Inheritance

Object-oriented programming

Outline
What is inheritance? Inheritance in Java Reuse

Readings:
Java how to program, chapter 9

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Inheritance

"is-a" relationship
Similar things (sharing same set of attributes/operations) a group / a concept
Student

Person

Employee

Full-time Student Part-time Student Manager

Similar groups (sharing a subset of attributes/operations) a bigger group / a more general concept
A student is a person An employee is a person A manager is an employee

An object of the subgroup "is-a" object of the supergroup

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Inheritance

Inheritance
Based on "is-a" relationship Objects of subclass also belongs to superclass Subclass: more specialized, superclass: more general Subclass is derived or inherits from superclass
hence, the terms 'derived class' and 'base class'

Person name birthday getName()

Employee name birthday getName() salary getSalary()

In essence:
1. 2.

Objects in the same class have the same set of attributes (different values though) and operations Objects of subclass have all members of superclass plus some more Objects of a subclass can also be treated as objects of its superclass

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Inheritance

Person - name: String - birthday: Date + getName(): String

Arrow points from subclass to superclass

An Employee is a Person,

Employee

- salary: double apart from its own members, + getSalary(): double salary and getSalary, it also has name, birthday, getName() without having to declare them Employee is the subclass (derived) of Person Person is the superclass (base) of Employee

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Inheritance

Person

Inheritance

- name: String - birthday: Date + getName(): String

Student

Employee - salary: double + getSalary(): double

Inheritance tree can have many levels

A Manager object inherits what an Employee has, including what a Person has.

- id: String

Manager - assistant: Employee + setAssistant()

Only new attributes/operations are listed, inherited attributes/operations are not listed in the subclass's box
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Inheritance in Java
How to? 1. Subclass extends superclass
New attributes/operations Redefine inherited operations
Method overriding

Person - name: String - birthDate: Date + getName(): String

Employee - salary: double + getSalary(): double

2. Treat subclass objects as superclass objects

Access inherited data members and methods
Information hiding

Initialise inherited data members

using constructor of superclass
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New attributes/operations
Syntax:
[public] class Subclass extends Superclass { /* new features go here */ }
Person - name: String - birthDate: Date + getName(): String

Example:
class Employee extends Person { private double salary; public boolean setSalary(double sal) { ... salary = sal; return true; } }
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Employee - salary: double + getSalary(): double

New attributes/operations
public class Person { private String name; private Date birthday; public boolean setName(String n) { name = n; return true; } public String getName() { return name; } } } public class Employee extends Person { private double salary; public boolean setSalary(double s) { salary = s; return true; } public double getSalary() { return salary; }

//application code ... Employee e = new Employee(); [Link]("John"); [Link]([Link]()); [Link](3.0);

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calls to Persons methods from an Employee object

calls to Employees method from an Employee object

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Inheritance

Method overriding
A subclass can redefine methods inherited from its superclass.
To specialise these methods to suit the new problem

Objects of the subclass will work with the new version of the methods
Dynamic binding

Superclasss methods of the same name can be reused by using the keyword super

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Method overriding - Example

Subclass's version does something else
class Animal { String name; public void sayHello() { [Link] ("Huh?"); } }

Define a new version of the inherited sayHello()

class Cow extends Animal { public void sayHello() { [Link] ("Mooo..."); } } //client code Animal a1 = new Animal("Bob"); [Link](); Cow c1 = new Cow("Alice"); [Link](); Animal a2 = c1; [Link]();
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Which version gets to run? It depends on which class the object belongs to. NOT the class the reference belongs to C:\java>java WhoGetsToRun Huh? Mooo... Mooo...
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More example
Subclass's version calls superclass's version then does something extra
Call method of the superclass from within the subclass. Keyword super is the public class Person { reference to the superclass protected String name; protected Date birthday; public void display() { [Link] (name + "," + birthday); } ... public class Employee extends Person { } ... public void display() { [Link](); [Link] ("," + salary); } }
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Method overriding - Rules

New and old version must have the same prototype:
Same return type Same argument type

Private methods cannot be overriden

Private members are hidden from subclass

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Superclass information hiding

Superclass programmer and subclass programmer might not be the same person. Simple reuse independent of specific implementations
Employee does not have to care how name and birthday are stored and processed inside Person but can still use them

Internal design and implementation of superclass can be modified without requiring changes in subclasses
e.g, class Person could have three int attributes instead of one Date attribute for birthday, or two instead of one String for name. Class Employees code is not affected.

Hiding does not mean preventing source code from being seen by programmers.

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Access control levels

Modifier same class private package (default) protected public Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes accessible within same package subclasses universe

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protected access level

protected members of a superclass are directly accessible from inside its subclasses.
public class Person { protected String name; protected Date birthday; ... } Subclass can directly access superclasss protected members

public class Employee extends Person { ... public String toString() { String s; s = name + "," + birthday; //no error. s += "," + salary; return s; } }
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In the same package

package people; Default access level is package, which means those with package access level can be accessed directly from within the same package public class Person { String name; Date birthday; ... }

package people;

public class Employee extends Person { ... public String toString() { String s; s = name + "," + birthday; //no error. s += "," + salary; return s; } }
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In different packages
Members with package access level cannot be accessed directly by subclasses from outside the package package people; public class Person { String name; Date birthday; }

import [Link];

public class Employee extends Person { ... public String toString() { String s; s = name + "," + birthday; //Error. s += "," + salary; return s; } }
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In different packages
Members with protected access level can be accessed directly by subclasses from outside the package package people; public class Person { protected String name; protected Date birthday; }

import [Link];

public class Employee extends Person { ... public String toString() { String s; s = name + "," + birthday; //no error. s += "," + salary; return s; } }
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Inherit from another package

Can create subclass of a class from a different package
Inherit from Java standard librarys classes Inherit classes from third-party vendors

Inherit without knowing source code

Protect source code Increase reusability

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Constructor of subclass
Subclass inherits all attributes/ methods of superclass
Subclass must initialize inherited members

But, constructors are NOT inherited

syntactically, they have different names

Two ways to call constructors of the baseclass

1. 2.

(Implicit) use default constructors Explicit calls to constructors of the baseclass

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class Point { protected int x, y; public Point() {} public Point(int xx, int yy) { x = xx; y = yy; } } class Circle extends Point { protected int radius; public Circle() {} }

Default constructor Point() is called

Cannot found Circle(int, int). Point(int, int) is not inherited

//client code Point p = new Point(10, 10); Circle c1 = new Circle(); Circle c2 = new Circle(10, 10); // error

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Calling constructors of baseclass

The initializing baseclass' attributes should be carried out by baseclass' constructors Why? Baseclass' constructors can be called using reference super
Baseclass' constructors must run first If baseclass has no default constructor then its constructor must be called explicitly
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class Point { protected int x, y; public Point() {} public Point(int xx, int yy) { x = xx; y = yy; } } class Circle extends Point { protected int radius; public Circle() { super(0, 0); } public Circle(int xx, int yy, int r) { super(xx, yy); radius = r; } } //application code Point p = new Point(10, 10); Circle c1 = new Circle(); Circle c2 = new Circle(10, 10, 5); //

Explicit calls to Point(int, int)

ok

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class Point { protected int x, y; public Point(int xx, int yy) { x = xx; y = yy; } } class Circle extends Point { protected int radius; public Circle() {} public Circle(int xx, int yy, int r) { radius = r; } } //application code Point p = new Point(10, 10); Circle c1 = new Circle(); Circle c2 = new Circle(10, 10, 5);

Error! Default constructor Point() is not found

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Constructors - order of execution

class Point { protected int x, y; public Point() { [Link]("Point constructor"); } } class Circle extends Point { protected int radius; public Circle() { [Link]("Circle constructor"); } }

//application code Circle c1 = new Circle();

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Multiple level inheritance

Person -name -birthday +setName +setBirthday

All classes inherits from class Object

Employee -salary +setSalary +getDetail

Student -id ...

Manager -rank ...

Programmer -project ...

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toString() method
Inherits from Object class
class Point { protected int x, y; public String toString() { return "<" + x + "," + y + ">"; } }

Overriding Object's toString() New versions are used in

class Circle extends Point { [Link]() protected int radius; public String toString() { return [Link]() + "," + radius; } } //application code Circle c = new Circle(); [Link](c);
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Basic data wrapper types

Object

Boolean

Character

Void

Number

Math

String

StringBuffer

.. .

Byte

Short

Integer

Long

Float

Double

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final keyword
final attribute
Constant value, assigned value once upon initialisationa final attribute cannot be changed

final method
Cannot be overriden in subclasses

final arguments
Method cannot change value of final arguments/parameters

final class
Cannot create subclasses of a final class

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final arguments
class MyDate { int year, month, day; public MyDate(int y, int year = y; month = m; } public void copyTo(final [Link] = year; [Link] = month; [Link] = day; d = new MyDate(year, } ... } m, int d) { day = d; MyDate d) {

month, day); //error

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Reusing Classes
Object classes with similar or related attributes and behaviour
Person, Student, Manager,

Code reuse
Copy & paste
Manually ->Error-prone

Composition has-a relationship

the new class is composed of objects of existing classes. reuse the functionality of the existing class, not its form

Inheritance is-a relationship

create a new class as a type of an existing class new class absorbs the existing class's members and extends them with new or modified capabilities

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Reusing classes - composition

Existing class is used as a component of the new class Reused features might need new interface
Interface must be rewritten when necessary Not flexible enough in some cases
getName must be rewritten as a wrapper Person - name: String - birthday: Date + Person() + getName(): String Date - day: int - month: int - year: int + Date() + nextDate(): Date + toString(): String

Employee - myself : Person - salary: double + Employee() + getName(): String + getSalary(): double

Person - name: String - birthday: Date + Person() + getName(): String

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Manager - myself : Employee - assistant: Employee + getName(): String + setAssistant()

Employee - myself : Person - salary: double + getName(): String + getSalary(): double

Person - name: String - birthday: Date + getName(): String

class Person { private String name; getName must be rewritten as wrappers private Date birthday; public String getName() { return name; } ... } class Employee { private Person myself; private double salary; public String getName() { return [Link](); } ... class Manager { } private Employee myself; private Employee assistant; public String getName() { return [Link](); } public setAssistant(Employee e) { assistant = e; } ... Inflexible! Assistant cant be a Manager } //application code ... Manager junior = new Manager(); Manager senior = new Manager(); [Link](junior); // error
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Reusing classes inheritance

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HQG H Inheritance

Manager - assistant: Employee + setAssistant() class Person { private String name; private Date birthday; public String getName() { return name; } ... } class Employee extends Person { private double salary; ... }

Employee - salary: double + getSalary(): double

Person - name: String - birthday: Date + getName(): String

class Manager extends Employee { private Employee assistant; public setAssistant(Employee e) { assistant = e; } ... } Yes! Assistant can be a manager //application code ... Manager junior = new Manager(); Manager senior = new Manager(); [Link](junior); // no error
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