Q & A OOP

Q: What are the principle concepts of OOPS?

A: There are four principle concepts upon which object oriented design and
programming rest. They are:

 Abstraction
 Polymorphism
 Inheritance
 Encapsulation

(i.e. easily remembered as A-PIE).

Q: What is Abstraction?
A: Abstraction refers to the act of representing essential features without including
the background details or explanations.
Q: What is Encapsulation?
A: Encapsulation is a technique used for hiding the properties and behaviors of an
object and allowing outside access only as appropriate. It prevents other objects
from directly altering or accessing the properties or methods of the encapsulated
object.
Q: What is the difference between abstraction and encapsulation?
A:  Abstraction focuses on the outside view of an object (i.e. the interface)
Encapsulation (information hiding) prevents clients from seeing it�s inside view,
where the behavior of the abstraction is implemented.
 Abstraction solves the problem in the design side while Encapsulation is the
Implementation.
 Encapsulation is the deliverables of Abstraction. Encapsulation barely talks
about grouping up your abstraction to suit the developer needs.
Q: What is Inheritance?
A: Inheritance is the process by which objects of one class acquire the properties of
objects of another class.
 Inheritance is the process by which objects of one class acquire the properties
of objects of another class.
 A class that is inherited is called a superclass.
 The class that does the inheriting is called a subclass.
 Inheritance is done by using the keyword extends.
 The two most common reasons to use inheritance are:

 To promote code reuse

 To use polymorphism

Q: What is Polymorphism?
A: Polymorphism is briefly described as "one interface, many implementations."
Polymorphism is a characteristic of being able to assign a different meaning or
usage to something in different contexts - specifically, to allow an entity such as a
variable, a function, or an object to have more than one form.
Q: How does Java implement polymorphism?
A: (Inheritance, Overloading and Overriding are used to achieve Polymorphism in
java). Polymorphism manifests itself in Java in the form of multiple methods
having the same name.

 In some cases, multiple methods have the same name, but different formal
argument lists (overloaded methods).
 In other cases, multiple methods have the same name, same return type,
and same formal argument list (overridden methods).

Q: Explain the different forms of Polymorphism.

A: There are two types of polymorphism one is Compile time polymorphism and the
other is run time polymorphism. Compile time polymorphism is method
overloading. Runtime time polymorphism is done using inheritance and
interface. Note: From a practical programming viewpoint, polymorphism manifests
itself in three distinct forms in Java:

 Method overloading
 Method overriding through inheritance
 Method overriding through the Java interface

Q: What is runtime polymorphism or dynamic method dispatch?

A: In Java, runtime polymorphism or dynamic method dispatch is a process in which
a call to an overridden method is resolved at runtime rather than at compile-time.
In this process, an overridden method is called through the reference variable of a
superclass. The determination of the method to be called is based on the object
being referred to by the reference variable.
Q: What is Dynamic Binding?
A: Binding refers to the linking of a procedure call to the code to be executed in
response to the call. Dynamic binding (also known as late binding) means that the
code associated with a given procedure call is not known until the time of the call
at run-time. It is associated with polymorphism and inheritance.
Q: What is method overloading?
A: Method Overloading means to have two or more methods with same name in the
same class with different arguments. The benefit of method overloading is that it
allows you to implement methods that support the same semantic operation but
differ by argument number or type.
Note:

 Overloaded methods MUST change the argument list

 Overloaded methods CAN change the return type
 Overloaded methods CAN change the access modifier
 Overloaded methods CAN declare new or broader checked exceptions
 A method can be overloaded in the same class or in a subclass

Q: What is method overriding?

A: Method overriding occurs when sub class declares a method that has the same
type arguments as a method declared by one of its superclass. The key benefit of
overriding is the ability to define behavior that�s specific to a particular subclass
type.
Note:

 The overriding method cannot have a more restrictive access modifier than
the method being overridden (Ex: You can�t override a method marked
public and make it protected).
 You cannot override a method marked final
 You cannot override a method marked static

Q: Can overloaded methods be override too?

A: Yes, derived classes still can override the overloaded methods. Polymorphism can
still happen. Compiler will not binding the method calls since it is overloaded,
because it might be overridden now or in the future.
Q: Is it possible to override the main method?
A: NO, because main is a static method. A static method can't be overridden in Java.
Q: How to invoke a superclass version of an Overridden method?
A: To invoke a superclass method that has been overridden in a subclass, you must
either call the method directly through a superclass instance, or use the super
prefix in the subclass itself. From the point of the view of the subclass, the super
prefix provides an explicit reference to the superclass' implementation of the
method.
// From subclass
super.overriddenMethod();

Q: What is super?
A: super is a keyword which is used to access the method or member variables from
the superclass. If a method hides one of the member variables in its superclass,
the method can refer to the hidden variable through the use of the super keyword.
In the same way, if a method overrides one of the methods in its superclass, the
method can invoke the overridden method through the use of the super keyword.
Note:

 You can only go back one level.

 In the constructor, if you use super(), it must be the very first code, and you
cannot access any this.xxx variables or methods to compute its
parameters.

Q: How do you prevent a method from being overridden?

A: To prevent a specific method from being overridden in a subclass, use the final
modifier on the method declaration, which means "this is the final implementation
of this method", the end of its inheritance hierarchy.
 public final void exampleMethod() {
// Method statements
}

Q: What is Constructor?
A:  A constructor is a special method whose task is to initialize the object of its
class.
 It is special because its name is the same as the class name.
 They do not have return types, not even void and therefore they cannot
return values.
 They cannot be inherited, though a derived class can call the base class
constructor.
 Constructor is invoked whenever an object of its associated class is
created.

Q: How does the Java default constructor be provided?

A: If a class defined by the code does not have any constructor, compiler will
automatically provide one no-parameter-constructor (default-constructor) for the
class in the byte code. The access modifier (public/private/etc.) of the default
constructor is the same as the class itself.
Q: Can constructor be inherited?
A: No, constructor cannot be inherited, though a derived class can call the base class
constructor.
Q: How are this() and super() used with constructors?
A:  Constructors use this to refer to another constructor in the same class with
a different parameter list.
 Constructors use super to invoke the superclass's constructor. If a
constructor uses super, it must use it in the first line; otherwise, the
compiler will complain.

Q: What are Access Specifiers available in Java?

A:  Public- public classes, methods, and fields can be accessed from
everywhere.
 Protected- protected methods and fields can only be accessed within the
same class to which the methods and fields belong, within its subclasses,
and within classes of the same package.
 Default(no specifier)- If you do not set access to specific level, then such
a class, method, or field will be accessible from inside the same package to
which the class, method, or field belongs, but not from outside this
package.
 Private- private methods and fields can only be accessed within the same
class to which the methods and fields belong. private methods and fields
are not visible within subclasses and are not inherited by subclasses.

Q: What is final modifier?

A:  final Classes- A final class cannot have subclasses.
 final Variables- A final variable cannot be changed once it is initialized.
 final Methods- A final method cannot be overridden by subclasses.

Q: What are the uses of final method?

A:  Disallowing subclasses to change the meaning of the method.
 Increasing efficiency by allowing the compiler to turn calls to the method
into inline Java code.

Q: What are static variables?

A: Variables that have only one copy per class are known as static variables. They
are not attached to a particular instance of a class but rather belong to a class as
a whole. They are declared by using the static keyword as a modifier.
static type varIdentifier;

where, the name of the variable is varIdentifier and its data type is specified by
type.
Note: Static variables that are not explicitly initialized in the code are automatically
initialized with a default value. The default value depends on the data type of the
variables.
Q: What is static block?
A: Static block which exactly executed exactly once when the class is first loaded into
JVM. Before going to the main method the static block will execute.
Q: What is the difference between static and non-static variables?
A: A static variable is associated with the class as a whole rather than with specific
instances of a class. Non-static variables take on unique values with each object
instance.
Q: What are static methods?
A:  A static method can only call other static methods.
 A static method must only access static data.
 A static method cannot reference to the current object using
keywords super or this.

Q: What is an Interface?
A: An interface is a description of a set of methods that conforming implementing
classes must have.
Note:

 You can�t mark an interface as final.

 Interface variables must be static.
 An Interface cannot extend anything but another interfaces.

Q: Can we instantiate an interface?

A: You can�t instantiate an interface directly, but you can instantiate a class that
implements an interface.
Q: Can we create an object for an interface?
A: Yes, it is always necessary to create an object implementation for an interface.
Interfaces cannot be instantiated in their own right, so you must write a
class that implements the interface and fulfill all the methods defined in it.
Q: Do interfaces have member variables?
A: Interfaces may have member variables, but these are implicitly public, static,
and final- in other words, interfaces can declare only constants, not
instance variables that are available to all implementations and may be
used as key references for method arguments for example.
Q: What modifiers are allowed for methods in an Interface?
A: Only public and abstract modifiers are allowed for methods in interfaces.
Q: When should I use abstract classes and when should I use interfaces?
A: Use Interfaces when…

 You see that something in your design will change frequently.

 If various implementations only share method signatures then it is better to
use Interfaces.
 you need some classes to use some methods which you don't want to be
included in the class, then you go for the interface, which makes it easy to
just implement and make use of the methods defined in the interface.

Use Abstract Class when…

 If various implementations are of the same kind and use common behavior
or status then abstract class is better to use.
 When you want to provide a generalized form of abstraction and leave the
implementation task with the inheriting subclass.
 Abstract classes are an excellent way to create planned inheritance
hierarchies. They're also a good choice for nonleaf classes in class
hierarchies.

Q: When you declare a method as abstract, can other nonabstract methods

access it?
A: Yes, other nonabstract methods can access a method that you declare as
abstract.
Q: Can there be an abstract class with no abstract methods in it?
A: Yes, there can be an abstract class without abstract methods.