Re: Polymorphism in Java SE?
Stefan Ram wrote:
For teaching purposes, I'd like to know a Java-SE method
that returns an object whose class is only known at runtime
and can be shown to have at least two possibly values by
running a small program.
Here's my entry. I make some Swing components, then print out their
actual type. Swing makes heavy use of polymorphism, and does so for
good reasons. It's overall an excellent case study for students.
First I make a simple JOptionDialog. Then I print out all of the types
that it contains. The method which returns the components says they
should be all of type Component, but actually their all different,
descendant types.
You'll need to fix up the line breaks a bit. Output follows.
package polymorphism;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Container;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
/** Check the insides of a JFileChooser.
* <p>
* This will demonstrate the use of polymorphism in Java.
*/
public class PolyCheck {
/** Called from the command line.
*
* @param args the command line arguments are igonred.
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO code application logic here
final JOptionPane optionPane = new JOptionPane(
"The only way to close this dialog is by\n" +
"pressing one of the following buttons.\n" +
"Do you understand?",
JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE,
JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION);
// First polymorphism: optionPane is a JOptionPane but we can
// treat
// it like a Container.
printComponents(optionPane, 0);
}
public static void printComponents(Container cont, int offset) {
Component[] comps = cont.getComponents();
// comps should be all Components, but let's see what they
// really are.
for (Component c : comps) {
System.out.println( repeat( " ",offset*4
)+c.getClass().getName());
if( c instanceof Container ) {
printComponents( (Container)c, offset+1 );
}
}
}
public static String repeat( String s, int times ) {
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
for( int i = 0; i < times; i++ ) {
sb.append( s );
}
return sb.toString();
}
}
---------------------
Output:
javax.swing.JPanel
javax.swing.JPanel
javax.swing.JPanel
javax.swing.JPanel
javax.swing.JLabel
javax.swing.JLabel
javax.swing.JLabel
javax.swing.JLabel
javax.swing.JPanel
javax.swing.JButton
javax.swing.JButton