Chapter 7

Inheritance

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All

rights reserved.
 Introduction to Inheritance
• Inheritance is one of the main techniques of object-
oriented programming (OOP)
• Using this technique, a very general form of a class is
first defined and compiled, and then more
specialized versions of the class are defined by
adding instance variables and methods
– The specialized classes are said to inherit the methods and
instance variables of the general class

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-2

 Introduction to Inheritance
• Inheritance is the process by which a new class is created
from another class
– The new class is called a derived class
– The original class is called the base class
• A derived class automatically has all the instance variables
and methods that the base class has, and it can have
additional methods and/or instance variables as well
• Inheritance is especially advantageous because it allows code
to be reused, without having to copy it into the definitions of
the derived classes

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-3

 Derived Classes
• When designing certain classes, there is often a
natural hierarchy for grouping them
– In a record-keeping program for the employees of a
company, there are hourly employees and salaried
employees
– Hourly employees can be divided into full time and part
time workers
– Salaried employees can be divided into those on technical
staff, and those on the executive staff

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-4

 Derived Classes
• All employees share certain characteristics in
common
– All employees have a name and a hire date
– The methods for setting and changing names and
hire dates would be the same for all employees
• Some employees have specialized characteristics
– Hourly employees are paid an hourly wage, while
salaried employees are paid a fixed wage
– The methods for calculating wages for these two
different groups would be different

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-5

 Derived Classes
• Within Java, a class called Employee can be
defined that includes all employees
• This class can then be used to define classes for
hourly employees and salaried employees
– In turn, the HourlyEmployee class can be used to
define a PartTimeHourlyEmployee class, and
so forth

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-6

 A Class Hierarchy

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-7

 Derived Classes
• Since an hourly employee is an employee, it is
defined as a derived class of the class Employee
– A derived class is defined by adding instance variables and
methods to an existing class
– The existing class that the derived class is built upon is
called the base class
– The phrase extends BaseClass must be added to the
derived class definition:
public class HourlyEmployee extends Employee

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-8

 Derived Classes
• When a derived class is defined, it is said to inherit
the instance variables and methods of the base class
that it extends
– Class Employee defines the instance variables name and
hireDate in its class definition
– Class HourlyEmployee also has these instance
variables, but they are not specified in its class definition
– Class HourlyEmployee has additional instance
variables wageRate and hours that are specified in its
class definition

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-9

 Derived Classes
• Just as it inherits the instance variables of the class
Employee, the class HourlyEmployee inherits
all of its methods as well
– The class HourlyEmployee inherits the methods
getName, getHireDate, setName, and
setHireDate from the class Employee
– Any object of the class HourlyEmployee can invoke
one of these methods, just like any other method

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-10

 Derived Class (Subclass)
• A derived class, also called a subclass, is defined by
starting with another already defined class, called a
base class or superclass, and adding (and/or
changing) methods, instance variables, and static
variables
– The derived class inherits all the public methods, all the
public and private instance variables, and all the public and
private static variables from the base class
– The derived class can add more instance variables, static
variables, and/or methods

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-11

 Inherited Members
• A derived class automatically has all the instance
variables, all the static variables, and all the public
methods of the base class
– Members from the base class are said to be inherited
• Definitions for the inherited variables and methods
do not appear in the derived class
– The code is reused without having to explicitly copy it,
unless the creator of the derived class redefines one or
more of the base class methods

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-12

 Parent and Child Classes
• A base class is often called the parent class
– A derived class is then called a child class
• These relationships are often extended such that a
class that is a parent of a parent . . . of another class
is called an ancestor class
– If class A is an ancestor of class B, then class B can be
called a descendent of class A

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-13

 Overriding a Method Definition
• Although a derived class inherits methods
from the base class, it can change or override
an inherited method if necessary
– In order to override a method definition, a new
definition of the method is simply placed in the
class definition, just like any other method that is
added to the derived class

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-14

 Changing the Return Type of an Overridden
Method
• Ordinarily, the type returned may not be changed
when overriding a method
• However, if it is a class type, then the returned type
may be changed to that of any descendent class of
the returned type
• This is known as a covariant return type
– Covariant return types are new in Java 5.0; they are not
allowed in earlier versions of Java

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-15

 Covariant Return Type
• Given the following base class:
public class BaseClass
{ . . .
public Employee getSomeone(int someKey)
. . .
• The following is allowed in Java 5.0:
public class DerivedClass extends BaseClass
{ . . .
public HourlyEmployee getSomeone(int someKey)
. . .

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-16

 Changing the Access Permission of an
Overridden Method
• The access permission of an overridden method can
be changed from private in the base class to public
(or some other more permissive access) in the
derived class
• However, the access permission of an overridden
method can not be changed from public in the base
class to a more restricted access permission in the
derived class

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-17

 Changing the Access Permission of an
Overridden Method
• Given the following method header in a base case:
private void doSomething()
• The following method header is valid in a derived class:
public void doSomething()
• However, the opposite is not valid
• Given the following method header in a base case:
public void doSomething()
• The following method header is not valid in a derived class:
private void doSomething()

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-18

 Pitfall: Overriding Versus Overloading

• Do not confuse overriding a method in a derived

class with overloading a method name
– When a method is overridden, the new method
definition given in the derived class has the exact
same number and types of parameters as in the base
class
– When a method in a derived class has a different
signature from the method in the base class, that is
overloading
– Note that when the derived class overloads the
original method, it still inherits the original method
from the base class as well

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-19

 The final Modifier
• If the modifier final is placed before the
definition of a method, then that method may
not be redefined in a derived class
• It the modifier final is placed before the
definition of a class, then that class may not
be used as a base class to derive other classes

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-20

 The super Constructor
• A derived class uses a constructor from the base class to
initialize all the data inherited from the base class
– In order to invoke a constructor from the base class, it uses a special
syntax:
public derivedClass(int p1, int p2, double p3)
{
super(p1, p2);
instanceVariable = p3;
}
– In the above example, super(p1, p2); is a call to the base class
constructor

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-21

 The super Constructor
• A call to the base class constructor can never use the
name of the base class, but uses the keyword super
instead
• A call to super must always be the first action taken
in a constructor definition
• An instance variable cannot be used as an argument
to super

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-22

 The super Constructor
• If a derived class constructor does not include an
invocation of super, then the no-argument
constructor of the base class will automatically be
invoked
– This can result in an error if the base class has not defined
a no-argument constructor
• Since the inherited instance variables should be
initialized, and the base class constructor is designed
to do that, then an explicit call to super should
always be used

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-23

 The this Constructor
• Within the definition of a constructor for a class,
this can be used as a name for invoking another
constructor in the same class
– The same restrictions on how to use a call to super apply
to the this constructor
• If it is necessary to include a call to both super and
this, the call using this must be made first, and
then the constructor that is called must call super
as its first action

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-24

 The this Constructor
• Often, a no-argument constructor uses this to invoke an
explicit-value constructor
– No-argument constructor (invokes explicit-value constructor using
this and default arguments):
public ClassName()
{
this(argument1, argument2);
}
– Explicit-value constructor (receives default values):
public ClassName(type1 param1, type2 param2)
{
. . .
}

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-25

 The this Constructor
public HourlyEmployee()
{
this("No name", new Date(), 0, 0);
}
• The above constructor will cause the constructor
with the following heading to be invoked:
public HourlyEmployee(String theName,
Date theDate, double theWageRate, double
theHours)

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-26

Tip: An Object of a Derived Class Has More than
One Type
• An object of a derived class has the type of the
derived class, and it also has the type of the base
class
• More generally, an object of a derived class has the
type of every one of its ancestor classes
– Therefore, an object of a derived class can be assigned to a
variable of any ancestor type

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-27

Tip: An Object of a Derived Class Has More than
One Type
• An object of a derived class can be plugged in as a
parameter in place of any of its ancestor classes
• In fact, a derived class object can be used anyplace
that an object of any of its ancestor types can be
used
• Note, however, that this relationship does not go the
other way
– An ancestor type can never be used in place of one of its
derived types

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-28

 Pitfall: The Terms "Subclass" and "Superclass"

• The terms subclass and superclass are sometimes

mistakenly reversed
– A superclass or base class is more general and inclusive,
but less complex
– A subclass or derived class is more specialized, less
inclusive, and more complex
• As more instance variables and methods are added, the number of
objects that can satisfy the class definition becomes more
restricted

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-29

 An Enhanced StringTokenizer Class

• Thanks to inheritance, most of the standard Java

library classes can be enhanced by defining a derived
class with additional methods
• For example, the StringTokenizer class enables
all the tokens in a string to be generated one time
– However, sometimes it would be nice to be able to cycle
through the tokens a second or third time

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-30

 An Enhanced StringTokenizer Class

• This can be made possible by creating a derived class:

– For example, EnhancedStringTokenizer can inherit the useful
behavior of StringTokenizer
– It inherits the countTokens method unchanged
• The new behavior can be modeled by adding new methods,
and/or overriding existing methods
– A new method, tokensSoFar, is added
– While an existing method, nextToken, is overriden

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-31

 An Enhanced StringTokenizer Class
(Part 1 of 4)

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-32

An Enhanced StringTokenizer Class
(Part 2 of 4)

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-33

An Enhanced StringTokenizer Class
(Part 3 of 4)

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-34

An Enhanced StringTokenizer Class
(Part 4 of 4)

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-35

Encapsulation and Inheritance Pitfall: Use of Private
Instance Variables from the Base Class

• An instance variable that is private in a base class is not

accessible by name in the definition of a method in any
other class, not even in a method definition of a derived
class
– For example, an object of the HourlyEmployee class cannot
access the private instance variable hireDate by name, even
though it is inherited from the Employee base class
• Instead, a private instance variable of the base class can
only be accessed by the public accessor and mutator
methods defined in that class
– An object of the HourlyEmployee class can use the
getHireDate or setHireDate methods to access
hireDate

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-36

Encapsulation and Inheritance Pitfall: Use of Private
Instance Variables from the Base Class

• If private instance variables of a class were

accessible in method definitions of a derived
class, then anytime someone wanted to access a
private instance variable, they would only need
to create a derived class, and access it in a
method of that class
– This would allow private instance variables to be
changed by mistake or in inappropriate ways (for
example, by not using the base type's accessor and
mutator methods only)

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-37

 Pitfall: Private Methods Are Effectively Not
Inherited
• The private methods of the base class are like private
variables in terms of not being directly available
• However, a private method is completely unavailable, unless
invoked indirectly
– This is possible only if an object of a derived class invokes a public
method of the base class that happens to invoke the private method
• This should not be a problem because private methods should
just be used as helping methods
– If a method is not just a helping method, then it should be public, not
private

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-38

 Protected and Package
Access
• If a method or instance variable is modified by protected
(rather than public or private), then it can be accessed
by name
– Inside its own class definition
– Inside any class derived from it
– In the definition of any class in the same package
• The protected modifier provides very weak protection
compared to the private modifier
– It allows direct access to any programmer who defines a suitable
derived class
– Therefore, instance variables should normally not be marked
protected

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-39

 Protected and Package
Access
• An instance variable or method definition that is not
preceded with a modifier has package access
– Package access is also known as default or friendly access
• Instance variables or methods having package access
can be accessed by name inside the definition of any
class in the same package
– However, neither can be accessed outside the package

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-40

 Protected and Package
Access
• Note that package access is more restricted
than protected
– Package access gives more control to the
programmer defining the classes
– Whoever controls the package directory (or
folder) controls the package access

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-41

 Access Modifiers

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-42

Pitfall: Forgetting About the Default Package

• When considering package access, do not forget

the default package
– All classes in the current directory (not belonging to
some other package) belong to an unnamed package
called the default package
• If a class in the current directory is not in any
other package, then it is in the default package
– If an instance variable or method has package access,
it can be accessed by name in the definition of any
other class in the default package

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-43

 Pitfall: A Restriction on Protected Access

• If a class B is derived from class A, and class A has a

protected instance variable n, but the classes A and
B are in different packages, then the following is
true:
– A method in class B can access n by name (n is inherited
from class A)
– A method in class B can create a local object of itself,
which can access n by name (again, n is inherited from
class A)

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-44

 Pitfall: A Restriction on Protected Access

• However, if a method in class B creates an object of class A, it

can not access n by name
– A class knows about its own inherited variables and methods
– However, it cannot directly access any instance variable or method of
an ancestor class unless they are public
– Therefore, B can access n whenever it is used as an instance variable
of B, but B cannot access n when it is used as an instance variable of A
• This is true if A and B are not in the same package
– If they were in the same package there would be no problem, because
protected access implies package access

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-45

 Tip: "Is a" Versus "Has a"
• A derived class demonstrates an "is a" relationship
between it and its base class
– Forming an "is a" relationship is one way to make a more
complex class out of a simpler class
– For example, an HourlyEmployee "is an" Employee
– HourlyEmployee is a more complex class compared to
the more general Employee class

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-46

 Tip: "Is a" Versus "Has a"
• Another way to make a more complex class out of a
simpler class is through a "has a" relationship
– This type of relationship, called composition, occurs when
a class contains an instance variable of a class type
– The Employee class contains an instance variable,
hireDate, of the class Date, so therefore, an
Employee "has a" Date

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-47

 Tip: "Is a" Versus "Has a"
• Both kinds of relationships are commonly
used to create complex classes, often within
the same class
– Since HourlyEmployee is a derived class of
Employee, and contains an instance variable of
class Date, then HourlyEmployee "is an"
Employee and "has a" Date

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-48

 Tip: Static Variables Are Inherited
• Static variables in a base class are inherited by
any of its derived classes
• The modifiers public, private, and
protected, and package access have the
same meaning for static variables as they do
for instance variables

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-49

 Access to a Redefined Base Method

• Within the definition of a method of a derived class, the base

class version of an overridden method of the base class can
still be invoked
– Simply preface the method name with super and a dot
public String toString()
{
return (super.toString() + "$" + wageRate);
}
• However, using an object of the derived class outside of its
class definition, there is no way to invoke the base class
version of an overridden method

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-50

 You Cannot Use Multiple supers
• It is only valid to use super to invoke a method from a direct
parent
– Repeating super will not invoke a method from some other ancestor
class
• For example, if the Employee class were derived from the
class Person, and the HourlyEmployee class were
derived form the class Employee , it would not be possible
to invoke the toString method of the Person class within
a method of the HourlyEmployee class
super.super.toString() // ILLEGAL!

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-51

 The Class Object
• In Java, every class is a descendent of the class
Object
– Every class has Object as its ancestor
– Every object of every class is of type Object, as well as
being of the type of its own class
• If a class is defined that is not explicitly a derived
class of another class, it is still automatically a
derived class of the class Object

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-52

 The Class Object
• The class Object is in the package java.lang
which is always imported automatically
• Having an Object class enables methods to be
written with a parameter of type Object
– A parameter of type Object can be replaced by an object
of any class whatsoever
– For example, some library methods accept an argument of
type Object so they can be used with an argument that
is an object of any class

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-53

 The Class Object
• The class Object has some methods that every Java class
inherits
– For example, the equals and toString methods
• Every object inherits these methods from some ancestor class
– Either the class Object itself, or a class that itself inherited these
methods (ultimately) from the class Object
• However, these inherited methods should be overridden with
definitions more appropriate to a given class
– Some Java library classes assume that every class has its own version
of such methods

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-54

 The Right Way to Define equals
• Since the equals method is always inherited from
the class Object, methods like the following simply
overload it:
public boolean equals(Employee otherEmployee)
{ . . . }
• However, this method should be overridden, not just
overloaded:
public boolean equals(Object otherObject)
{ . . . }

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-55

 The Right Way to Define equals
• The overridden version of equals must meet the
following conditions
– The parameter otherObject of type Object must be
type cast to the given class (e.g., Employee)
– However, the new method should only do this if
otherObject really is an object of that class, and if
otherObject is not equal to null
– Finally, it should compare each of the instance variables of
both objects

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-56

 A Better equals Method for the Class
Employee
public boolean equals(Object otherObject)
{
if(otherObject == null)
return false;
else if(getClass( ) != otherObject.getClass( ))
return false;
else
{
Employee otherEmployee = (Employee)otherObject;
return (name.equals(otherEmployee.name) &&
hireDate.equals(otherEmployee.hireDate));
}
}

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-57

 Tip: getClass Versus instanceof

• Many authors suggest using the instanceof operator in

the definition of equals
– Instead of the getClass() method
• The instanceof operator will return true if the object
being tested is a member of the class for which it is being
tested
– However, it will return true if it is a descendent of that class as well
• It is possible (and especially disturbing), for the equals
method to behave inconsistently given this scenario

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-58

 Tip: getClass Versus instanceof

• Here is an example using the class Employee

. . . //excerpt from bad equals method
else if(!(OtherObject instanceof Employee))
return false; . . .
• Now consider the following:
Employee e = new Employee("Joe", new Date());
HourlyEmployee h = new
HourlyEmployee("Joe", new Date(),8.5, 40);
boolean testH = e.equals(h);
boolean testE = h.equals(e);

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-59

 Tip: getClass Versus instanceof

• testH will be true, because h is an Employee

with the same name and hire date as e
• However, testE will be false, because e is not an
HourlyEmployee, and cannot be compared to h
• Note that this problem would not occur if the
getClass() method were used instead, as in the
previous equals method example

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-60

 instanceof and getClass
• Both the instanceof operator and the
getClass() method can be used to check the
class of an object
• However, the getClass() method is more exact
– The instanceof operator simply tests the class of an
object
– The getClass() method used in a test with == or !=
tests if two objects were created with the same class

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-61

 The instanceof Operator
• The instanceof operator checks if an
object is of the type given as its second
argument
Object instanceof ClassName
– This will return true if Object is of type
ClassName, and otherwise return false
– Note that this means it will return true if
Object is the type of any descendent class of
ClassName

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-62

 The getClass() Method
• Every object inherits the same getClass()
method from the Object class
– This method is marked final, so it cannot be overridden
• An invocation of getClass() on an object returns
a representation only of the class that was used with
new to create the object
– The results of any two such invocations can be compared
with == or != to determine whether or not they represent
the exact same class
(object1.getClass() == object2.getClass())

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Inc. All rights reserved. 7-63