G.6. Introduction to Polymorphism
We continue our study of object-oriented programming by explaining and demonstrating polymorphism with inheritance hierarchies. Polymorphism enables you to “program in the general” rather than “program in the specific.” In particular, polymorphism enables you to write programs that process objects that share the same superclass (either directly or indirectly) as if they’re all objects of the superclass; this can simplify programming.
Consider the following example of polymorphism. Suppose we create a program that simulates the movement of several types of animals for a biological study. Classes Fish, Frog and Bird represent the types of animals under investigation. Imagine that each class extends superclass ...
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