Combining composition
and inheritance

It is very common to use composition and inheritance together. The following example shows the creation of a more complex class, using both inheritance and composition, along with the necessary constructor initialization:

//: c06:PlaceSetting.java
// Combining composition & inheritance.
import com.bruceeckel.simpletest.*;

class Plate {
  Plate(int i) {
    System.out.println("Plate constructor");
  }
}

class DinnerPlate extends Plate {
  DinnerPlate(int i) {
    super(i);
    System.out.println("DinnerPlate constructor");
  }
}

class Utensil {
  Utensil(int i) {
    System.out.println("Utensil constructor");
  }
}

class Spoon extends Utensil {
  Spoon(int i) {
    super(i);
    System.out.println("Spoon constructor");
  }
}

class Fork extends Utensil {
  Fork(int i) {
    super(i);
    System.out.println("Fork constructor");
  }
}

class Knife extends Utensil {
  Knife(int i) {
    super(i);
    System.out.println("Knife constructor");
  }
}

// A cultural way of doing something:
class Custom {
  Custom(int i) {
    System.out.println("Custom constructor");
  }
}

public class PlaceSetting extends Custom {
  private static Test monitor = new Test();
  private Spoon sp;
  private Fork frk;
  private Knife kn;
  private DinnerPlate pl;
  public PlaceSetting(int i) {
    super(i + 1);
    sp = new Spoon(i + 2);
    frk = new Fork(i + 3);
    kn = new Knife(i + 4);
    pl = new DinnerPlate(i + 5);
    System.out.println("PlaceSetting constructor");
  }
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    PlaceSetting x = new PlaceSetting(9);
    monitor.expect(new String[] {
      "Custom constructor",
      "Utensil constructor",
      "Spoon constructor",
      "Utensil constructor",
      "Fork constructor",
      "Utensil constructor",
      "Knife constructor",
      "Plate constructor",
      "DinnerPlate constructor",
      "PlaceSetting constructor"
    });
  }
} ///:~

Although the compiler forces you to initialize the base classes, and requires that you do it right at the beginning of the constructor, it doesn’t watch over you to make sure that you initialize the member objects, so you must remember to pay attention to that.

Thinking in Java
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