Enthuware

I don't understand how 8 will be printed. Since the object is of type SportsCar, the variable c.gearRatio will refer to the member field gearRatio of SportsCar.

This is because unlike instance methods, instance fields are shadowed and not overridden. Section 3.4.5 of the following document should be helpful: http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/java-ent/jnut/ch03_04.htm

HTH,
Paul.

Can you explain why when I copy and paste the code into eclipse and run the program why I get "9 Accelerate : SportsCar" ?

I was under the impression (from other learning material) that it should only print 8 if gearRatio was declared as a static member i.e. public static int gearRatio = 8, otherwise it should use the instance member.

Can you please paste the exact code that you ran so that I can see what's going on?

BTW, Using an IDE sometimes clouds the things. So we recommend using notepad and command line while preparing for this exam.
-Paul.

I got, 8 Accelerate : SportsCar when c was declared as Car c = new SportsCar();
but when I changed declaration to SportsCar c = new SportsCar(); I got 9 Accelerate : SportsCar
Is this because the fields accessed depends on the reference type?

pcoady wrote:I got, 8 Accelerate : SportsCar when c was declared as Car c = new SportsCar();
but when I changed declaration to SportsCar c = new SportsCar(); I got 9 Accelerate : SportsCar
Is this because the fields accessed depends on the reference type?

Yes! Fields are shadowed and methods are overridden.

what do you mean by "hidden" ?

In what context? Where do you see hidden mentioned in this thread??