A relationship in Java means different relations between two or more classes. For example, if a class Bulb inherits another class Device, then we can say that Bulb is having is-a relationship with Device, which implies Bulb is a device.
In Java, we have two types of relationship:
- Is-A relationship: Whenever one class inherits another class, it is called an IS-A relationship.
- Has-A relationship: Whenever an instance of one class is used in another class, it is called HAS-A relationship.
Is-A relationship
IS-A Relationship is wholly related to Inheritance. For example – a kiwi is a fruit; a bulb is a device.
- IS-A relationship can simply be achieved by using extends Keyword.
- IS-A relationship is additionally used for code reusability in Java and to avoid code redundancy.
- IS-A relationship is unidirectional, which means we can say that a bulb is a device, but vice versa; a device is a bulb is not possible since all the devices are not bulbs.
- IS-A relationship is tightly coupled, which means changing one entity will affect another entity.
Advantage of IS-A relationship
- Code Reusability.
- Reduce redundancy.
How to achieve IS-A relationship
IS-A relationship can simply be achieved by extending an interface or class by using extend keyword.
Let’s understand the IS-A relationship with the help of a flowchart –
In the above flowchart, the class Bulb extends class Device, which implies that Device is the parent class of Bulb, and Class Bulb is said to have an Is-A relationship. Therefore we can say Bulb Is-A device.
Implementation of IS-A relationship
1. Class Device has a field named as deviceName.
2. Class Bulb extends Device that means Bulb is a type of Device.
3. Since Device is the parent class which implies that class Device can store the reference of an instance of class Bulb.
Example: Here is the implementation of the same, which is as follows:
Java
// Java program to demonstrate the // working of the Is-A relationship import java.io.*; // parent classclass Device { private String deviceName; public void setDeviceName(String deviceName) { this.deviceName = deviceName; } public String getDeviceName() { return this.deviceName + " is a Device"; }} // child classclass Bulb extends Device { public static void main(String gg[]) { // parent class can store the reference // of instance of child classes Device device = new Bulb(); // set the device name to bulb System.out.println("Device name is Bulb"); device.setDeviceName("Bulb"); // print the device name System.out.println(device.getDeviceName()); }} |
Device name is Bulb Bulb is a Device
In the above java program Bulb class inherits the Device class. Therefore, we can say that Bulb is having an IS-A relationship with the class Device. Hence Bulb is a Device.
