[SOLVED] Disabling Inherited Methods

[Singing Boyo]

Hi there all.

Is it possible to disable methods inherited from a superclass? I have a class that extends JTabbedPane, and I want to prevent other classes from seeing the addTab methods, while using them in my own addTab method. Here is the class so far:

private class AssociatedJTabbedPane extends JTabbedPane{
		
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	private ArrayList<Inventory> associated = new ArrayList<Inventory>();
	//Prevent other classes from seeing the addTab methods from JTabbedPane, but 
        //allow them to use this one.
	public void addTab(String message, JPanel add, Inventory associated){
		addTab(message, add);
		this.associated.add(associated);
	}
}

Note: This is a nested class.

[RamyaSivakanth]

Hi,
I don't think it is possible.If you want to restrict the method functionality you do it in the child class.If java allows this type of manipulations,then you are defeating the purpose of OOps itself.
-Regards
Ramya

[Singing Boyo]

Thanks... guess I just need to leave it and only use the new method.

[Mr.Beans]

Can you simply not override addTab and make it call your overloaded addTab passing a null as the Inventory parameter?

[OrangeDog]

Overriding a method prevents any other classes from calling the old version. You can call it from within your class using super.method(). Some arrangement like:

public void addTab(String message, JPanel add, Inventory associated){
	super.addTab(message, add);
	this.associated.add(associated);
}
public void addTab(String message, JPanel add) {
	addTab(message, add, new Inventory());
}

You can override the method and throw an UnsupportedOperationException to disable it completely.

[Singing Boyo]

hmm... thanks for that OrangeDog. Will have to throw an UnsupportedOperationException to disable it b/c Inventory takes parameters.

@ Mr.Beans That wouldn't work in this case as the null parameter would destroy everything...

[OrangeDog]

The best thing to do is have some kind of default Inventory or action to take when no Inventory is provided.

UnsupportedOperationException should be used as a very last resort, as most users won't expect to catch it, and compilers can't check for it.

[Singing Boyo]

Well, it is an open-source project, and the Exception is just for other developers to prevent them from using methods that won't do what they want. Also, an Inventory is a user-created object, so having a default would mess with all the other code.