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Method selection

June 15, 2013

1–2 minutes

This table shows which methods will be selected when called them on a reference.

	eat()	sleep()	meow()	dies()
Animal reference to Animal object	Animal	Animal	Not possible as method does not exist in Animal	Animal
Cat reference to Cat object	Cat	Cat	Cat	Animal
Animal reference to Cat object	Cat	Cat	Not possible as method does not exist in Animal	Animal
Cat reference to Animal object. *

* A Cat reference cannot refer to an Animal object.

Animal: eat, sleep, dies.
Cat: eat, sleep, meow.

Notes:

The overridden method on the subclass object will be called even if the current reference is that of the parent type.
Regarding overridden methods its the object type that determines the method called, not the reference type.