Call a child class method from a parent class object

Question

I have the following classes

class Person {
    private String name;
    void getName(){...}}

class Student extends Person{
    String class;
    void getClass(){...}
}

class Teacher extends Person{
    String experience;
    void getExperience(){...}
}

This is just a simplified version of my actual schema. Initially I don't know the type of person that needs to be created, so the function that handles the creation of these objects takes the general Person object as a parameter.

void calculate(Person p){...}

Now I want to access the methods of the child classes using this parent class object. I also need to access parent class methods from time to time so I CANNOT MAKE IT ABSTRACT.

I guess I simplified too much in the above example, so here goes , this is the actual structure.

class Question {
  // private attributes
  :
  private QuestionOption option;
  // getters and setters for private attributes
  :
  public QuestionOption getOption(){...}
 }

 class QuestionOption{
 ....
 }
 class ChoiceQuestionOption extends QuestionOption{
 private boolean allowMultiple;
 public boolean getMultiple(){...}
 }

 class Survey{
  void renderSurvey(Question q) {
      /*
          Depending on the type of question (choice, dropdwn or other, I have to render
          the question on the UI. The class that calls this doesnt have compile time 
          knowledge of the type of question that is going to be rendered. Each question 
          type has its own rendering function. If this is for choice , I need to access 
          its functions using q. 
      */
      if(q.getOption().getMultiple())
        {...}
  }
 }

The if statement says "cannot find getMultiple for QuestionOption." OuestionOption has many more child classes that have different types of methods that are not common among the children (getMultiple is not common among the children)

user_10455717 · Answer

class Car extends Vehicle {
        protected int numberOfSeats = 1;

        public int getNumberOfSeats() {
            return this.numberOfSeats;

        }

        public void  printNumberOfSeats() {
          //  return this.numberOfSeats;
            System.out.println(numberOfSeats);
        }


    } 

//Parent class

  class Vehicle {
        protected String licensePlate = null;

        public void setLicensePlate(String license) {
            this.licensePlate = license;
            System.out.println(licensePlate);
        }


   public static void main(String []args) {
       Vehicle c = new Vehicle();

      c.setLicensePlate("LASKF12341"); 

//Used downcasting to call the child method from the parent class. 
//Downcasting = It’s the casting from a superclass to a subclass.

      Vehicle d = new Car();
      ((Car) d).printNumberOfSeats();


   }
   }

Call a child class method from a parent class object

7 Answers