Guide to Inheritance

Inheritance in java (IS-A relationship) is referred to the ability where child objects inherit or acquire all the properties and behaviors from parent object. In object oriented programming, inheritance is used to promote the code re-usability.

In this Java tutorial, we will learn about inheritance types supported in Java and how inheritance is achieved in Java applications.

Table of Contents

1. What is inheritance
2. Types of Inheritance in Java
    - 2.1. Single Inheritance
    - 2.2. Multilevel Inheritance
    - 2.3. Hierarchical Inheritance
    - 2.4. Multiple inheritance
3. Accessing Inherited Super Class Members
    - 3.1. Constructors
    - 3.2. Fields
    - 3.3. Methods
4. Summary

1. What is inheritance in Java

As said before, inheritance is all about inheriting the common state and behavior of parent class (super class) by it’s derived class (sub class or child class). A sub class can inherit all non-private members from super class, by default.

In java, extends keyword is used for inheritance between classes. let’s see a quick inheritance example.

1.1. Java inheritance example

Let’s say we have Employee class. Employee class has all common attributes and methods which all employees must have within organization. There can be other specialized employees as well e.g. Manager. Managers are regular employees of organization but, additionally, they have few more attributes over other employees e.g. they have reportees or subordinates.

Let’s design above classes.

public class Employee 
{   
    private Long id;
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;
    
    public Long getId() {
        return id;
    }
    public void setId(Long id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }
    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }
    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }
    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }
    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Employee [id=" + id + ", firstName=" + firstName + ", lastName=" + lastName + "]";
    }
}

import java.util.List;

public class Manager extends Employee 
{
    private List<Employee> subordinates;

    public List<Employee> getSubordinates() {
        return subordinates;
    }

    public void setSubordinates(List<Employee> subordinates) {
        this.subordinates = subordinates;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Manager [subordinates=" + subordinates + ", details=" + super.toString() + "]";
    }
}

In above implementation, employees have common attributes like id, firstName and lastName; while manager has it’s specialized subordinates attribute only. To inherit all non-private members from Employee class (in this case getter and setter methods), Manager extends Employee is used.

Let’s see how it works?

public class Main 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        Manager mgr = new Manager();

        mgr.setId(1L);
        mgr.setFirstName("Lokesh");
        mgr.setLastName("Gupta");
        
        System.out.println(mgr);
    }
}

Program Output.

Manager [subordinates=null, details=Employee [id=1, firstName=Lokesh, lastName=Gupta]]

Clearly, Manager class is able to use members of Employee class. This very behavior is called inheritance. Simple, isn’t it?

Now consider if we do not use inheritance. Then we would have defined id, firstName and lastName in both classes. It would have caused code duplication which always create problems in code maintenance.

2. Types of inheritance in Java

In Java, inheritance can be one of four types – depending on classes hierarchy. Let’s learn about all four types of inheritances.

2.1. Single inheritance

This one is simple. There is one Parent class and one Child class. One child class extends one parent class. It’s single inheritance. The above example code (employee and manager) is example of single inheritance.

2.2. Multi-level inheritance

In multilevel inheritance, there will be inheritance between more than three classes in such a way that a child class will act as parent class for another child class. Let’s understand with a diagram.

In above example, Class B extends class A, so class B is child class of class A. But C extends B, so B is parent class of C. So B is parent class as well as child class also.

2.3. Hierarchical inheritance

In hierarchical inheritance, there is one super class and more than one sub classes extend the super class.

These subclasses B, C, D will share the common members inherited from A, but they will not be aware of members from each other.

2.4. Multiple inheritance

In multiple inheritance, a class can inherit the behavior from more than one parent classes as well. Let’s understand with diagram.

In diagram, D is extending class A and B, both. In this way, D can inherit the non-private members of both the classes.

BUT, in java, you cannot use extends keyword with two classes. So, how multiple inheritance will work?

Till JDK 1.7, multiple inheritance was not possible in java. But from JDK 1.8 onwards, multiple inheritance is possible via use of interfaces with default methods.

3. Accessing inherited parent class members

Now we know that using four types of inheritance mechanisms, we can access non-private members of parent classes. Let’s see how individual member can be accessed.

3.1. Parent class constructors

Constructors of super class can be called via super keyword. There are only two rules:

1. super() call must be made from child class constructor.
2. super() call must be first statement inside constructor.

public class Manager extends Employee 
{
    public Manager() 
    {
        //This must be first statement inside constructor
        super();
        
        //Other code after super class
    }
}

3.2. Parent class fields

In java, non-private member fields can be inherited in child class. You can access them using dot operator e.g. manager.id. Here id attribute is inherited from parent class Employee.

You need to be careful when dealing with fields with same name in parent and child class. Remember that java fields cannot be overridden. Having same name field will hide the field from parent class – while accessing via child class.

In this case, attribute accessed will be decided based on the class of reference type.

ReferenceClass variable = new ActualClass();

In above case, member field will be accessed from ReferenceClass. e.g.

//Parent class
public class Employee 
{   
    public Long id = 10L;
}

//Child class
public class Manager extends Employee 
{
    public Long id = 20L;   //same name field
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        Employee manager = new Manager();
        System.out.println(manager.id);     //Reference of type Employee
        
        Manager mgr = new Manager();
        System.out.println(mgr.id);     //Reference of type Manager
    }
}

Output:

10
20

3.3. Parent class methods

Opposite to field access, method access uses the type of actual object created in runtime.

java]ReferenceClass variable = new ActualClass();[/java]

In above case, member method will be accessed from ActualClass. e.g.

public class Employee 
{   
    private Long id = 10L;
    
    public Long getId() {
        return id;
    }
}

public class Manager extends Employee 
{
    private Long id = 20L;

    public Long getId() {
        return id;
    }
}

public class Main 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        Employee employee = new Employee();     //Actual object is Employee Type
        System.out.println(employee.getId());
        
        Employee manager = new Manager();       //Actual object is Manager Type
        System.out.println(manager.getId());
        
        Manager mgr = new Manager();       //Actual object is Manager Type
        System.out.println(mgr.getId());
    }
}

Output:

10
20
20

4. Summary

Let’s summarize what we learned about java inheritance:

• Inheritance is also known IS-A relationship.
• It provides child class the ability to inherit non-private members of parent class.
• In java, inheritance is achieved via extends keyword.
• From Java 8 onward, you can use interfaces with default methods to achieve multiple inheritance.
• Member fields are accessed from reference type class.
• Member methods are accessed from actual instance types.

Drop me any question, you might have, in comments section.

Happy Learning !!