Changing inherited javadoc

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I'm writing a subclass and while adding documentation, I would like to add detail to a method which I'm not changing. More specifically, I'm inheriting a List<> and it only contains items after certain other method calls, a detail I would like to add to the description of inherited methods such as get(). Preferrably, I would like to do this without something like the following:

/**
*Updated description
*/
public int get(int n)
{
    return super.get(n)
}

Google has failed me in finding an answer to this.

Thanks in advance.

Posted 30-Mar-11 12:29pm

Member 4203013

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Peter_in_2780 · Answer 1 · 2011-03-30T21:08:00

I have a horrible feeling that you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If you don't override the methods of your base class, I can't see how you can fiddle with their Javadoc. Consider the case where I derive two subclasses D and E from base class B. B.x() in inherited by both, and has Javadoc. However, I want the Javadoc of D.x() to tell me that D deals with even integers. I want E.x() likewise to tell me that E works with odd integers.

If you want to decorate the Javadoc in the derived class, the only solution I can see is as in your code snippet. Depending on how much work the method does, the overhead of another level of method call may be acceptable.

btw, thanks for a thought-provoking and well-expressed question!

Cheers,
Peter