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What is super and final keyword in Java?

Author

Sarah Smith

Published Jan 15, 2026

Super is a keyword of Java which refers to the immediate parent of a class and is used inside the subclass method definition for calling a method defined in the superclass. A superclass having methods as private cannot be called. Only the methods which are public and protected can be called by the keyword super.

What is final keyword in Java?

The final keyword is a non-access modifier used for classes, attributes and methods, which makes them non-changeable (impossible to inherit or override). The final keyword is useful when you want a variable to always store the same value, like PI (3.14159...). The final keyword is called a "modifier".

What is super in Java definition?

The super keyword refers to superclass (parent) objects. It is used to call superclass methods, and to access the superclass constructor. The most common use of the super keyword is to eliminate the confusion between superclasses and subclasses that have methods with the same name.

Why super () is used?

The super keyword in Java is a reference variable that is used to refer parent class objects. The super() in Java is a reference variable that is used to refer parent class constructors. super can be used to call parent class' variables and methods.

Is super () necessary Java?

However, using super() is not compulsory. Even if super() is not used in the subclass constructor, the compiler implicitly calls the default constructor of the superclass. So, why use redundant code if the compiler automatically invokes super()?

45 related questions found

What is difference between this and super keyword in Java?

super keyword is used to access methods of the parent class while this is used to access methods of the current class. this is a reserved keyword in java i.e, we can't use it as an identifier. this is used to refer current-class's instance as well as static members.

What is this keyword?

The this keyword refers to the current object in a method or constructor. The most common use of the this keyword is to eliminate the confusion between class attributes and parameters with the same name (because a class attribute is shadowed by a method or constructor parameter).

What is encapsulation in Java?

By definition, encapsulation describes the idea of bundling data and methods that work on that data within one unit, like a class in Java. This concept is also often used to hide the internal representation, or state of an object from the outside. This is called information hiding.

What is runtime polymorphism?

Runtime polymorphism or Dynamic Method Dispatch is a process in which a call to an overridden method is resolved at runtime rather than compile-time. In this process, an overridden method is called through the reference variable of a superclass.

Why final is used in Java?

You use the final keyword in a method declaration to indicate that the method cannot be overridden by subclasses. The Object class does this—a number of its methods are final .

What is static final in Java?

The static keyword means the value is the same for every instance of the class. The final keyword means once the variable is assigned a value it can never be changed. The combination of static final in Java is how to create a constant value.

What is static in Java?

In the Java programming language, the keyword static means that the particular member belongs to a type itself, rather than to an instance of that type. This means we'll create only one instance of that static member that is shared across all instances of the class.

What is overloading in Java?

In Java, two or more methods may have the same name if they differ in parameters (different number of parameters, different types of parameters, or both). These methods are called overloaded methods and this feature is called method overloading.

What are the 4 types of polymorphism?

Ad-hoc Polymorphism allows functions having same name to act differently for different types.

What is overriding in Java?

In Java, method overriding occurs when a subclass (child class) has the same method as the parent class. In other words, method overriding occurs when a subclass provides a particular implementation of a method declared by one of its parent classes.

What is getter and setter in Java?

Getters and setters are used to protect your data, particularly when creating classes. For each instance variable, a getter method returns its value while a setter method sets or updates its value. Given this, getters and setters are also known as accessors and mutators, respectively.

What is garbage collection in Java?

Java garbage collection is the process by which Java programs perform automatic memory management. Java programs compile to bytecode that can be run on a Java Virtual Machine, or JVM for short. When Java programs run on the JVM, objects are created on the heap, which is a portion of memory dedicated to the program.

What is abstract in Java?

The abstract keyword is a non-access modifier, used for classes and methods: Abstract class: is a restricted class that cannot be used to create objects (to access it, it must be inherited from another class). Abstract method: can only be used in an abstract class, and it does not have a body.

What is string in Java?

Strings, which are widely used in Java programming, are a sequence of characters. In the Java programming language, strings are objects. The Java platform provides the String class to create and manipulate strings.

What is array in Java?

An array is a container object that holds a fixed number of values of a single type. The length of an array is established when the array is created. After creation, its length is fixed.

What is Polymorphism in Java?

Polymorphism means "many forms", and it occurs when we have many classes that are related to each other by inheritance. Like we specified in the previous chapter; Inheritance lets us inherit attributes and methods from another class. Polymorphism uses those methods to perform different tasks.

What is final and super keyword?

Super is a keyword of Java which refers to the immediate parent of a class and is used inside the subclass method definition for calling a method defined in the superclass. A superclass having methods as private cannot be called. Only the methods which are public and protected can be called by the keyword super.

Can abstract classes be final?

As a final class cannot be inherited. However, an abstract class can have a final method. This final method is treated like a normal method with a body which cannot be overridden.

Can final static method be overloaded?

Can we overload static methods? The answer is 'Yes'. We can have two or more static methods with the same name, but differences in input parameters.

What is multithreading in Java?

Multithreading is a Java feature that allows concurrent execution of two or more parts of a program for maximum utilization of CPU. Each part of such program is called a thread. So, threads are light-weight processes within a process. Threads can be created by using two mechanisms : Extending the Thread class.