Re: @Override

From:

Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:35:25 -0400

Message-ID:

<jukcik$t0m$1@dont-email.me>

On 7/23/2012 2:30 PM, bob smith wrote:

Is it really necessary to write @Override when you override or is this just "a good thing"?

     Two benefits of @Override appear to me, one from its presence
and one from its absence:

     - If you write @Override and then misspell the method name or
       mess up the parameter list, Java will say "Hey, wait: There's
       nothing in the superclass with this signature; what do you
       think you're doing?" And then you'll say "Oops!" and fix
       the problem, instead of wondering why your "overriding" method
       doesn't seem to work.

     - If you write a method and your IDE starts suggesting that you
       ought to tag it with @Override, you'll be alerted that you've
       overridden something you didn't intend to.[*]

     Two benefits; that's all I see. Hence, like indentation and
Javadoc comments, not "really necessary" ...

     [*] This actually happened to me earlier today. I was writing
a little Swing doodad to edit the "locations" of inventory items,
and I gave it a getLocation() method. NetBeans started clamoring
for @Override, and I realized that my doodad extended JPanel which
in turn extended JComponent, which already has a getLocation() ...
Time for "Facepalm!" and a quick name change.

--
Eric Sosman
esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid