Inheritance/Overriding question

Question

Morning :)
Here is my situation. I have the following situation, within the same package
Class C, with a protected method doStuff(int x), and a public startStuff() method. This startStuff method calls the doStuff method.
Class IC, which extends C, which also has a separate protected doStuff(int x) method, and a public startStuff() method
I am instantiating an object of class IC, and calling the startStuff method, which first calls super.startStuff(), which in turn (in my mind) should call the doStuff method within Class C, but it isn't. In the stack trace, I can see Class C.startStuff being called, but when it gets to the doStuff method, it invokes the one in class IC, which isn't what I want.
Any way for me to fix this, or am I going about it all wrong?

Answer 1

I think you are talking about something like this :
public class SuperClass
     protected void doStuff()
          System.out.println("doStuff in SuperClass");
     public void startStuff()
          System.out.println("startStuff in SuperClass");
          doStuff();
public class SubClass extends SuperClass
     protected void doStuff()
          System.out.println("doStuff in SubClass");
     public void startStuff()
         super.startStuff();
          System.out.println("startStuff in SubClass");
     public static void main(String args[])
          SubClass aSubClass=new SubClass();
          System.out.println("This is main ");
          aSubClass.startStuff();          
}What is happening here (why doStuff() in SubClass is getting invoked)is as follows:
We invoke any method on a target reference(i.e.aSubClass.startStuff()),the invoked method has a reference to the target object so that it may refer to the invoking(or target )object during the execution of the program.That reference is represented by this.
In method overriding the instance method is chosen according to the runtime class of the object referred to by this.So during the execution of statrStuff() in SuperClass , the doStuff() is invoked on the this reference that is the actual run time type of the target object i.e. SubClass.
That's why doStuff() in SubClass is getting invoked.
If you want to invoke SuperClass.doStuff(),declare doStuff() as class method (Static) in both the classes.The class methods are not invoked by the runtime class of the object,because these are not related with any instance od a class.