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Stephanie Fu
1,939 PointsWhat's the point of overriding in this case?
I know there's a question already like this under this video, but I still don't understand. Why wouldn't we just create a new method that does what we want it to do instead of overriding an existing method? Does it really change how the code acts?
3 Answers
Craig Dennis
Treehouse TeacherHi Stephanie!
In this specific case, lets assume we wrote our own method named differentStringVersion we could definitely call this, but remember there is a toString method on every object so both methods would be present. How would users of your class know which one to choose?
toString overriding is common and people expect to be able to use that.
Did that help?
Jay Wellings
4,593 PointsI have stole this answer from stackoverflow (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14228520/why-is-method-overloading-and-overriding-needed-in-java) , but I think it answers your question nicely:
Overriding is a feature that is available while using Inheritance.
It is used when a class that extends from another class wants to use most of the feature of the parent class and wants to implement specific functionality in certain cases.
In such cases we can create methods with the same name and signature as in the parent class. This way the new method masks the parent method and would get invoked by default.
class Thought { public void message() { System.out.println("I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe."); } }
public class Advice extends Thought { @Override // @Override annotation in Java 5 is optional but helpful. public void message() { System.out.println("Warning: Dates in calendar are closer than they appear."); } }
Also read http://beginnersbook.com/2014/01/method-overriding-in-java-with-example/ for more details
Craig Dennis
Treehouse TeacherHi Stephanie!
In this specific case, lets assume we wrote our own method named differentStringVersion we could definitely call this, but remember there is a toString method on every object so both methods would be present. How would users of your class know which one to choose?
toString overriding is common and people expect to be able to use that.
Did that help?
Stephanie Fu
1,939 PointsStephanie Fu
1,939 PointsOk, so the reason we're overriding the toString method is so that there is no confusion over which method to use? In that case, when I want to create a method that is similar to (but a little different from) another premade method, should I always override it?