InpuStream read method

[oneandonly]

read() is an abstract method of InputStream class.
How come this code can work ?

Runtime r= Runtime.getRuntime();
Process p= r.exec("hostname");
InputStream i = p.getInputStream();
while(i.read()) // <--- how is this possible
{
//do something
}

Confusion is that if read method of InputStream is abstract how can we call the read method of inputstream class

[JosAH]

read() is an abstract method of InputStream class.
[ ... ]
Confusion is that if read method of InputStream is abstract how can we call the read method of inputstream class

The trick is that you don't get an InputStream class but a concrete sub class thereof (it has the read() method implemented) but for all you care it is an InputStream. This is part of the 'object oriented' programming paradigm: the sub class is a 'specialization' of the super class but conceptually it also 'is' the superclass. e.g. A banana is a (piece of) fruit. You can consider a banana a sort of fruit.

kind regards,

Jos

[oneandonly]

Thanks for quick reply but don't we expect this behavior if we use some subclass of InputStream class(e.g FileInputStream).
I mean to say if i use

FileInputStream x=new FileInputStream();
x.read();

then its acceptable that since FileInputStream is a child class and implementing the InputStream read method.
But which subclass read method (out of numerous ones) is getting called when using the i.read()method ?

[JosAH]

Thanks for quick reply but don't we expect this behavior if we use some subclass of InputStream class(e.g FileInputStream).
I mean to say if i use

FileInputStream x=new FileInputStream();
x.read();

then its acceptable that since FileInputStream is a child class and implementing the InputStream read method.
But which subclass read method (out of numerous ones) is getting called when using the i.read()method ?

You could've written this instead:

InputStream x=new FileInputStream();
x.read();

because you're only interested in that object being an InputStream; it has a read() method and you don't care whether it's abstract or not. You know that your FileInputStream implements it. If you really care about what class exactly is passed back to you you can call its getClass() method.

kind regards,

Jos

[cselic]

But which subclass read method (out of numerous ones) is getting called when using the i.read()method ?

Jos gives you (and he always does) very good answer. :cool:

http://download.oracle.com/javase/1....am.html#read()
On this link you can see that you have three read() functions with different arguments. First one is abstract, but second and third are not abstract.

[Tolls]

But which subclass read method (out of numerous ones) is getting called when using the i.read()method ?

Doesn't matter.
You don't need to know.
That's the point of coding to interfaces (well, abstract class in this case)...you only need to know that it fulfills the contract given by the API of InputStream.