Lesson 88

Polymorphism

PRESENTED BY

Keith Vassallo icemalta.com

Polymorphism via Class Inheritance
- Consider the following class diagram:
Storage

DatabaseStorage FileStorage

MySQLStorage XMLStorage

OracleStorage JSONStorage

- Each of the subclasses can fulfil the requirements of the parent.

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- Hence, for example, OracleStorage can polymorphically act as both
DatabaseStorage and Storage.
Polymorphism via Implementing
Interfaces
- Any class implementing an interface must implement the methods
specified in the interface.
- So, classes can polymorphically fulfil the needs of the interface they are
implementing.
<<Interface>>

Printable

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XMLDocument TrainTicket
Polymorphism in Code
Consider the following class diagram and code.

Animal Dog d = new Dog(); The object will

only have
+ weight: double Mammal m = new Dog();
+ age: double
Animal a = new Dog();
+ breathe(): void
+ reproduce(): void methods
//Dog has methods from all the hierarchy available to its
d.bark(); specified type
Mammal d.giveLiveBirth();
+ furLength: double
+ rearYoung(): void d.breathe(); and superclasses.
+ giveLiveBirth(): void
//Mammal only has methods from itself and its parents
m.giveLiveBirth();
Dog m.breathe();

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+ pedigree: String
+ bark(): void
+ wagTail(): void //Animal only has methods from itself
a.breathe();
Generic Methods
- The use of Polymorphism allows us to write very generic methods.
- Let’s take two very different classes - a DatabaseConnector, and a Cow!

public interface Describeable {
String getTitle();
String getDescription();
} private String password;
public class DatabaseConnector implements Describeable { public class Cow implements Describeable {
private String host; private String name;
private String username; private int age;
private String farm;
private boolean connected = false;
public Cow(String name, int age, String farm) {
public DatabaseConnector(String host, String username, String password) { this.name = name;
this.host = host; this.age = age;
this.username = username; this.farm = farm;
this.password = password; }
connected = true;
} @Override
public String getTitle() {
@Override return name + " the cow";
public String getTitle() { }
String status = connected == true ? "Online" : "Offline";

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return host + " " + status; @Override
} public String getDescription() {
return name + " is a " + age + " year old cow living on " + farm;
@Override }
public String getDescription() { }
return host + ": " + username + " " + password;
}
}
Generic Methods
Since both classes implement the same interface, and that interface has the
getTitle() and getDescription() methods, we can ensure that both classes also
have those methods.
public class SomeClass {
public static void main(String[] args) {
SomeClass m = new SomeClass();
Cow betsy = new Cow("Betsy", 4, "Primrose Farm");
DatabaseConnector dbc = new DatabaseConnector("localhost", "root", "password");
m.describe(betsy);
m.describe(dbc);

public void describe(Describeable d) { Generic method

System.out.println(d.getTitle());

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System.out.println(d.getDescription());
}
}
Great work, you’ve completed this lesson!

Next up: Homework 10: A Fully

Object-Oriented Application.

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