Chapter 10: Inheritance

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Objectives

} Inheritance (继承)

} Superclass (父类) and subclass (子类)

} Overriding (重写)

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Inheritance
} Consider a scenario where you have carefully designed and
implemented a Vehicle class, and you need a Truck class in
your system. Will you create the new class from scratch?

On one hand, trucks have On another hand, trucks have

some traits in common with their own characteristics e.g.,
many vehicles. Some code two seats, can carry huge
can be shared (So no?) things (So yes?)

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Inheritance
} A form of software reuse in which a new class is created by
absorbing (吸收复用) an existing class’s members and
embellishing (修饰) them with new or modified capabilities.

} Can save time during program development by basing new

classes on existing high-quality software.

} Increases the likelihood that a system can be implemented and

maintained effectively.

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Inheritance
} When creating a class, rather than declaring completely new
members, you can designate that the new class should inherit
the members of an existing class.
§ Existing class is the superclass
Truck Vehicle
§ New class is the subclass

} Each subclass can be a superclass of future subclasses,

forming a class hierarchy.

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Inheritance
} A subclass can add its own fields and methods.

} A subclass is more specific than its superclass and represents

a more specialized group of objects.

} The subclass exhibits the behaviors of its superclass and can

add behaviors that are specific to the subclass.
§ This is why inheritance is sometimes referred to as specialization.

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Inheritance
} The direct superclass is the superclass from which the subclass
explicitly inherits (A is the direct superclass of C)

} An indirect superclass is any class above the direct superclass

in the class hierarchy (e.g., A is an indirect superclass of E)

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Inheritance
} The Java class hierarchy begins with class java.lang.Object
§ Every class directly or indirectly extends (or “inherits from”) Object.

} Java supports only single inheritance, in which each class is derived

from exactly one direct superclass.

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Inheritance vs. Composition
} Inheritance: Is-a relationship between classes
§ In an is-a relationship, an object of a subclass can also be treated as an
object of its superclass (a truck is also a vehicle)

} Composition: Has-a relationship between classes

§ In a has-a relationship, an object contains references to other objects as
members (a house contains a kitchen)

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More Examples and Observations

} Superclasses tend to be “more general” and subclasses “more specific”

} Because every subclass object is an object of its superclass, and one superclass can
have many subclasses, the set of objects represented by a superclass is typically
larger than the set of objects represented by any of its subclasses.

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Class Hierarchy (Inheritance Hierarchy)

} A superclass exists in a hierarchical relationship with

its subclasses.

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Class Hierarchy

} Each arrow in the hierarchy represents an is-a relationship.

} Follow the arrows upward in the class hierarchy

§ a Teacher is a Faculty (also an Employee, a CommunityMember)

} CommunityMember is the direct superclass of Employee,

Student and Alumnus and is an indirect superclass of all the
other classes

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Superclass and Subclass (Cont.)
} Objects of all classes that extend a common superclass can be
treated as objects of that superclass (e.g., java.lang.Object)
§ Commonality expressed in the members of the superclass.

} Inheritance issue
§ A subclass can inherit methods that it does not need or should not have
§ Even when a superclass method is appropriate for a subclass, that
subclass often needs a customized version of the method.
§ The subclass can override (redefine) the superclass method with an
appropriate implementation (there will be an example later)

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public and private Members
} A class’s public members are accessible wherever the
program has a reference to an object of that class or one of
its subclasses.

} A class’s private members are accessible only within the

class itself (invisible to subclasses).

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protected Members
} protected access is an intermediate access level between public
and private

} A superclass’s protected members can be accessed by

§ members of that superclass
§ members of its subclasses
§ members of other classes in the same package

} All public and protected superclass members retain their

original access modifier when they become members of the subclass.

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protected Members
} A superclass’s private members are hidden in its subclasses
§ They can be accessed only through the public or protected methods
inherited from the superclass

} Subclass methods can refer to public and protected members

inherited from the superclass simply by using the member names.

} When a subclass method overrides an inherited superclass method,

the superclass method can be accessed from the subclass by
preceding the superclass method name with keyword super and a
dot (.) separator.

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Access Level Modifiers (ALL)

Modifier Class Package Subclass World

public Y Y Y Y
protected Y Y Y N
no modifier Y Y N* N
private Y N N N

Note that this is for controlling access to class members. At the top level, a class
can only be declared as public or package-private (no explicit modifier)

* Package-private class members are inherited if the subclass is in the same

package as the superclass

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 Case Study: A Payroll Application
(工资表应用程序)
} Suppose we need to create classes for two types of employees
§ Commission employees (佣金员工) are paid a percentage of their sales
(ComissionEmployee)

§ Base-salaried commission employees (持底薪佣金员工) receive a base

salary plus a percentage of their sales (BasePlusCommissionEmployee)

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Comparing the Two Types
} Both classes need data fields to store the employee’s personal
information (e.g., name, social security number)

} Differences
§ BasePlusCommissionEmployee class needs one additional
field to store the employee’s base salary
§ The way of calculating the earnings are different

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Design Choice #1
} Creating the two classes independently

Data fields
(attributes)
A five-argument constructor

set & get

methods

Earning calculation method

Transform object to string representation
extends Object

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Design Choice #1
} Creating the two classes independently

Identical

Identical

extends Object extends Object

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Problems of Design Choice #1
} Much of BasePlusCommissionEmployee’s code will be
identical to that of CommissionEmployee

} For implementation, we will literally copy the code of the class

CommissionEmployee and paste the copied code into the
class BasePlusCommissionEmployee
§ “Copy-and-paste” approach is often error prone. It spreads copies of the
same code throughout a system, creating code-maintenance nightmares

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Design Choice #2
} BasePlusCommissionEmployee extends CommissionEmployee

Derive the new class from an existing one

(code reuse) and add new fields and methods.

extends Object

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Let’s get to the real code and use it to
illustrate some key notions

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CommissionEmployee
public class CommissionEmployee extends Object {
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
private String socialSecurityNumber;
private double grossSales;
private double commissionRate;
...

“extends Object” is optional. If you don’t explicitly specify

which class a new class extends, the class extends Object implicitly.

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CommissionEmployee
A five-argument constructor
public CommissionEmployee(String first, String last, String ssn,
double sales, double rate) {
firstName = first;
lastName = last;
socialSecurityNumber = ssn;
setGrossSales(sales); // data validation
setCommissionRate(rate); // data validation
}
public void setGrossSales(double sales) {
grossSales = (sales < 0.0) ? 0.0 : sales;
}
public void setCommissionRate(double rate) {
commissionRate = (rate > 0.0 && rate < 1.0) ? rate : 0.0;
}

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CommissionEmployee
Several other get and set methods
public void setFirstName(String first) { firstName = first; }

public String getFirstName() { return firstName; }

public void setLastName(String last) { lastName = last; }

public String getLastName() { return lastName; }

public void setSocialSecurityNumber(String ssn) { socialSecurityNumber = ssn; }

public String getSocialSecurityNumber() { return socialSecurityNumber; }

public double getGrossSales() { return grossSales; }

public double getCommissionRate() { return commissionRate; }

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CommissionEmployee
Calculation and string transformation methods

public double earnings() {

return commissionRate * grossSales;
}

@Override
public String toString() {
return String.format("%s: %s %s\n%s: %s\n%s: %.2f\n%s: %.2f",
"commission employee", firstName, lastName,
"social security number", socialSecurityNumber,
"gross sales", grossSales,
"commission rate", commissionRate);
}

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Overriding toString() Method
} toString() is one of the methods that every class inherits directly or
indirectly from class Object.
§ Returns a String that “textually represents” an object.
§ Called implicitly whenever an object must be converted to a String
representation (e.g., System.out.println(objRef))

} Class Object’s toString() method returns a String that includes the

name of the object’s class.
§ If not overridden, returns something like “CommissionEmployee@70dea4e”
(the part after @ is the hexadecimal representation of the hash code of the object)
§ This is primarily a placeholder that can be overridden by a subclass to specify
customized String representation.

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Overriding toString() Method
} To override a superclass’s method, a subclass must declare a method with
the same signature as the superclass method.

} The access level of an overriding method can be higher, but not lower than
that of the overridden method (package-private < protected < public)

} @Override annotation
§ Optional, but helps the compiler to ensure that the method has the same
signature as the one in the superclass
@Override
public String toString() { … }

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 BasePlusCommissionEmployee
public class BasePlusCommissionEmployee extends CommissionEmployee {
private double baseSalary; Added a new field

public BasePlusCommissionEmployee(String first, String last, String ssn,

double sales, double rate, double salary) {
super(first, last, ssn, sales, rate);
setBaseSalary(salary);
Its own constructor. In Java, constructors are not class
}
members and are not inherited by subclasses

public void setBaseSalary(double salary) {

baseSalary = (salary < 0.0) ? 0.0 : salary;
}
...

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Subclass Constructors
} Each constructor in the subclass needs to invoke a superclass constructor
for object construction (e.g., to initialize inherited instance variables) by
using the super keyword.

} If this is not explicitly done, the compiler automatically inserts a call to the
no-argument constructor of the superclass. If the super class does not have
a no-argument constructor, you will get a compile-time error.

} Constructor chaining: If a subclass constructor invokes a constructor of

its superclass, there will be a whole chain of constructors called, all the
way back to the constructor of Object. You need to be aware of its effect.

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BasePlusCommissionEmployee
Overriding the two inherited methods for customized behaviors

public double earnings() {

return baseSalary + ( commissionRate * grossSales );
}

@Override
public String toString() {
return String.format("%s: %s %s\n%s: %s\n%s: %.2f\n%s: %.2f\n%s: %.2f",
"base-salaried", firstName, lastName,
"social security number", socialSecurityNumber,
"gross sales", grossSales,
"commission rate", commissionRate,
"base salary", baseSalary);
}

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Accessing fields of superclass
} What would happen if we compile the previous code?

Compilation error

public double earnings() {

return baseSalary + ( commissionRate * grossSales );
}

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Accessing fields of superclass
} A subclass inherits all public and protected members of its parent, no
matter what package the subclass is in.
§ These members are directly accessible in the subclass

} If the subclass is in the same package as its parent, it also inherits the
parent’s package-private members (those without access level modifiers)
§ These members are directly accessible in the subclass

} A subclass does not inherit the private members. Private fields need to be
accessed using the methods (public, protected, or package-private ones)
inherited from superclass.

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Solving the Compilation Problem
} Solution #1: using inherited methods

public double earnings() {

return baseSalary + ( commissionRate * grossSales );
}

public double earnings() {

return baseSalary + ( getCommissionRate() * getGrossSales() );
}

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Solving the Compilation Problem
} Solution #2: declaring superclass fields as protected

public class CommissionEmployee extends Object {

private protected String firstName;
private protected String lastName;
private protected String socialSecurityNumber;
private protected double grossSales;
private protected double commissionRate;
...

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Recall the Access Level Modifiers

Modifier Class Package Subclass World

public Y Y Y Y

protected Y Y Y N

no modifier Y Y N N

private Y N N N

Note that this is for controlling access to class members. At the top level, a class
can only be declared as public or package-private (no explicit modifier)

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Comparing the Solutions
} Inheriting protected instance variables (solution #2) slightly
increases performance, because we directly access the variables in
the subclass without incurring the overhead of set/get method calls.

public double earnings() {

return baseSalary + ( commissionRate * grossSales );
}

vs.
public double earnings() {
return baseSalary + ( getCommissionRate() * getGrossSales() );
}

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Problems of protected Members
} (Problem #1) The subclass object can set an inherited protected
variable’s value directly without using a set method. The value could be
invalid, leaving the object in an inconsistent state.

} (Problem #2) If protected variables are used in many methods in the

subclass, these methods will depend on the superclass’s data implementation
§ Subclasses should depend only on the superclass services (e.g., public methods)
and not on the superclass data implementation

} (Problem #3) A class’s protected members are visible to all classes in

the same package, this is not always desirable.

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Comparing the Solutions
} From the point of good software engineering, it’s better to use
private instance variables (solution #1) and leave code optimization
issues to the compiler.
§ Code will be easier to maintain, modify and debug.

public double earnings() {

return baseSalary + ( getCommissionRate() * getGrossSales() );
}

vs.
public double earnings() {
return baseSalary + ( commissionRate * grossSales );
}

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More on the super Keyword
} Two main usage scenarios

} The super keyword can be used to invoke a superclass's

constructor (as illustrated by our earlier example)

} If your method overrides its superclass's method, you can

invoke the overridden method using the keyword super.

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More on the super Keyword
public class BasePlusCommissionEmployee extends CommissionEmployee {
@Override
public String toString() {
return String.format("%s: %s %s\n%s: %s\n%s: %.2f\n%s: %.2f\n%s: %.2f",
"base-salaried", getFirstName(), getLastName(),
"social security number", getSocialSecurityNumber(),
"gross sales", getGrossSales(),
"commission rate", getCommissionRate(),
"base salary", getBaseSalary());
}
}

public class BasePlusCommissionEmployee extends CommissionEmployee {

@Override
public String toString() {
return String.format("%s %s\n%s: %.2f",
"base-salaried", super.toString(),
"base salary", getBaseSalary());
}
}

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Using CommissionEmployee

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Using BasePlusCommissionEmployee

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(C) 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 47
Inheritance in a Nut Shell
} The idea of inheritance is simple but powerful: When you want
to create a new class and there is already a class that includes some
code you want, you can derive the new class from the existing one.

} The new class inherits its superclass’s members—though the private

superclass members are hidden in the subclass.

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Inheritance in a Nut Shell
} You can customize the new class to meet your needs by including
additional members and by overriding superclass members.
§ This does not require the subclass programmer to change (or even have access to)
the superclass’s source code.
§ Java simply requires access to the superclass’s .class file.

} By doing this, you can reuse the fields and methods of the existing class
without having to write (and debug!) them yourself.

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