inplicit and explicit casting.

[saikrishna krishna]

public class Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The class method in Animal.");
    }
    public void testInstanceMethod() {

        System.out.println("The instance method in Animal.");
    }
}

The second class, a subclass of Animal, is called Cat:

public class Cat extends Animal {
    public static void testClassMethod() {
        System.out.println("The class method in Cat.");
    }
    public void testInstanceMethod() {

        System.out.println("The instance method in Cat.");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Cat myCat = new Cat();
        Animal myAnimal = myCat;
        Animal.testClassMethod();

        myAnimal.testInstanceMethod();
    }
}

ths program is 100& correct. but i had a dt in

 Animal myAnimal = myCat;

no where in the above statement "new " keyword is used.

but for myAnimal object, myCat got assigned . how is it possible .can you xplain?

[Jesper de Jong]

Welcome to the Ranch!

It's important to keep in mind that inheritance means there is an "is a" relationship between the subclass and the superclass. So, a Cat is an Animal, because Cat is a subclass of Animal. You can assign a Cat to a variable of type Animal without explicit casting, because a Cat is an Animal - all methods that are available on Animal are also available on Cat.

Ofcourse, the other way around doesn't work. Suppose you would write this:

Animal a = new Animal();
Cat c = a;  // error!

Because an Animal is not always a Cat.

[saikrishna krishna]

Thank you for your fast reply.

i am still at scratch with core java. for my scjp065 xam.