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6) Overloading, overriding, runtime type and object orientation

Objective 2)

Write code to invoke overridden or overloaded methods and parental or overloaded constructors; and describe the effect of invoking these methods.

Comment on the objective

The terms overloaded and overridden are similar enough to give cause for confusion. My way of remembering it is to imagine that something that is overriden has literally been ridden over by a heavy vehicle and no longer exists in its own right. Something that is overloaded is still moving but is loaded down with lots of functionality that is causing it plenty of effort. This is just a little mind trick to distinguish the two, it doesn't have any bearing of the reality on the operations in Java. 

Overloading methods

Overloading of methods is a compiler trick to allow you to use the same name to perform different actions depending on parameters. 

Thus imagine you were designing the interface for a system to run mock Java certification exams (who could this be?). An answer may come in as an integer, a boolean or a text string. You could create a version of the method for each parameter type and give it a matching name thus

markanswerboolean(boolean answer){ 
        } 
markanswerint(int answer){ 
        }

markanswerString(String answer){ 
        }

This would work but it means that future users of your classes have to be aware of more method names than is strictly necessary. It would be more useful if you could use a single method name and the compiler would resolve what actual code to call according to the type and number of parameters in the call. 

This is the heart of overloading methods, part of what is known as polymorphism.

There are no keywords to remember in order to overload methods, you just create multiple methods with the same name but different numbers and or types of parameters. The names of the parameters are not important but the number and types must be different. Thus the following is an example of an overloaded markanswer method

void markanswer(String answer){ 
        } 
void markanswer(int answer){ 
       }

The following is not an example of overloading and will cause a compile time error indicating a duplicate method declaration.

void markanswer(String answer){ 
        }

void markanswer(String title){ 
        }

The return type does not form part of the signature for the purpose of overloading. 

Thus changing one of the above to have an int return value will still result in a compile time error, but this time indicating that a method cannot be redefined with a different return type. 

Overloaded methods do not have any restrictions on what exceptions can be thrown. That is something to worry about with overriding. 

Overloaded methods are differentiated only on the number, type and order of parameters,not on the return type of the method

Overriding methods

Overriding a method means that its entire functionality is being replaced. Overriding is something done in a child class to a method defined in a parent class. To override a method a new method is defined in the child class with exactly the same signature as the one in the parent class. This has the effect of shadowing the method in the parent class and the functionality is no longer directly accessible. 

Java provides an example of overriding in the case of the equals method that every class inherits from the granddady parent Object. The inherited version of equals simply compares where in memory the instance of the class references. This is often not what is wanted, particularly in the case of a String. For a string you would generally want to do a character by character comparison to see if the two strings are the same. To allow for this the version of equals that comes with String is an overriden version that performs this character by character comparison. 

Invoking base class constructors

A constructor is a special method that is automatically run every time an instance of a class is created. Java knows that a method is a constructor because it has the same name as the class itself and no return value. A constructor may take parameters like any other method and you may need to pass different parameters according to how you want the class initialised. Thus if you take the example of the Button class from the AWT package its constructor is overloaded to give it two versions. One is

• Button()
• Button(String label)

Thus you can create a button with no label and give it one later on, or use the more common version and assign the label at creation time.

Constructors are not inherited however, so if you want to get at some useful constructor from an ancestor class it is not available by default. Thus the following code will not compile

class Base{
public  Base(){}
public  Base(int i){}
}


public class MyOver extends Base{
public static void main(String argvp[]){
        MyOver m = new MyOver(10);//Will NOT compile
        }
}

The magic keyword you need to get at a constructor in an ancestor is super. This keyword can be used as if it were a method and passed the appropriate parameters to match up with the version of the parental constructor you require. In this modified example of the previous code the keyword super is used to call the single integer version of the constructor in the base class and the code compiles without complaint.

class Base{
public Base(){}
public Base(int i){}
}

public class MyOver extends Base{
public static void main(String arg[]){
                MyOver m = new MyOver(10);
                }
        MyOver(int i){
                super(i);
        }
}

Invoking constructors with this()

In the same way that you can call a base class constructor using super() you can call another constructor in the current class by using this as if it were a method. Thus in the previous example you could define another constructor as follows

        MyOver(String s, int i){
                this(i);
                }

Either this or super can be called as the first line from within a constructor, but not both.

As you might guess this will call the other constructor in the current class that takes a single integer parameter. If you use super() or this() in a constructor it must be the first method call. As only one or the other can be the first method call, you can not use both super() and this() in a constructor

Thus the following will cause a compile time error.

       MyOver(String s, int i){
                this(i);
		super();//Causes a compile time error 
        }

Based on the knowledge that constructors are not inherited, it must be obvious that overriding is irrelevant. If you have a class called Base and you create a child that extends it, for the extending class to be overriding the constructor it must have the same name. This would cause a compile time error. Here is an example of this nonsense hierarchy.

class Base{}
class Base extends Base{} //Compile time error!

Constructors and the class hierarchy

Constructors are always called downward from the top of the hierarchy. You are very likely to get some questions on the exam that involve a class hierarchy with various calls to this and super and you have to pick what will be the output. Look out for questions where you have a complex hierarchy that is made irrelevant by a constructor that has a call to both this and super and thus results in a compile time error.

Constructors are called from the base (ancestor) of the hierarchy downwards.

Take the following example

class Mammal{

        Mammal(){
                System.out.println("Creating Mammal");
        }                
}

public class Human extends Mammal{
public static void main(String argv[]){
        Human h = new Human();
        }
        Human(){
        System.out.println("Creating Human");
       }
}

When this code runs the string "Creating Mammal" is output first due to the implicit call to the no-args constructor at the base of the hierarchy.

Questions

Question 1)

Given the following class definition, which of the following methods could be legally placed after the comment with the commented word "//Here"?

public class Rid{
        public void amethod(int i, String s){}
	//Here
}

1) public void amethod(String s, int i){}
2) public int amethod(int i, String s){}
3) public void amethod(int i, String mystring){}
4) public void Amethod(int i, String s) {}

Question 2)

Given the following class definition which of the following can be legally placed after the comment line
//Here ?

class Base{
public Base(int i){}
}

public class MyOver extends Base{
public static void main(String arg[]){
                MyOver m = new MyOver(10);
               }
        MyOver(int i){
                super(i);
       }

        MyOver(String s, int i){
                this(i);
                 //Here
        }
}

1) MyOver m = new MyOver();
2) super();
3) this("Hello",10);
4) Base b = new Base(10);

Question 3)

Given the following class definition

class Mammal{
        Mammal(){
                System.out.println("Mammal");
        }
}

class Dog extends Mammal{
        Dog(){
                System.out.println("Dog");
        }
}

public class Collie extends Dog {
public static void main(String argv[]){
        Collie c = new Collie();

}

        Collie(){
             this("Good Dog");
             System.out.println("Collie");
        }
        Collie(String s){
        System.out.println(s);
       }
}

What will be output?

1) Compile time error
2) Mammal, Dog, Good Dog, Collie
3) Good Dog, Collie, Dog, Mammal
4) Good Dog, Collie

Question 4)

Which of the following statements are true?

1) Constructors are not inherited
2) Constructors can be overriden
3) A parental constructor can be invoked using this
4) Any method may contain a call to this or super

Question 5)

What will happen when you attempt to compile and run the following code?

class Base{
        public void amethod(int i, String s){
        System.out.println("Base amethod");
        }
        Base(){
        System.out.println("Base Constructor");
        }

}

public class Child extends Base{
int i;
String Parm="Hello";
public static void main(String argv[]){
        Child c = new Child();
        c.amethod();
}

void amethod(int i, String Parm){
        super.amethod(i,Parm);
        }
public void amethod(){}
}

1) Compile time error
2) Error caused by illegal syntax super.amethod(i,Parm)
3) Output of "Base Constructor"
4) Error caused by incorrect parameter names in call to super.amethod

Question 6)

What will be output if you attempt to compile and run this code?

class Mammal{
Mammal(){
        System.out.println("Four");
        }
public void ears(){
        System.out.println("Two");
        }
}
class Dog extends Mammal{
        Dog(){
        super.ears();
        System.out.println("Three");
        }
}

public class Scottie extends Dog{
public static void main(String argv[]){
        System.out.println("One");
        Scottie h = new Scottie();
        }
}

1) One, Three, Two, Four
2) One, Four, Three, Two
3) One, Four, Two, Three
4) Compile time error

Answers

Answer 1)

1) public void amethod(String s, int i){}
4) public void Amethod(int i, String s) {}

The upper case A on Amethod means that this is a different method.

Answer 2)

4) Base b = new Base(10);

Any call to this or super must be the first line in a constructor. As the method already has a call to this, no more can be inserted.

Answer 3)

2) Mammal, Dog, Good Dog, Collie

Answer 4)

1) Constructors are not inherited

Parental constructors are invoked using super, not this.

Answer 5)

1) Compile time error

This will cause an error saying something like "you cannot override methods to be more private". The base version of amethod was specifically marked as public whereas the child had no specifier. OK so this was not a test of your knowlege of constructors overloading but they don't tell you the topic in the exam either. If it were not for the omission of the keyword public this code would output "Base constructor", option 3.

Answer 6)

3) One, Four, Two, Three

The classes are created from the root of the hierarchy downwards. Thus One is output first as it comes before the instantiation of the Scottie h. Then the JVM moves to the base of the hierarchy and runs the constructor for the grandparent Mammal. This outputs "Four". Then the constructor for Dog runs. The constructor for Dog calls the ears method in Mammal and thus "Two" is output. Finally the constructor for Dog completes and outputs "Three".

Last updated
12 Jan 2000
copyright © Marcus Green 2000