Re: final methods and classes

From:
Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.spamfilter@virtualinfinity.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:19:52 -0700
Message-ID:
<KYNAm.257466$0e4.138896@newsfe19.iad>
Lionel van den Berg wrote:

Hi all,

Just wondering what arguments there are out there for making methods
and classes final when they are not expected to be overridden/
extended? Typically I would make them final, but when I'm doing code
reviews I don't raise this as an issue because I see it is relatively
trivial.

Thoughts?

I don't always make classes final, even if they "could" or "should" be.

I usually make classes or methods final when I expect there to be
threading concerns. For isntance if you make an immutable and final
class, you can be sure that all instances of the class are immutable. If
it is *not* final, then subclasses could add mutable state.

Final classes also encourage composition over inheritance ;-)

One thing I try to suggest is: If you make several protected methods
which you intend to be overwritten, consider the strategy pattern
instead, it ends up being more flexible most of the time, allowing you
to mix and match behaviors simply by changing the configuration.

P.S. pretty hard to filter through the crap on this group now :(.

Agreed.

--
Daniel Pitts' Tech Blog: <http://virtualinfinity.net/wordpress/>

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