confused code

[creativehacker]

Can anyone explain abt the output of this code..
class A
{
int x=1;
public void show()
{
System.out.print("hello");
}
}

public class B extends A
{
int x=2;
public void show()
{
System.out.println("hi");
}

public static void main(String args[])
{
A a;
B b=new B();
a=b;
a.show();
System.out.println(a.x);
}
}

[JavaBean]

First of all it gives the following output:

hi
1

I think this can be explained like:

When you declare a with "A a;", you define a object pointer of type A. So whatever this object pointer points is a type of A and considered to be an A. Actually if you try to assign some other object which does not inherent from A, compiler will return an error.

So in the following line, when you assign b to a with "a=b;", b object is considered to be an instance of A and when you access x variable, the compiler gets its value from A object.

What do you think?

[creativehacker]

Then y doesn't it print "hello"

[JavaBean]

Then y doesn't it print "hello"

Hmm, i did not notice that. Interesting..

[creativehacker]

Its the rule of INHERITANCE

[JavaBean]

Its the rule of INHERITANCE

So is this valid for C++ too? Explain it in detail.. ;)

[creativehacker]

Unless it is declared as virtual, the binding is done at compile time in C++. This is not the case in Java.

However, static members are bind at compile time in Java.