Inheritance: Access to base class fields from a subclass

Question

How sub class objects can reference the super class? For example:

public class ParentClass {

    public ParentClass() {}     // No-arg constructor.

    protected String strField;
    private int intField;
    private byte byteField;
} 


public class ChildClass extends ParentClass{

    // It should have the parent fields.
}

Here when the ChildClass constructor is called, an object of type ParentClass is created, right?

ChildClass inherits strField from the ParentClass object, so it (ChildClass object) should have access to ParentClass object somehow, but how?

Answer 1

An instance of ChildClass does not have a ParentClass object, it is a ParentClass object. As a child class, it has access to public and protected attributes/methods in its parent class. So here ChildClass has access to strField, but not intField and byteField because they are private.

You can use it without any specific syntax.

Answer 2

When you do ChildClass childClassInstance = new ChildClass() only one new object is created.

You can see the ChildClass as an object defined by:

• fields from ChildClass + fields from ParentClass.

So the field strField is part of ChildClass and can be accessed through childClassInstance.strField

So your assumption that

when the ChildClass constructor is called, an object of type ParentClass is created

is not exactly right. The created ChildClass instance is ALSO a ParentClass instance, and it is the same object.