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Asked: 2026-05-11T14:27:14+00:00

I was wondering if there’s a language feature in Java in which methods of

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I was wondering if there’s a language feature in Java in which methods of a superclass would be invisible for members of a subclass:

 public class Subclass extends protected Superclass

or something. I’ll give an example.

Here is your superclass.

public class A{     public String getA(){...}     public String getB(){...}     public String getC(){...}     public void setA(String a){...}     public void setB(String b){...}     public void setC(String c){...} }

If you want to subclass A while protecting some of its methods, and you can’t change access modifyers in methods unless you override them, you’d end up with something like this-

public class B extends A{     private String getA(){return super.getA();}     private String getB(){return super.getB();}//These four methods have     private void setA(String a){super.setA(a);}//to be redeclared.     private void setB(String b){super.setB(b);}      public String getC(){return super.getC();}//These two methods can be     public void setC(String c){super.setC(c);}//removed.     public String getD(){...}     public void setD(String d){...} }

Either that or you can keep a private instance of A and have something like this:

public class B{      private A obj;      private String getA(){return obj.getA();}     private String getB(){return obj.getB();}//These four methods can also     private void setA(String a){obj.setA(a);}//be removed.     private void setB(String b){obj.setB(b);}      public String getC(){return obj.getC();}//These two methods are     public void setC(String c){obj.setC(c);}//redeclared.     public String getD(){...}     public void setD(String d){...} }

Can you have something that takes both in a way that you don’t have to redeclare any methods?

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1 Answer

  1. There is no ‘non-public’ inheritance in Java, unlike the situation in C++.

    Inheritance creates a subtyping relation. Any instance of B is also an instance of A, and should respond to the same messages. If instances of B clearly don’t respond to all messages that instances of A respond to, then inheritance would be inappropriate anyway.

    Your last solution (B does not inherit from A) is the appropriate one: you don’t create a subtyping relation, just use one type to (secretly) implement the other.

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