Which members are not inherited in a child class?

Question

I'm trying to answer the following question:

A child class would not inherit certain members of the parent class. Name three such members.

I know private members are not inherited to child classes and default members are not inherited outside of the package. Can anyone complete the answer?

Edited:- I believe that static members are inherited according to below demonstration

public class sup {
    public static void main(String agr[]){
    }

    protected static int staticInt=0;
    protected final int finalInt=3;
    protected int protectedInt=0;
    public String publicString = "";
    private int privateInt=8;
}

class sub extends sup{
    public void del(){
        staticInt=1;
        staticInt=finalInt;
    }
}

user2758757 · Answer 1 · 2014-04-16T08:33:40.633

6

from JLS for Class Member

Constructors, static initializers, and instance initializers are not members and therefore are not inherited.

edited Apr 16 '14 at 08:33

answered Apr 16 '14 at 08:27

user2758757

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Ding ding ding! Finally, the correct answer and from the JLS too :-) – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:28
1

@Duncan o darn! :) this is indeed the *fully* correct answer. how did i miss that... +1 – Eugene Apr 16 '14 at 08:35

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

3

from Oracle Java Documentation for Inheritance :

A subclass inherits all the members (fields, methods, and nested classes) from its superclass. Constructors are not members, so they are not inherited by subclasses, but the constructor of the superclass can be invoked from the subclass

So I think you're missing constructors here . Static Methods and fields are not inherited too, when they are rewritten in subclasses, they just reuse the signature and hide the implementation of the method/field in the parent class.

For Inheritance of static fields and methods, refer to this discussion as steted by Duncan, and this great tutorial Overriding vs Hiding

edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

Community

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answered Apr 16 '14 at 08:16

mounaim

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See this discussion too: [Are static methods inherited in Java?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10291949/are-static-methods-inherited-in-java). This disagrees with your final paragraph. – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:27
@Duncan Thank you man !! I've just discovered the difference between Overriden and Hidden :) – mounaim Apr 16 '14 at 08:42

Eugene · Answer 3 · 2018-04-23T08:01:47.853

1

Constructors and static initializers and instance initializers.

edited Apr 23 '18 at 08:01

answered Apr 16 '14 at 08:07

Eugene

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Can you explain why static members are not inherited? I guess it's a terminology thing, there are some subtle differences between static and instance methods as discussed here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/IandI/override.html – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:13
static members are inherit. I test it using sample program – Roledenez Apr 16 '14 at 08:13
Are you talking about visibility ? inheritance and visibility are two different things. static members may visible but can't override them. – niiraj874u Apr 16 '14 at 08:15
@Eugene I'm still not convinced that you can say static methods aren't inherited. Do you have any sources to cite where that is explicitly stated? – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:20
@Duncan I don't get it. The tutorial clearly says that static methods are not inherited and they do *hide*. I don't think that's a JLS thing.. – Eugene Apr 16 '14 at 08:24
@Eugene There is no statement that I've seen that says "static methods are not inherited". I think you may be mistaken - see this question for example: [Are static methods inherited in Java?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10291949/are-static-methods-in-java) and also [mounaim's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/23103694/474189). – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:26
@Duncan no, I'm not. I'm just saying that since they say that static methods hide the one in the superclass, it must mean that it is not inherited. I do agree that this is not stated per se; but it is auto-implied, at least for me. – Eugene Apr 16 '14 at 08:32
@Eugene You seem to be thinking that inheritance is synonymous with the ability to override. I don't think that's correct. – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:34
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@Eugene See example 8.2-3 from the JLS (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-8.html#jls-8.2). This states that the static field is inherited. – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:38

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 16 '14 at 09:40

None-Answer to make a case for terms usage.

Members which are visible in the child class is answered above. Members being both fields and methods (each having its own namespace).

Inheritance as being part of the child instance, is another question: also invisible private members are "inherited" as such. Static members are part of the class instance and are not inherited (cannot be overriden too). All final methods cannot be overriden.

Arguable constructors are not inherited; you have to define the same signature again in a new child constructor.

Other declarations in a class could be class definitions. There the keyword static has a different meaning, and one may make obvious statements on visibility/inheritance. For instance with respect to non-static inner classes, which have an <outer-class>.this (recursive notion).

user3375823 · Answer 5 · 2014-04-16T09:25:46.790

0

you can't inherit a private field,and constructor. you can't inherit a constructor because they are not member of super class. you can invoke a super class constructor form it's sub class. and you can also access a private member of super class can be accessed through public or protected method of super classes.

edited Apr 16 '14 at 09:25

answered Apr 16 '14 at 08:47

user3375823

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-1 Static members are inherited. See discussions under the other answers. – Duncan Jones Apr 16 '14 at 08:48

Which members are not inherited in a child class?

5 Answers5