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

Chapter Overview

First, we discuss common examples of polymorphism. We then provide a simple example demonstrating polymorphic behavior. We use superclass references to manipulate both superclass objects and subclass objects polymorphically.

We then present a case study that revisits the employee hierarchy of Section 9.4.5. We develop a simple payroll application that polymorphically calculates the weekly pay of several different types of employees using each employee’s earnings method. Though the earnings of each type of employee are calculated in a specific way, polymorphism allows us to process the employees “in the general.” In the case study, we enlarge the hierarchy to include two new classes—SalariedEmployee (for people paid a fixed weekly ...