Can I override a private method in Java?

Question

I know I can use reflection to invoke a private method, and to get or set the value of a private variable, but I want to override a method.

public class SuperClass {

    public void printInt() {
        System.out.println("I am " + getClass() + ". The int is " + getInt());
    }

    private int getInt() {
        return 1;
    }
}

public class SubClass extends SuperClass {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        (new SubClass()).printInt();
    }

    public int getInt() {
        return 2;
    }
}

I want the main method in SubClass to print out 2, but it prints out 1. I've heard this can be done through reflection, but I can't figure out how. If not reflection, does anyone know of another way of doing it? (Other than making SuperClass.getInt() protected, or copying and pasting the printInt() method into SubClass.) If actually overriding the private method is not possible, is there a way of placing some sort of trigger on it that will invoke a method in my sub-class either before or after the private method executes?

Answer 1

You can't override a private method because no other class, including a derived class, can tell that it exists. It's private.

Private methods are implicitly final.

On a related note, a subclass can declare a field or method with the same name as a private field or method in a super class, because from the subclass's point of view, these members do not exist. There's no special relationship between these members.