Java – Overriding a super class’s instance variables

inheritancejava

Why are we not able to override an instance variable of a super class in a subclass?

Best Solution

He perhaps meant to try and override the value used to initialize the variable. For example,

Instead of this (which is illegal)

public abstract class A {
    String help = "**no help defined -- somebody should change that***";
    // ...
}
// ...
public class B extends A {
    // ILLEGAL
    @Override
    String help = "some fancy help message for B";
    // ...
}

One should do

public abstract class A {
    public String getHelp() {
        return "**no help defined -- somebody should change that***";
    }
    // ...
}
// ...
public class B extends A {
    @Override
    public String getHelp() {
        return "some fancy help message for B";
    // ...
}

Related Solutions

C++ – What are the rules for calling the base class constructor

Base class constructors are automatically called for you if they have no argument. If you want to call a superclass constructor with an argument, you must use the subclass's constructor initialization list. Unlike Java, C++ supports multiple inheritance (for better or worse), so the base class must be referred to by name, rather than "super()".

class SuperClass
{
    public:

        SuperClass(int foo)
        {
            // do something with foo
        }
};

class SubClass : public SuperClass
{
    public:

        SubClass(int foo, int bar)
        : SuperClass(foo)    // Call the superclass constructor in the subclass' initialization list.
        {
            // do something with bar
        }
};

More info on the constructor's initialization list here and here.

Java – How to call one constructor from another in Java

Yes, it is possible:

public class Foo {
    private int x;

    public Foo() {
        this(1);
    }

    public Foo(int x) {
        this.x = x;
    }
}

To chain to a particular superclass constructor instead of one in the same class, use super instead of this. Note that you can only chain to one constructor, and it has to be the first statement in your constructor body.

See also this related question, which is about C# but where the same principles apply.