若一个实例方法的声明中含有 virtual 修饰符,则称该方法为虚方法 (virtual method)。若其中没有 virtual 修饰符,则称该方法为非虚方法 (non-virtual method)。
在调用一个虚方法时,该调用所涉及的那个实例的运行时类型 (runtime type) 确定了要被调用的究竟是该方法的哪一个实现。在非虚方法调用中,实例的编译时类型 (compile-time type) 是决定性因素。
虚方法可以在派生类中重写 (override)。当某个实例方法声明包括 override 修饰符时,该方法将重写所继承的具有相同签名的虚方法。虚方法声明用于引入新方法,而重写方法声明则用于使现有的继承虚方法专用化(通过提供该方法的新实现)。
抽象 (abstract) 方法是没有实现的虚方法。抽象方法使用 abstract 修饰符进行声明,并且只有在同样被声明为 abstract 的类中才允许出现。抽象方法必须在每个非抽象派生类中重写。
下面的示例声明一个抽象类 Expression,它表示一个表达式树节点;它有三个派生类 Constant、VariableReference 和 Operation,它们分别实现了常量、变量引用和算术运算的表达式树节点。
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上面的四个类可用于为算术表达式建模。例如,使用这些类的实例,表达式 x + 3 可如下表示。
Expression e = new Operation(
new VariableReference("x"),
'+',
new Constant(3));
Expression 实例的 Evaluate 方法将被调用,以计算给定的表达式的值,从而产生一个 double 值。该方法接受一个包含变量名称(作为哈希表项的键)和值(作为项的值)的 Hashtable 作为参数。Evaluate 方法是一个虚抽象方法,意味着非抽象派生类必须重写该方法以提供具体的实现。
Constant 的 Evaluate 实现只是返回所存储的常量。VariableReference 的实现在哈希表中查找变量名称,并返回产生的值。Operation 的实现先对左操作数和右操作数求值(通过递归调用它们的 Evaluate 方法),然后执行给定的算术运算。
下面的程序使用 Expression 类,对于不同的 x 和 y 值,计算表达式 x * (y + 2) 的值。
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