Thread: Polymorphism issue

Hey there. I'm making a game that utilises two different modes which inherit from an abstract class. The basic aim of what I'm trying to achieve is to use polymorphism so that depending on the mode chosen by the user, the functionality offered to them is different. To do this I have a method in the abstract class which I want to overload (I believe that's what it should be, as the abstract class method has no parameter and the child method has one).

However, my issue is that I cannot access this method only the one in the abstract class from the reference. I have no problem using overloading in the same class, it is just using it in a child class that is perplexing me. I have spent a good amount of time researching online and re-reading a Java book I have but neither produced fruitful results I'm afraid. If anyone could explain why this isn't working or guide me in the right direction I would appreciate it an awful lot.

Not sure I understand the problem, but if you have an abstract class with abstract function, just implement that function in the child class. This allows you to abstract the actual algorithm.

public abstract class Parent{
    public abstract int getValue();
}
public class One extends Parent{
    public int getValue(){
        return 1;
    }
}
public class Two extends Parent{
    public int getValue(){
        return 2;
    }
}
///somewhere else in the program, the returned Object abstracts the actual implementation details. 
public Parent getParent(int val){
    switch(val){
        case 1:
            return new One();
        case 2:
            return Two();
    }
}

Thank you for your reply. That very nearly was what I was trying to convey, I believe I may have been going about it wrong now. The following is what I wish to achieve:

public abstract class Parent{
    public void setValue();
     value = "5";
 
}
public class One extends Parent{
    public void setValue(int inputvalue){
        value = inputvalue;
    }
}

As you see what I want to do is basically have a method in the parent class where it sets the value automatically (in my program I use a random number) whereas in the child class I want to overload the method so they can input the number their self.

You can't overload an abstract function in a child class and use it abstractly via the parent the way it seems you would like. If you want to abstract them using a reference of the parent type, you should define each as abstract in the parent. It seems to me you might want to have a concrete no parameter method in the parent, and then an abstract for the child to implement (you can hide the no-parameter method using the protected modifier if you wish). Its hard to say if polymorphism is the best candidate for this without an example better than the one I posted.

Thank you for very much! The concrete no parameter method and abstract method with the parameter works perfectly. Sorry if the problem was difficult to understand I didn't quite understand the concept at first.