getIntent() mystery

[Matthew Vahedi]

Hi all,

Can you please explain how it is possible to call getIntent() method without using class name? I don't see any Static import or static method declaration!

Intent myIntent=getIntent();

Thank you.

[Tim Holloway]

getIntent() is a member function of the Activity class. When you invoke it, the current class instance is referenced to return the Intent that activated it.

The following code elements do exactly the same thing as your example:

Intent myIntent=this.getIntent();
Intent myIntent=super.getIntent();

The second example works because your Activity is a subclass of android.app.Activity and it's that parent class that actually implements the getIntent() method. The first example is based on the idea that:

/**
 * Return invoking Intent. Bounces the request up to the parent class's getIntent() method.
 * @return results of super.getIntent();
*/
@Override
public Intent getIntent() {
   return super.getIntent();
}

is implicitly defined by Java's inheritance mechanism. Assuming you don't override it with some other functionality, anyway!