Question

Say, if I don’t call super.onPause in a override method from superclass Activity, I would get an error when onPause() is called. But errors don’t show up when I have no super.XXX calls in methods (onCreate, onStartCommand, …) of a class derived from Service.

So on what conditions should I call super.XXX in a override method?

Answer 1

The documentation tells you that you need to call onPause if you derive the Activity class:

Derived classes must call through to the super class’s implementation of this method. If they do not, an exception will be thrown.

The Service docs don’t require that in the onStartCommand documentation.

In general (not specifically in Android stuff), when you derive, you should call through to the superclass’s methods unless you know you shouldn’t. It’s a decision that needs to be case-by-case, but the default (I’d say) would be that you do it.