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Covariant returns

 
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The below mentioned source is from Whizlabs SCJP 6.0 preparation kit.

The output is
Inside SubCovariantTest
true
5


Now, can anyone help in figuring out why line 2 is printing true?
As getObject() method of SubCovariantTest class is getting invoked and return type from that method is an object of type B, in my opinion line 2 should print false.
I know the compiler knows Java better than me. But, I need to know the reason behind such results.
 
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In this case, a is an A reference variable pointing to an object of type B. The method called is the one in B that overrides the one in A, which returns a B object. But B objects pass the Is-A test for A (a B object is also an A object,) so the instanceof test gives true.

Also, the instance field x is resolved at compile time (there is no overriding for fields) to the field x defined in class A, since a is a reference of type A.

Does that help?
 
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For one thing, when you declare a variable of type A, it's 100% instanceof A, isn't it ? Why would it be false ? When you instanciate an Animal to be a Dog (Animal dog = new Dog();), the "dog" variable is both an Animal and a Dog.

What do you think the following would print ?
 
Rajshekhar Paul
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Yes Ruben. It definitely helped me in understanding the logic.
Actually, I forgot the fact that during compile time, overriding will not come into scenario!!
Thanks for the reply.
 
Rajshekhar Paul
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@Christophe
Actually, I always tend to assume that during runtime, instanceof operator checks with the actual object to which the instance variable is referring to. In the examples you have provided,
I think the output should be -
false
true
true // I had a doubt earlier here, but now it got cleared after your explanation
false

Thanks.
 
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Rajshekhar Paul wrote:
As getObject() method of SubCovariantTest class is getting invoked and return type from that method is an object of type B, in my opinion line 2 should print false.



You are right that the actual object is of type B but the object B is a A (it passes the IS-A test since B extends A). So output is true.
 
Ruben Soto
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Rajshekhar Paul wrote:Yes Ruben. It definitely helped me in understanding the logic.
Actually, I forgot the fact that during compile time, overriding will not come into scenario!!
Thanks for the reply.


You are right Rajshekhar. And overriding only affects instance methods. No static methods or variables (either static or instance) are overridden.
 
Christophe Verré
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I think the output should be -
false
true
true // I had a doubt earlier here, but now it got cleared after your explanation
false


No. You have to check again about what "instanceof" does. Read this tutorial. Look at the output for "obj2" in the "The Type Comparison Operator instanceof" section.
 
Rajshekhar Paul
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@Christophe
Thanks for that link. It really helped a lot in understanding the proper functionality of the instanceof operator.
 
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My test:



result is:

true
true
true
true
 
Rajshekhar Paul
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@Jia
Your test is absolutely correct.

 
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