Slides 09

Chapter 9
Polymorphism
Polymorphism
• Polymorphism is an object-oriented concept that
allows us to create versatile software designs
• Chapter 9 focuses on:

 defining polymorphism and its benefits
 using inheritance to create polymorphic references
 using interfaces to create polymorphic references
 using polymorphism to implement sorting and searching
algorithms
 additional GUI components
© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-2

Outline
Polymorphic References
Polymorphism via Inheritance
Polymorphism via Interfaces
Sorting
Searching
Event Processing Revisited
File Choosers and Color Choosers
Sliders

Binding
• Consider the following method invocation:
obj.doIt();
• At some point, this invocation is bound to the
definition of the method that it invokes
• If this binding occurred at compile time, then that
line of code would call the same method every
time
• However, Java defers method binding until run
time -- this is called dynamic binding or late
binding
• Late binding provides flexibility in program design
Polymorphism
• The term polymorphism literally means "having
many forms"
• A polymorphic reference is a variable that can

refer to different types of objects at different
points in time
• The method invoked through a polymorphic

reference can change from one invocation to the
next
• All object references in Java are potentially

polymorphic

Polymorphism
• Suppose we create the following reference
variable:
Occupation job;
• Java allows this reference to point to an
Occupation object, or to any object of any
compatible type
• This compatibility can be established using
inheritance or using interfaces
• Careful use of polymorphic references can lead to
elegant, robust software designs

Outline
Sorting
Searching
Sliders

References and Inheritance
• An object reference can refer to an object of its
class, or to an object of any class related to it by
inheritance
• For example, if the Holiday class is used to derive

a class called Christmas, then a Holiday reference
could be used to point to a Christmas object
Holiday
Holiday day;
day = new Christmas();
Christmas

References and Inheritance
• Assigning a child object to a parent reference is
considered to be a widening conversion, and can
be performed by simple assignment
• Assigning an parent object to a child reference

can be done also, but it is considered a narrowing
conversion and must be done with a cast
• The widening conversion is the most useful

• It is the type of the object being referenced, not the
reference type, that determines which method is
invoked
• Suppose the Holiday class has a method called

celebrate, and the Christmas class overrides it
• Now consider the following invocation:
day.celebrate();
• If day refers to a Holiday object, it invokes the

Holiday version of celebrate; if it refers to a
Christmas object, it invokes the Christmas version

• Consider the following class hierarchy:
StaffMember
Volunteer Employee
Executive Hourly

• Now let's look at an example that pays a set of
diverse employees using a polymorphic method
• See Firm.java (page 486)

• See Staff.java (page 487)
• See StaffMember.java (page 489)
• See Volunteer.java (page 491)
• See Employee.java (page 492)
• See Executive.java (page 493)
• See Hourly.java (page 494)

Outline
Sorting
Searching
Sliders

• An interface name can be used as the type of an
object reference variable
Speaker current;
• The current reference can be used to point to any

object of any class that implements the Speaker
interface
• The version of speak that the following line

invokes depends on the type of object that
current is referencing
current.speak();

• Suppose two classes, Philosopher and Dog, both
implement the Speaker interface, providing
distinct versions of the speak method
• In the following code, the first call to speak

invokes one version and the second invokes
another:
Speaker guest = new Philospher();
guest.speak();
guest = new Dog();
guest.speak();

Outline
Sorting
Searching
Sliders

Sorting
• Sorting is the process of arranging a list of items
in a particular order
• The sorting process is based on specific value(s)

 sorting a list of test scores in ascending numeric order
 sorting a list of people alphabetically by last name
• There are many algorithms, which vary in

efficiency, for sorting a list of items
• We will examine two specific algorithms:

 Selection Sort
 Insertion Sort

Selection Sort
• The approach of Selection Sort:
 select a value and put it in its final place into the list
 repeat for all other values
• In more detail:
 find the smallest value in the list
 switch it with the value in the first position
 find the next smallest value in the list
 switch it with the value in the second position
 repeat until all values are in their proper places

Selection Sort
• An example:
original: 3 9 6 1 2
smallest is 1: 1 9 6 3 2
• Each time, the smallest remaining value is found

and exchanged with the element in the "next"
position to be filled

Swapping
• The processing of the selection sort algorithm
includes the swapping of two values
• Swapping requires three assignment statements

and a temporary storage location:
temp = first;
first = second;
second = temp;

Polymorphism in Sorting
• Recall that an class that implements the
Comparable interface defines a compareTo
method to determine the relative order of its
objects
• We can use polymorphism to develop a generic

sort for any set of Comparable objects
• The sorting method accepts as a parameter an

array of Comparable objects
• That way, one method can be used to sort a group

of People, or Books, or whatever

Selection Sort
• The sorting method doesn't "care" what it is
sorting, it just needs to be able to call the
compareTo method
• That is guaranteed by using Comparable as the
parameter type
• Also, this way each class decides for itself what it
means for one object to be less than another
• See PhoneList.java (page 500)
• See Sorting.java (page 501), specifically the
selectionSort method
• See Contact.java (page 503)

Insertion Sort
• The approach of Insertion Sort:
 pick any item and insert it into its proper place in a sorted
sublist
 repeat until all items have been inserted
• In more detail:
 consider the first item to be a sorted sublist (of one item)
 insert the second item into the sorted sublist, shifting the
first item as needed to make room to insert the new
addition
 insert the third item into the sorted sublist (of two items),
shifting items as necessary
 repeat until all values are inserted into their proper
positions

Insertion Sort
• An example:
original: 3 9 6 1 2
insert 9: 3 9 6 1 2
insert 6: 3 6 9 1 2
insert 1: 1 3 6 9 2
insert 2: 1 2 3 6 9
• See Sorting.java (page 501), specifically the

insertionSort method

Comparing Sorts
• The Selection and Insertion sort algorithms are
similar in efficiency
• They both have outer loops that scan all elements,

and inner loops that compare the value of the
outer loop with almost all values in the list
• Approximately n2 number of comparisons are

made to sort a list of size n
• We therefore say that these sorts are of order n2
• Other sorts are more efficient: order n log2 n

Outline
Sorting
Searching
Sliders

Searching
• Searching is the process of finding a target
element within a group of items called the search
pool
• The target may or may not be in the search pool
• We want to perform the search efficiently,
minimizing the number of comparisons
• Let's look at two classic searching approaches:
linear search and binary search
• As we did with sorting, we'll implement the
searches with polymorphic Comparable
parameters

Linear Search
• A linear search begins at one end of a list and
examines each element in turn
• Eventually, either the item is found or the end of

the list is encountered
• See PhoneList2.java (page 508)

• See Searching.java (page 509), specifically the
linearSearch method

Binary Search
• A binary search assumes the list of items in the
search pool is sorted
• It eliminates a large part of the search pool with a
single comparison
• A binary search first examines the middle element
of the list -- if it matches the target, the search is
over
• If it doesn't, only one half of the remaining
elements need be searched
• Since they are sorted, the target can only be in one
half of the other

Binary Search
• The process continues by comparing the middle
element of the remaining viable candidates
• Each comparison eliminates approximately half of

the remaining data
• Eventually, the target is found or the data is

exhausted
• See PhoneList2.java (page 508)

• See Searching.java (page 509), specifically the
binarySearch method

Outline
Sorting
Searching
Sliders

Event Processing
• Polymorphism plays an important role in the
development of a Java graphical user interface
• As we've seen, we establish a relationship between
a component and a listener:
JButton button = new JButton();
button.addActionListener(new MyListener());
• Note that the addActionListener method is

accepting a MyListener object as a parameter
• In fact, we can pass the addActionListener
method any object that implements the
ActionListener interface

Event Processing
• The source code for the addActionListener
method accepts a parameter of type
ActionListener (the interface)
• Because of polymorphism, any object that
implements that interface is compatible with the
parameter reference variable
• The component can call the actionPerformed
method because of the relationship between the
listener class and the interface
• Extending an adapter class to create a listener
represents the same situation; the adapter class
implements the appropriate interface already

Outline
Sorting
Searching
Sliders

Dialog Boxes
• Recall that a dialog box is a small window that
"pops up" to interact with the user for a brief,
specific purpose
• The JOptionPane class makes it easy to create

dialog boxes for presenting information,
confirming an action, or accepting an input value
• Let's now look at two other classes that let us

create specialized dialog boxes

File Choosers
• Situations often arise where we want the user to
select a file stored on a disk drive, usually so that
its contents can be read and processed
• A file chooser, represented by the JFileChooser

class, simplifies this process
• The user can browse the disk and filter the file
types displayed
• See DisplayFile.java (page 516)

Color Choosers
• In many situations we want to allow the user to
select a color
• A color chooser , represented by the

JColorChooser class, simplifies this process
• The user can choose a color from a palette or

specify the color using RGB values
• See DisplayColor.java (page 519)

Outline
Sorting
Searching
Sliders

Sliders
• A slider is a GUI component that allows the user to
specify a value within a numeric range
• A slider can be oriented vertically or horizontally

and can have optional tick marks and labels
• The minimum and maximum values for the slider

are set using the JSlider constructor
• A slider produces a change event when the slider

is moved, indicating that the slider and the value it
represents has changed

Sliders
• The following example uses three sliders to
change values representing the color components
of an RGB value
• See SlideColor.java (page 522)

• See SlideColorPanel.java (page 523)

Summary
• Chapter 9 has focused on:
 defining polymorphism and its benefits
 using inheritance to create polymorphic references
 using interfaces to create polymorphic references
 using polymorphism to implement sorting and searching
algorithms
 additional GUI components

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Chapter 9

• Chapter 9 focuses on:

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-2

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-3

• A polymorphic reference is a variable that can

• The method invoked through a polymorphic

• All object references in Java are potentially

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-5

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-6

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-7

• For example, if the Holiday class is used to derive

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-8

• Assigning an parent object to a child reference

• The widening conversion is the most useful

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-9

• Suppose the Holiday class has a method called

• Now consider the following invocation:

• If day refers to a Holiday object, it invokes the

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-10

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-11

• See Firm.java (page 486)

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-12

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-13

• The current reference can be used to point to any

• The version of speak that the following line

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-14

• In the following code, the first call to speak

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-15

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-16

• The sorting process is based on specific value(s)

• There are many algorithms, which vary in

• We will examine two specific algorithms:

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-17

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-18

• Each time, the smallest remaining value is found

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-19

• Swapping requires three assignment statements

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-20

• We can use polymorphism to develop a generic

• The sorting method accepts as a parameter an

• That way, one method can be used to sort a group

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-21

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-22

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-23

• See Sorting.java (page 501), specifically the

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-24

• They both have outer loops that scan all elements,

• Approximately n2 number of comparisons are

• We therefore say that these sorts are of order n2

• Other sorts are more efficient: order n log2 n

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-25

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-26

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-27

• Eventually, either the item is found or the end of

• See PhoneList2.java (page 508)

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-28

© 2004 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved 9-29

• Each comparison eliminates approximately half of

• Eventually, the target is found or the data is

• See PhoneList2.java (page 508)