unnecessarily
confusing code
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Overloading vs. Overriding
Overloading deals with multiple methods with the same name in the same class,
but with different signatures
Overriding deals with two methods, one in a parent class and one in a child
class, that have the same signature
Overloading lets you define a similar operation in different ways for different
parameters
Overriding lets you define a similar operation in different ways for different
object types
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Class Hierarchies
A child class of one parent can be the parent of another
child, forming a class hierarchy
Business
RetailBusiness ServiceBusiness
KMart Macys Kinkos
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Class Hierarchies
Two children of the same parent are called siblings
Common features should be put as high in the hierarchy as is
reasonable
An inherited member is passed continually down the line
Therefore, a child class inherits from all its ancestor classes
There is no single class hierarchy that is appropriate for all situations
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The Object Class
A class called Object is defined in the java.lang package of
the Java standard class library
All classes are derived from the Object class
If a class is not explicitly defined to be the child of an existing class,
it is assumed to be the child of the Object class
Therefore, the Object class is the ultimate root of all class
hierarchies
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The Object Class
The Object class contains a few useful methods, which are
inherited by all classes
For example, the toString method is defined in the Object
class
Every time we define the toString method, we are actually
overriding an inherited definition
The toString method in the Object class is defined to return a
string that contains the name of the object’s class along with some
other information.
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The Object Class
The equals method of the Object class returns true if two
references are aliases
We can override equals in any class to define equality in some
more appropriate way
As we've seen, the String class defines the equals method to
return true if two String objects contain the same characters
The designers of the String class have overridden the equals
method inherited from Object in favor of a more useful version
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