Question

I am a noob and I need some help.

So I have this abstract class with a private variable. I also have a method named getThing() to return that.

I have a class that extends that abstract class, and it too has a private variable and a method that overrides the original to get the value from the abstract class.

Well the only way to be able to access both values is by creating a second method in the subclass called getSuperThing, and using the super in that. Well I was just wondering out of curiosity if there was some easier way to do that and be able to access the abstract classes method by doing something like objectNae.super.getThing().

Thanks 😉

Answer 1

The variable is private and so can only be referenced by the containing (abstract) class. As you have stated, from a subclass, you can invoke the superclass method (rather than the overridden one).

If you want to make the variable accessible from the subclass directly (without requiring the accessor method), make it protected instead. Here is the documentation on Controlling Access to Members of a Class.