Re: [newbe] casting at run time

From:
"polilop" <fmatosicSKINI@inet.hr>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:53:27 +0100
Message-ID:
<eofmfa$mbq$1@ss408.t-com.hr>
"Lew" <lew@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:q9mdnc6O7a8ctDTYnZ2dnUVZ_v2nnZ2d@comcast.com...

Please do not top post.

polilop wrote:

Sorry for me being hasty, here is the real code
public class UsersVo implements J2EEVo
{
  private String USERNAME;
 private String FAMILYNAME;
 private boolean success;

.. a class constructor and set get methods
}
public class ReportVo implements J2EEVo
{
  private String HEADER;
 private String FOOTER;
 private boolean success;

.. add class constructor and set get methods
}


By convention, non-constant variable (and method) names should begin with
a lower-case letter and use camel case. All-upper-case names are reserved
for static final variables used as class constants.

public class ResultsetToVo {

 public J2EEVo fillVo(J2EEVo uvo,ResultSet rs) throws SQLException
 {
    if(uvo instanceof UsersVo) {
     uvo = (UsersVo)uvo;
    }
    else if(uvo instanceof ReportVo )
   {
        uvo=(ReportVo)uvo;
   }
  }


The downcasts accomplish exactly nothing. The declared type of uvo will
not change, and it already knows its own runtime type.

To answer Tom Hawtin: I am aware of instanceof, but is there another way
to cast the uvo at run time, so that i don't have to add a new if (uvo
insanceof someVo), every time a write a new J2EEVo that needs to use
ResultsetToVo. Something like (just a thought):


You might need to rethink the design of fillVo(). Declaring it to take
J2EEVo arguments implies that it is only interested in the interface
behaviors. The downcasts tell us that that is a lie, the method really
does care about the implementation type (aside from the fact that you
throw away the result of the downcast in your code). You shouldn't take
both points of view in the same code.

You might consider making fillVo() part of the interface, naturally
without the "uvo" argument. Each overriding class will implement fillVo()
knowing full well that the implementing type is itself. This is
"polypmorphism", which is a key concept to good (object-oriented) design.

A hint that this applies is your explicit use of the uvo argument in
fill...(), which would be the implicit "this" argument in an instance
method.

Study the idea. You will end up with something similar to:

public interface J2EEVo {
 public boolean isSuccess();
 public void setSuccess(boolean success);
 public void fill( ResultSet rs );
}

- Lew

sorry

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