Java Cookbook

Polymorphism/Abstract Methods

Problem

You want each of a number of methods in subclasses to provide its own version of a method.

Solution

Make the method abstract in the parent class; this makes the compiler ensure that each subclass implements it.

Discussion

A hypothetical drawing program uses a Shape subclass for anything that is drawn. Shape has an abstract method computeArea( ), which computes the exact area of the given shape:

public abstract class Shape {
    protected int x, y;
    public abstract double computeArea(  );
}

A Rectangle subclass, for example, has a computeArea( ) that multiplies width times height and returns the result:

public class Rectangle extends Shape {
    double width, height;
    public double computeArea(  ) {
        return width * height;
    }
}

A Circle subclass returns π x r

:public class Circle extends Shape {
    double radius;
    public double computeArea(  ) {
        return Math.PI * radius * radius;
    }
}

This system has a very high degree of generality. In the main program we can pass over a collection of Shape objects and -- here’s the real beauty -- call computeArea( ) on any Shape subclass object without having to worry about what kind of Shape it is. Java’s polymorphic methods automatically call the correct computeArea( ) method in the class of which the object was originally constructed:

/** Part of a main program using Shape objects */ public class Main { Collection allShapes; // created in a Constructor, not shown /** Iterate over all the Shapes, getting their areas */ public double totalAreas( ...