Re: How to obtain the subclass name from superclass?

From:

Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:45:32 -0400

Message-ID:

<JOudnU6UrLgx_oranZ2dnUVZ_q-jnZ2d@comcast.com>

Thomas Fritsch wrote:

Write this method in class Animal:
  public void printOut()
  {
    System.out.println(getClass().getName() + " is cute!");
  }

www wrote:

Thank you. It works great in my program.

... override ...

Well, you just needed a to use a different override. Thomas showed you how to
use the override of getClass() to do what you wanted.

The technique of having a superclass method invoke another, overridden method
is frequently used. In this case, printOut() is not being overridden (and
should therefore be marked 'final'), but delegates subclass-specific action to
getClass().

A data access object (DAO)-layer superclass might do something similar. A
final superclass "retrieve()" might delegate to a subclass "getSql()" to
populate a PreparedStatement. The retrieve pattern will be more or less the
same for all subclasses: getSql(), substitute parameters, executeQuery(),
transfer results to a non-JDBC collection. The final superclass method will
direct all the overridable (possibly even abstract) methods in the correct
sequence; each overridden helper method like getSql() will do the right thing
for the subclass.

--
Lew