How can I disable a method from a direved class

Question

I am extended TreeSet for an assigment with some new functionality.
This new class is rbTree.
I need to disable all of the old functions so that if a user creates a new rbTree he will only be able to use the methods defined in rbTree.
rbTree uses some of treeSets methods using super.
I now how to just overwrite them but I think I should let the user know those methods are unsupported, by throwing an exception. I can't throw any exceptions because most of treeSets methods don't.
I know there is an easy way to do this, and I don't think I should just leave them blank.
Any ideas?
thanks in advance
-Marc

Answer 1

If you have a new class that extends TreeSet that shouldn't expose any of the TreeSet methods, don't extend TreeSet. Prefer composition over inheritance. You can use a TreeSet as a private member within your class; e.g. your new class has-a TreeSet, rather than is-a TreeSet. This way you control which functionality of the TreeSet to use, but only expose your new methods.
Also, you should read and implement Code Conventions for the Java™ Programming Language - it will help you and others understand/maintain your code.
Example:import java.util.TreeSet;
public class RbTree
    private TreeSet set = new TreeSet();
     * only allow a specific type of object (my.pkg.MySpecialObject) to be added to the set.
    public add(MySpecialObject mso)
        set.add(mso);
    // other methods follow...
}