OverRiding???

[Naresh Shaan]

Hello All,

Here is a Program,

package myDemo;

public class MyOverRidingDemo {

public MyOverRidingDemo() {
super();
// TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
A obj=new B();

obj.add();
System.out.println("Value Of I : "+obj.i);
}

/**
* @param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
new MyOverRidingDemo();
}

}
class A {
int i=10;
public void add(){
System.out.println("Add() in Class A");
}
}

class B extends A {
int i=20;
public void add(){
System.out.println("Add() in Class B");
}
}


When i run this program, the out put is as follows :

Add() in Class B
Value Of I : 10


It is pretty clear that B is overriding the add() method of Class A.

When an instance of B is made and assigned to a variable of type A,

obj.add() should refer to add of B

and obj.i should refer to i of B.

but over here..why is it Referring to i Of A???

[Amit Biswas]

Naresh,
Overriding applies to instance methods only. For static methods and instance variables, you can only hide the parent class equivalent in the method. If you add a getter for the 'i' variable in yor super-class and override the same in sub-class, like the following:

class SuperClass
{
public int i = 10;
public int getVal(){
return i;
}
}
class SubClass
{
public int i = 5; //hiding the superclass value
public int getVal() { //overrding the super class method
return i; //returns 5 since it has shadowed the superclass value of 10
}
}
.....
public static void main(String [] args)
{
SuperClass obj1 = new SuperClass();
SuperClass obj2 = new SubClass();
SubClass obj3 = new SubClass();

syout(obj1.i); //will print 10 since the reference type is SuperClass
sysout(obj1.getVal()); //will print 10 since object type is SuperClass

syout(obj2.i);//will print 10 since reference type is SuperClass
sysout(obj2.getVal());//will print 5 since object type is SubClass

syout(obj3.i); //will print 5 since reference type is SubClass
sysout(obj3.getVal()); //will print 5 since object type is SubClass

}


Basically, you redefine an instance variable in a subclass and NOT override them. The same is true for static methods and fields as well.

[Amit Biswas]

A correction: Read

you can only hide the parent class equivalent in the method

as
you can only hide the parent class equivalent in the subclass