MATLAB Object-Oriented Programming

Modify Inherited Methods

In this section...

“When to Modify Superclass Methods” on page 12-16

“Extend Superclass Methods” on page 12-16

“Redefine Superclass Methods in Subclass” on page 12-17

“Override Superclass Methods” on page 12-18

When to Modify Superclass Methods

Class design enable you to pass a subclass object to a superclass method and have the

method execute properly. At the same time, subclass methods can apply special

processing to the unique aspects of the subclass. Some useful techniques include:

• Extend — Calling a superclass method from within a subclass method


• Redefine — Reimplementing in the subclass, the protected methods that are called
  from within a public superclass method


• Override — Defining the same named methods in both super and subclass, but using
  different implementations

Extend Superclass Methods

Subclass methods can call superclass methods of the same name. This technique enables

you to extend a superclass method in a subclass without completely redefining the

superclass method.

For example, suppose that both superclass and subclass define a method called foo. The

method names are the same so the subclass method can call the superclass method.

However, the subclass method can also perform other steps before and after the call to

the superclass method. It can operate on the specialized parts to the subclass that are not

part of the superclass.

For example, this subclass defines a foo method that calls the superclass foo method

classdef Sub < Super

methods

function foo(obj)

% preprocessing steps

12 How to Build on Other Classes