inheritence in java inherit variables? - java

As I understand the inherited class should also inherit variables, so why doesn't this code work?
public class a {
private int num;
public static void main(String[] args) {
b d = new b();
}
}
class b extends a {
public b() {
num = 5;
System.out.println(num);
}
}

num variable's access modifier is private and private members are not accessible out of own class so make it protected it will accessible from subclass.
public class a {
protected int num;
...
}
Reference of Controlling Access to Members of a Class

As i understand the inherited class should inherit also variables,
you got it wrong, instance variables are not overriden in sub-class. inheritence and polymorphism doesnt apply for instance fields. they are only visible in your sub-class if they are marked protected or public. currently you have super class variable marked private. no other class can access it. mark it either protected or public in-order for other class's to access it.

public class A{
public int num=5;
public static void main(String[] args) {
b d = new b();
d.c();
}
}
class b extends A
{
public void c()
{
System.out.println(num);
}
}
definitely this is what you need i think

private scope can only be accessed by the containing class.
For this to work num would need to be declared protected scope.
However this would also make it accessible to other classes in the same package. My recommedation would be to create a get / set method in order to maintain proper encapsulation.
you could then access num in class b by calling getNum()

Because you are using the private access modifier. If you use private to a instance variable or to a method it only can access inside the class only(even several classes include one source file). We can expose private variable to outside by using getters and setters. Following code will compile without an error
public class A {
private int num;
public void setNum(int num)
{
this.num = num;
}
public int getNum()
{
return num;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
B d = new B();
}
}
class B extends A
{
public B()
{
SetNum(5);
System.out.println(getNum());
}
}

You don't have access to private members of the base classes from the subclass. Only the members with modifiers of private/protected

Related

Access protected field of inner class through inheritance

I am trying o access a protected field of Inner class through
inheritance in another inner class. But i came across a problem:
package a;
class A{
public class Inner{
protected int i =5;
}
}
package b;
class B{
public class BInner extends A.Inner{
dsds
void test(){
System.out.println(i); // that's works fine, i
}
}
void print(){
System.out.println(new BInner().i) // but why i cant access this field from here? Compiler just says that there is protected access ...
}
}
Is there is way how to access this field?
The protected access modifier means that the field or method is available only to the class itself and its children. Since class B does not extend B.BInner, it cannot access B.BInner.i.
The most common way to work with access modifiers is to use getter/setter pairs, which you can declare in A.Inner (because that's where i is declared and B.BInner will inherit the methods):
class A{
public class Inner{
protected int i =5;
public int getI() {
return i;
}
public void setI(int i) {
this.i = i;
}
}
}
Calling getI() on a B.BInner object will then return the value of i, and since it's public, it can be used anywhere.

when you extend a private class. are the public and protected members of class become private

when you extend a private class. Are the public and protected members of class become private. if not any explanation.
if you extend a nested private class, it wont change public/protected modifiers of the members. Here is an example :
public class Clazz {
private static class NestedClazz {
public int value = 123;
}
public static class NestedClazzExt extends NestedClazz {
}
}
you can now access the inherited member: value from outside
public static void main(String[] args) {
NestedClazzExt nestedClazz = new Clazz.NestedClazzExt();
System.out.println(nestedClazz.value);
}
you can create private class in side a class . We call it as Nested classe. Means a class inside a class. The Concept itself is saying that you can create private class in side another class. The private class will act like as data member to the outer class.
So, You can't extend the private class.
Based on your query I tried to prepare a simple class.
public class pvtClass {
private class As {
public String abc = "private attribute";
public void print(){
System.out.println("privateClass");
}
}
class Ab extends As{
public String ab = "extended attribute";
public void printAb(){
System.out.println("extended class");
print();
System.out.println(abc);
}
}
public static void main(String as[]){
Ab ab1 = (new pvtClass()).new Ab();
As as1 = (new pvtClass()).new As();
ab1.printAb();
as1.print();
System.out.println(as1.abc);
}
}
If you have a look at this class, I have a private class named "As" which has public attribute and public methods. I have another class named "Ab" which extends "As". I have written a main method to invoke the private attribute and methods.
below is the output for the code snippet:
extended class
privateClass
private attribute
privateClass
private attribute
There is a difference between the access of the members of a class and the access to the type itself.
public class C {
private class InnerP1 {
public void m() {
System.out.println("InnerP1.m()");
}
}
private class InnerP2 extends InnerP1 {
public void p() {
this.m();
System.out.println("InnerP2.p()");
}
}
public InnerP1 strange() {
return new InnerP2();
}
}
In this example, the interface I is visible from outside class C. The classes InnerP1 and InnerP2 are not visible from outside C. Jave itself makes not restrictions to the visibility of types you use in your public interface. The method strange() of class C returns a result of class InnerP1. Since outside of C we do not know anything about the class InnerP1 other than it is subtype of Object, the only thing we can do is use the result of strange() as an Object.
public class D {
public static void main(String[] args) {
C c = new C();
Object o = c.strange();
if(o.equals(c.strange())) {
System.out.println("Strange things are going on here!");
}
}
}
As #KnusperPudding pointed out already, the visiblity of public members is not changed, we might just not have enough knowledge of the type itself to access them.
Access to members cannot be restricted by sub-classing. When you mark a class as private then access via the class name is restricted i.e. to the same .java file, however once you have an instance of this class it can be accessed at least as easily as the super class.

Access to Private Members of a Superclass

What is the example of indirect access to private member of superclass from subclass?
A nested class has access to all the private members of its enclosing
class—both fields and methods. Therefore, a public or protected nested
class inherited by a subclass has indirect access to all of the
private members of the superclass.
Quote from http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/IandI/subclasses.html
In the quote, we talk about "nested" class
here is an example of how an inner class can access private fields of the outer class.
class OuterClass {
private int x = 7;
public void makeInner(){
InnerClass in = new InnerClass();
in.seeOuter();
}
class InnerClass {
public void seeOuter() {
System.out.println("Outer x is " + x);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
OuterClass.InnerClass inner = new OuterClass().new InnerClass();
inner.seeOuter();
}
}
Finally, if you extend a class with the InnerClass, they will also access the private fields of the OuterClass if your InnerClass is public or protected
It is to be supposed (but the compiler does not enforce it, only warns), that a private method will end being used by a public, protected or default method (otherwise it is useless).
So, the extending class can "indirectly" call the private method by calling the public, protected or default method that ends calling the private method.
Yes, we can access private members of a superclass in the child class through the public method of the superclass which can be invoked from the child class's reference variable heaving the reference id of child class.
for example:-
class Base
{
private int x=10;
void show()
{
System.out.println(x);
}
}
class Child extends Base
{
public static void main(String... s)// public static void main(String[] args)
{
//rom jdk 1.7 main can be defined like above
Child c=new Child();
c.show();
}
}
The output will be 10

private member accessible via public method

The private modifier specifies that the member can only be accessed in its own class. But am I able to access it using a public method that get inherited from base class. Can someone explain me why? Does this mean object of Child class contain a member called b?
Here's the code:
package a;
public class Base {
private int b;
public int getB() {
return b;
}
public void exposeB() {
System.out.println(getB());
}
public Base(int b) {
this.b = b;
}
}
package b;
public class Child extends Base {
Child(int b) {
super(b);
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
Child b = new Child(2);
// Prints 2
System.out.println("Accessing private base variable" + b.getB());
}
}
you are not accessing the private variable in your super class directly. you are implementing the concept of Encapsulation. you are using the public getter method(in this case getB()) to make your private data accesed by other classes. thus, you can access private variable b through public getter but you never cant access b directly on its instace from another/subclass
In class Base, the field b is private but getB() is public so anybody can call that method.
What you can expect to fail compilation is something like:
System.out.println( "Accessing private base variable" + b.b );
(unless that line is called from within a method of Base itself).
You will not be able to access b directly in Child because it is private. You can, however, use the base-class's getB method which is public (and hence can be called anywhere).
To allow only extending classes and other classes in your package to access the field, you can declare it as protected.
class A {
private int n;
public A(int n) { this.n = n; }
public int n() { return n; }
}
class B extends A {
public B(int n) { super(n); }
public void print() { System.out.println(n); } // oops! n is private
}
class A {
protected int n;
public A(int n) { this.n = n; }
public int n() { return n; }
}
class B extends A {
public B(int n) { super(n); }
public void print() { System.out.println(n); } // ok
}
The private modifier means that you can't reference that field outside the class. Because getB() is public, however, you can reference that method. The getB() method can reference the private b field, because it's inside the class, and therefore can access it.
Private variable means that you can't access directly the variable from its class.... Declaring that variable private means that you can't do this
Myclass.myprivatevariable = 3
This will throw a compile error complaining that myprivatevariable is not visible fro the outside
But, as you did.... Declaring an internal method as getter or setter, public, you are allowing the user, only just through that method, to access indirectly that variable... That is always the preferred way to do.

Java: Parent Methods accessing Subclasses' static variables?

I am trying to understand my way around polymorphism in Java. I created a parent class that has too many common methods that all children will use in the same manner.
Each of the subclasses' children all share static information, These variables or information will be used in the methods declared only in the parent.
The problem wish accessing static variables from Parent methods seems not really possible,
Its a solution to declare the common information per instance but since there will be 1000s of instances its such a waste of memory.
A simple elaboration of what i mean is the following code :
class testParent {
static int k;
public void print()
{
System.out.println(k);
}
}
class testChild2 extends testParent
{
static
{
testChild2.k =2;
}
}
public class testChild1 extends testParent{
static
{
testChild1.k = 1;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
new testChild1().print();
new testChild2().print();
new testChild1().print();
}
}
the output i expect was
1
2
1.
but what happens is :
1
2
2
One might think that on the initiation of each subclass the static variables of this subclass is set and then all methods referring to this subclass has access to the corresponding 'k' value.
But what actually happens is that all subclasses edit in the same static variable that is shared along all subclasses and hence destroys my whole point of using static variables for each subclass and its instances and using commmon methods in the Parent accessing these variables.
Any idea how can this be done ?
An option is to access the subclasses' static data through an abstract (non-static) method:
abstract public class Parent {
protected abstract int getK();
public void print() {
System.out.println(getK());
}
}
public class Child1 extends Parent {
private static final int CHILD1_K = 1;
protected int getK() { return CHILD1_K; }
}
public class Child2 extends Parent {
private static final int CHILD2_K = 2;
protected int getK() { return CHILD2_K; }
}
When you make new testChild2().print(); the static block on testChield2 was executed and change the value to 2.
static blocks only execute once when loaded by the ClassLoader.
This one give the output you want:
class testParent {
static int k;
public void print()
{
System.out.println(k);
}
}
class testChild2 extends testParent
{
{
testChild2.k =2;
}
}
public class testChild1 extends testParent{
{
testChild1.k = 1;
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
new testChild1().print();
new testChild2().print();
new testChild1().print();
}
}
Non static code blocks execute everytime the class is instanciated.
Premature optimization is the root of all evil. I don't think you'll run into any memory issues with thousands of instances, each with their own data, unless you're working on a tiny embedded system of some kind. Static variables are not intended to do what you're trying to do with them.
Static variables are specific to the class itself. If you want the same field in different instances of a class to have different values, then that field cannot be static.
The solution: don't make k static.
class testParent {
int k;
public void print()
{
System.out.println(k);
}
}
class testChild2 extends testParent
{
{
this.k =2;
}
}
class testChild1 extends testParent{
{
this.k = 1;
}
public static void main(String[] args){
new testChild1().print();
new testChild2().print();
new testChild1().print();
}
}
Demo
(ignore the static class business - that's just to make it work in ideone).

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