Casting objects in Java

Solution 1:

Have a look at this sample:

public class A {
  //statements
}

public class B extends A {
  public void foo() { }
}

A a=new B();

//To execute **foo()** method.

((B)a).foo();

Solution 2:

Say you have a superclass Fruit and the subclass Banana and you have a method addBananaToBasket()

The method will not accept grapes for example so you want to make sure that you're adding a banana to the basket.

So:

Fruit myFruit = new Banana();
((Banana)myFruit).addBananaToBasket(); ⇐ This is called casting

Solution 3:

The example you are referring to is called Upcasting in java.

It creates a subclass object with a super class variable pointing to it.

The variable does not change, it is still the variable of the super class but it is pointing to the object of subclass.

For example lets say you have two classes Machine and Camera ; Camera is a subclass of Machine

class Machine{

    public void start(){

        System.out.println("Machine Started");
    }
}

class Camera extends Machine{
     public void start(){

            System.out.println("Camera Started");
        }
     public void snap(){
         System.out.println("Photo taken");
     }
 }
Machine machine1 = new Camera();
machine1.start();

If you execute the above statements it will create an instance of Camera class with a reference of Machine class pointing to it.So, now the output will be "Camera Started" The variable is still a reference of Machine class. If you attempt machine1.snap(); the code will not compile

The takeaway here is all Cameras are Machines since Camera is a subclass of Machine but all Machines are not Cameras. So you can create an object of subclass and point it to a super class refrence but you cannot ask the super class reference to do all the functions of a subclass object( In our example machine1.snap() wont compile). The superclass reference has access to only the functions known to the superclass (In our example machine1.start()). You can not ask a machine reference to take a snap. :)

Solution 4:

Superclass variable = new subclass object();
This just creates an object of type subclass, but assigns it to the type superclass. All the subclasses' data is created etc, but the variable cannot access the subclasses data/functions. In other words, you cannot call any methods or access data specific to the subclass, you can only access the superclasses stuff.

However, you can cast Superclassvariable to the Subclass and use its methods/data.