private and protected

[Shrinath M Aithal]

can a private method be overriden by a protected method?

I thought no.. because private method will not be visible to any subclasses..

[Henry Wong]

BTW, what happened when you tried it?

Henry

[Shrinath M Aithal]

Henry Wong wrote:BTW, what happened when you tried it?

Henry

i tried it like this :

class base {
       
        private int getW(){ return 1000;}
}
class Car extends base{
       
        protected  double getW() { return 100; } //even if i use double as return here, it didn't complain.. because it cant see base's getW()..
}
class weel extends Car{
       
        public double getW() { return 10; }
}
class test{
	public static void main(String [] arg)  {
		weel subaru=new weel();
		Car ferrari=new Car();
		System.out.println(subaru.getW());
		System.out.println(ferrari.getW());
	}

}

the question was from free mock test

the question asked if a private method could be overriden by a private method.. i said no.. the software said yes you can and there was no explanation why..

but according what I know, if a method is declared private, then the subclass wont know if it even exists.. tell me the software is wrong here or how am i not understanding the question..

[Henry Wong]

the question asked if a private method could be overriden by a private method.. i said no.. the software said yes you can and there was no explanation why..

It is valid to have a method (private, protected, or public), in a subclass, with the same signature of a private method of the superclass. However, it is technically not overriding, as any method calls from the superclass to the method will be calling the private method of the super class.

Henry

[Shrinath M Aithal]

Henry Wong wrote:However, it is technically not overriding, as any method calls from the superclass to the method will be calling the private method of the super class.

then i answered as no.. was i right or was i wrong ?

I thought I was right because it is not "overriding" the private method.. no one can override the private method then.. According the exact text in the question, the answer should have been "no".. right?

by the way, will there be such ambiguities in the "real exam" ?

[Chitta Ranjan Mahato]

hello friend
As far i understood your question i trying to reply you.

When you declare a method private in the base or parent class it is not visible in the derived or child class actually here you defining a totaly new method.There is no concept of overriding here.

i am explaining through a example

  
class Car
  {
     
      private String getColor()
       {
              return "Red";
        }
    }
public class Maruti extends Car
      {
            protected String getColor()
              {
                       return "Blue";
               }/*This is totally new method in class Maruti*/
}



  

[Shrinath M Aithal]

Chitta Ranjan Mahato wrote:
When you declare a method private in the base or parent class it is not visible in the derived or child class actually here you defining a totaly new method.There is no concept of overriding here.

thanks for helping we came to that conclusion already in earlier part of this thread..

[jeetendra Choudhary]

P.S This Is Called Redefining Not Overriding. Redefining is allowed.

Thanks & Regards
Jeetendra..!!

[Michael Angstadt]

Chitta Ranjan Mahato wrote:When you declare a method private in the base or parent class it is not visible in the derived or child class actually here you defining a totaly new method.There is no concept of overriding here.

The @Override annotation comes in handy here. This code gives a compile error:

class A{
  private void foo(){}
}
class B extends A{
  @Override //error: method does not override a method from its superclass
  public void foo(){}
}