Java dispatch to child class when variable is of abstract parent class

Question

I have an abstract parent class Parent and six child classes ChildA though ChildF .

Another class Other has a six (static) overloaded methods olmeth() , one for each of the six child classes.

How can I write:

Parent message = Factory.returnRandomChildClass();
Other.olmeth(message);

At the moment I use an extra method, overloaded for the parent class, and six instanceof checks to work around this issue. This is unscalable.

How can I get Java to dispatch on the actual type of message , rather on the type of the reference to the message?

Answer 1

Make an abstract method in the Parent , and let each child dispatch to its own static overload:

abstract class Parent {
    protected abstract void send();
}
class ChildA extends Parent {
    protected void send() {
        Other.olmeth(this);
    }
}
class ChildB extends Parent {
    protected void send() {
        Other.olmeth(this);
    }
}
...
class ChildF extends Parent {
    protected void send() {
        Other.olmeth(this);
    }
}

Note that although the code in all six implementations of send() look exactly the same, the methods actually dispatch to six different overloads of Other , because the static type of this in each case is different.

Answer 2

Use double dispatch pattern. Implement the olmeth logic for every Parent child class and change your current olmeth method to this:

 static void olmeth(Parent p) {
     p.olemth();
 }