Multiple Inheritance is a feature of an object-oriented concept, where a class can inherit properties of more than one parent class. The problem occurs when there exist methods with the same signature in both the superclasses and subclass. On calling the method, the compiler cannot determine which class method to be called and even on calling which class method gets the priority.
Note: Java doesn’t support Multiple Inheritance
Example 1:
Java
// Java Program to Illustrate Unsupportance of// Multiple Inheritance// Importing input output classesimport java.io.*;// Class 1// First Parent classclass Parent1 { // Method inside first parent class void fun() { // Print statement if this method is called System.out.println("Parent1"); }}// Class 2// Second Parent Classclass Parent2 { // Method inside first parent class void fun() { // Print statement if this method is called System.out.println("Parent2"); }}// Class 3// Trying to be child of both the classesclass Test extends Parent1, Parent2 { // Main driver method public static void main(String args[]) { // Creating object of class in main() method Test t = new Test(); // Trying to call above functions of class where // Error is thrown as this class is inheriting // multiple classes t.fun(); }} |
Output: Compilation error is thrown
Conclusion: As depicted from code above, on calling the method fun() using Test object will cause complications such as whether to call Parent1’s fun() or Parent2’s fun() method.
Example 2:
GrandParent
/ \
/ \
Parent1 Parent2
\ /
\ /
Test
The code is as follows
Java
// Java Program to Illustrate Unsupportance of// Multiple Inheritance// Diamond Problem Similar Scenario// Importing input output classesimport java.io.*;// Class 1// A Grand parent class in diamondclass GrandParent { void fun() { // Print statement to be executed when this method is called System.out.println("Grandparent"); }}// Class 2// First Parent classclass Parent1 extends GrandParent { void fun() { // Print statement to be executed when this method is called System.out.println("Parent1"); }}// Class 3// Second Parent Classclass Parent2 extends GrandParent { void fun() { // Print statement to be executed when this method is called System.out.println("Parent2"); }}// Class 4// Inheriting from multiple classesclass Test extends Parent1, Parent2 { // Main driver method public static void main(String args[]) { // Creating object of this class i main() method Test t = new Test(); // Now calling fun() method from its parent classes // which will throw compilation error t.fun(); }} |
Output:
Again it throws compiler error when run fun() method as multiple inheritances cause a diamond problem when allowed in other languages like C++. From the code, we see that: On calling the method fun() using Test object will cause complications such as whether to call Parent1’s fun() or Parent2’s fun() method. Therefore, in order to avoid such complications, Java does not support multiple inheritances of classes.
Multiple inheritance is not supported by Java using classes, handling the complexity that causes due to multiple inheritances is very complex. It creates problems during various operations like casting, constructor chaining, etc, and the above all reason is that there are very few scenarios on which we actually need multiple inheritances, so better to omit it for keeping things simple and straightforward.
How are the above problems handled for Default Methods and Interfaces?
Java 8 supports default methods where interfaces can provide a default implementation of methods. And a class can implement two or more interfaces. In case both the implemented interfaces contain default methods with the same method signature, the implementing class should explicitly specify which default method is to be used in some method excluding the main() of implementing class using super keyword, or it should override the default method in the implementing class, or it should specify which default method is to be used in the default overridden method of the implementing class.
Example 3:
Java
// Java program to demonstrate Multiple Inheritance// through default methods// Interface 1interface PI1 { // Default method default void show() { // Print statement if method is called // from interface 1 System.out.println("Default PI1"); }}// Interface 2interface PI2 { // Default method default void show() { // Print statement if method is called // from interface 2 System.out.println("Default PI2"); }}// Main class// Implementation class codeclass TestClass implements PI1, PI2 { // Overriding default show method @Override public void show() { // Using super keyword to call the show // method of PI1 interface PI1.super.show();//Should not be used directly in the main method; // Using super keyword to call the show // method of PI2 interface PI2.super.show();//Should not be used directly in the main method; } //Method for only executing the show() of PI1 public void showOfPI1() { PI1.super.show();//Should not be used directly in the main method; } //Method for only executing the show() of PI2 public void showOfPI2() { PI2.super.show(); //Should not be used directly in the main method; } // Mai driver method public static void main(String args[]) { // Creating object of this class in main() method TestClass d = new TestClass(); d.show(); System.out.println("Now Executing showOfPI1() showOfPI2()"); d.showOfPI1(); d.showOfPI2(); }} |
Default PI1 Default PI2 Now Executing showOfPI1() showOfPI2() Default PI1 Default PI2
Note: If we remove the implementation of default method from “TestClass”, we get a compiler error. If there is a diamond through interfaces, then there is no issue if none of the middle interfaces provide implementation of root interface. If they provide implementation, then implementation can be accessed as above using super keyword.
Example 4:
Java
// Java program to demonstrate How Diamond Problem// Is Handled in case of Default Methods// Interface 1interface GPI { // Default method default void show() { // Print statement System.out.println("Default GPI"); }}// Interface 2// Extending the above interfaceinterface PI1 extends GPI {}// Interface 3// Extending the above interfaceinterface PI2 extends GPI {}// Main class// Implementation class codeclass TestClass implements PI1, PI2 { // Main driver method public static void main(String args[]) { // Creating object of this class // in main() method TestClass d = new TestClass(); // Now calling the function defined in interface 1 // from whom Interface 2and 3 are deriving d.show(); }} |
Default GPI
