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Objectives
In this chapter, we will
• Review inheritance
Essentials of Information • Introduce polymorphism
Technology
CSE-304 N

Unit 3 : Polymorphism

Inheritance Inheritance – an example

• Three key topics in object oriented programming are:
• Person is a base class
– Encapsulation
– A super class
– Inheritance • Student and Teacher are derived classes
– Polymorphism – Sub classes
• The new classes are publicly derived
from the base class
– all the public members of the base class
are available to instances of the derived
classes

The Teacher Class The Teacher Class (continued)

• The Teacher class adds a teaching title such as Lecturer to the details public String getTeachingTitle()
encapsulated by a Person {
return teachingTitle;
public class Teacher extends Person
}
{
private String teachingTitle ;
public Teacher (String theFirstname, String theSurname, public void displayDetails ()
int theAge, String theTeachingTitle) {
{ super.displayDetails();
super(theFirstname, theSurname, theAge); System.out.println(teachingTitle);
teachingTitle =theTeachingTitle; }
} }

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The IS-A Relationship References to Person Objects

• The IS-A relationship is used to describe the relationship between an • Consider the following code:
instance of a derived class and the base class Student Alex = new Student("Alex","King",20,199913);
Teacher Pete = new Teacher ("Pete", "King",52, "Principal Lecturer");
• A Student IS-A Person Person theTutor = new Person ("Bill", "Smith",52);
• An instance of Student is at least an instance of Person and can be used Person thePeople[] = new Person[3];
anywhere that a Person can be used thePeople[0] = Pete;
– the converse is not true thePeople[1] = Alex;
– a Person cannot be used everywhere that a Student can be used thePeople[2] = theTutor;
• a Person does not have to be a Student
• A Teacher can be added to the array because a Teacher is derived from a
• Similarly a Teacher IS-A Person and can be used anywhere that a Person Person; a Teacher IS-A Person
can be used – The array actually holds references
• A reference to a Student is also a reference to a Person
– Example Person.java , Teacher.java , Student.java , TestPerson.java

PostGraduate Class Polymorphism

• How should the PostGraduate class be built? • Polymorphism literally means state of having many shapes or the capacity
Person to take on many different forms. Box.java
• Polymorphism can be of two types
– Compile time polymorphism also called method overloading.
Student Teacher
– Runtime polymorphism also called method overriding.
• Method overloading is the ability of one function to perform different
PostGraduate task.
• Method overloading allows creating several methods with the same name
• A PostGraduate is a Student and is a Person which differ from each other in the type of input and the output of the
• A PostGraduate should extend the Student class method.
• If super is used in Postgraduate it will refer to the Student class • Method overriding allows a subclass or a child class to provide a specific
– Only the immediate ancestor is accessible implementation of a method that is already provided by one of its super
class or parent class. Override.java , PersonOverride.java

Polymorphism Polymorphism
• The implementation in the subclass overrides (replaces) the • Consider the following code:
implementation in the super class by providing a method that has same for(int i =0; i < 3; ++i)
name , same parameters or signature and same return type as the method
thePeople[i].displayDetails();
in the parent class.
• What will be output?
• The array holds references to Person objects so on the face of it the
• The version of the method that is executed will be determined by the displayDetails method from the Person class should be invoked
object that is used to invoke it. If the object of the parent class is used to
invoke the method, then the version in the parent class will be executed • The objects are not all of type Person
but if an object of the subclass is used to invoke the method then the • At run time the Java environment determines the type of object and binds
version in the child class will be executed. to the correct version of displayDetails
• This is Polymorphism
• Animal.java , Dog.java, Fish.java, Polymorphism.java
• Example : Apple.java , Food.java , Rice.java , Maggi.java

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Polymorphism Polymorphism
• Java makes use of dynamic binding with classes
– Late binding • Overloading – Which version of the method to be called is decided at
• The method to bind to is determined at run time based upon the type of compile time based on reference type
object that is actually referenced

• The alternative to this is early binding • Overriding – Which version of the method to be called is decided as run
– Static binding time based on object type.
– This is used by many other languages
– The method to bind to is determined at compile time based upon
available type information • Example TestAnimals.java
• Languages like C++ allow the programmer to choose

Casting and instanceof Object

• It is possible to check if an object reference is to a specific class using • In Java the ultimate base class of all classes is Object
instanceof • In the class hierarchy discussed earlier the base class is Person
– Then a cast can be carried out safely – Person inherits from Object
• For example: – An instance of Person is an instance of Object
for ( int i =0; i < 3; ++i) – Student inherits from Person
{ – An instance of Student is an instance of Person and is an Instance of
if (thePeople[i] instanceof Teacher) Object
{ • The class Object is defined in the namespace java.lang
Teacher theTeacher = (Teacher)thePeople[i]; • Provides some common functionality to all classes
System.out.println(theTeacher.getTeachingTitle());
}
}
Example TestPerson.java

Object and the toString method The Person class

• The toString method is provided by the base class Object • A toString method could easily be added to the Person class:
• The toString method is invoked, for example, when an object is referred to
in println public class Person {
– System.out.println(myObject) private String name;
• The default return value of toString is a String made up of private int age;
– The name of the class that the object is an instance of
public String toString( )
– Followed by an @ symbol and a numeric code
{
• It is possible to override the toString method in any derived class
return "Name is : " + name + " " +
• The signature of the method is: surname + " Age is : " + age ;
– public String toString( ) }
…
Example : Person.java

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Using the toString method of Overriding toString in derived

Person classes
• The toString method is called by default when necessary: • The toString method can be overriden in the Student class for example:
System.out.println("\nTesting toString of Person"); public String toString( )
System.out.println(theTutor); {
return "Student " + super.toString() ;
• The method can be called directly by name: }
System.out.println("\nTesting toString of Person"); • Note the toString method of the super class can be used wherever it is
System.out.println(theTutor.toString()); required
– It is not compulsory to use it but often avoids repeating code

– Example Student.java

Summary Question and Answer Session

In this lecture we have:
• Reviewed inheritance
• Discussed the IS-A relationship
• Introduced polymorphism
Q&A