Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

Shape Hierarchy

Now consider the Shape inheritance hierarchy in Fig. 9.3. This hierarchy begins with superclass Shape, which is extended by subclasses TwoDimensionalShape and ThreeDimensionalShape—Shapes are either TwoDimensionalShapes or ThreeDimensionalShapes. The third level of this hierarchy contains specific types of TwoDimensionalShapes and ThreeDimensionalShapes. As in Fig. 9.2, we can follow the arrows from the bottom of the diagram to the topmost superclass in this class hierarchy to identify several is-a relationships. For example, a Triangle is a TwoDimensionalShape and is a Shape, while a Sphere is a ThreeDimensionalShape and is a Shape. This hierarchy could contain many other classes. For example, ellipses and trapezoids also are ...