"private" methods are implicitly "final"?

[Son Le]

Hi,
I apoligize for the previous posting of my question. As I read from "Think in Java", Bruce Eckel, private methods are implicitly final, meaning that the method cannot be overriden. I ran the following code using Metrowerks CodeWarrior, and it prints "Sub".

class Super
{
private void method()
{
System.out.print("Super");
}
}

class Sub extends Super
{
public void method()
{
System.out.println("Sub");
}
}

public class TrivialApplication
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
Sub s = new Sub();
s.method();

}
}

[John Wetherbie]

Private methods are not inherited by subclasses, so the method in Sub is not overriding the private method in Super. Please refer to section 8.4.6 of the Java Language Specification. Section 8.4.3.3 mentions of the JLS mentions that private methods are implicitly final.
One way to see this directly is to give the Super class a main method that does this:
Super s = new Sub();
s.method();
and see what prints out when you run that class.
John
[This message has been edited by John Wetherbie (edited January 15, 2001).]

[Son Le]

John,
Thanks for replying. I had found in another book that we can re-define a private method, and it's not related to overriding.
Tho