AP CSA Inheritance
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Meltem TaskinAP CSA Inheritance
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Meltem TaskinUnit 9 - Inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance: when a subclass shares methods and variables with a superclass
The subclass can have its own specific methods and variables
Using subclasses prevents repetition
Special rules:
A subclass can only inherit from one superclass (called the diamond problem)
One superclass can have multiple subclasses
Using this, a class hierarchy can be made
Making a subclass
To make a subclass: “public class insert subclass name extends insert super class name”
Ex: public class X extends Y
This would make X a subclass of the superclass Y
Inheritance creates an “is-a” relationship between the subclass and superclass
Ex: rectangle (subclass) is a quadrilateral (superclass)
Constructors
Constructors are not inherited from superclasses
To use a constructor from a superclass, you can call the constructor implicitly or explicitly
The super keyword (explicit)
super is a constructor
It lets you use the constructor of the superclass with the parameters of the
subclass
Instance variables are initialized
This is especially useful when you want to do the same thing the
superclass does but with different input variables
This assumes you’re not changing anything about the
implementation of the superclass’s method
public class firstClass {
int x = 1;
}
class secClass extends firstClass {
int x = 15;
void printNum() {
System.out.println(“x is “ + x);
System.out.println(“x is also “ + super.x);
}
}
When you don’t call the superclass’s constructor explicitly, Java calls the constructor
implicitly
Java calls the superclass’s constructor with no arguments
All constructors in the class hierarchy execute beginning with the Object constructor
The Object Class is the superclass of all classes in java.lang (more on this later)
Overriding methods
When a public method from the subclass has the same method signature as a public
method from the superclass
Method signature: the combination of the method’s name and its parameters
(order of parameters does matter!!)
Subclasses automatically inherit all public methods from the superclass (these methods
stay public)
@Override is used to indicate that the method directly below it overrides a method
from a superclass (@Override is an annotation)
public class firstClass {
public String rand() {
return “banana”;
}
@Override
public class secClass extends firstClass {
public String rand() {
return “apple”;
}
}
Using inheritance hierarchies
Think of inheritance hierarchies as a waterfall
Change in the top superclass creates changes in all the subclasses beneath it
Subclasses can have indirect superclasses
Ex: say X is a subclass of Y and Y is a subclass of Z
X is a subclass of Y and Z
Polymorphism
Polymorphism states that we can assign an object in subclass X to a reference
of type Y (if Y is the superclass)
In fact, a reference of type Y can refer to an object of type X or Y
The object superclass
The Object class is the superclass of all classes
Part of java.lang
We often overwrite or modify the methods from the Object class (like equals() or toString())
