what is the use of a superclass refernce to access a subclass object?

Question

a question in java..

Answer 1

So they can remember what it was like! Du..........!

Answer 2

The decision as to which version of the method to execute is based on the actual type of object whose reference is stored in the reference variable, not on the type of the reference variable on which the method is invoked. This runtime polymorphism is enabled by holding subclass objects in superclass references.

Answer 3

Using a reference to a superclass or interface, known as "coding to the interface" allows code that uses the oject to not work with any class that implements the interface or extends the superclass; you can change the implentation (i.e. changing a List from ArrayList to LinkedList) by only modifying the code that creates it, and the rest of the code will work with the new implementation without needing to be modified.

Answer 4

Using super class reference to hold subclass objects help you achieve one of the objectives of Object oriented programming - "Dynamic/Runtime binding". This helps in delegating the overridden behaviour to the right subclass at runtime.

Answer 5

a subclass extends a superclass, it can also have additional attributes and methods not existing in the superclass.