Java: accessing grandparent's state

Question

I know in Java, especially when you do field hiding, you are able to access grandparent's state variables:

((Grandparent) this).hiddenField

Why is the same rationale not the case for method calls? you can call super.method(), why not other ancestor's as well?

I think you are looking for http://stackoverflow.com/questions/586363/why-is-super-super-method-not-allowed-in-java — j13r, Apr 14 '12 at 15:33

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 14 '12 at 15:40

1

Because methods are virtual, and fields are not. The goal was to call the same method regardless of the type of reference:

(Grandparent) this).method() always equals this.method().

answered Apr 14 '12 at 15:40

Alexei Kaigorodov

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 14 '12 at 15:41

There is no analog of field hiding for instance methods. Instance methods, unlike instance fields or static methods, are subject to dynamic dispatch and that's a whole different story. In a sense, an overridden method is just not "there" anymore, and the only exception is within the overriding method body, and there only the method being directly overridden.

Java: accessing grandparent's state

2 Answers2