How do I use composition with inheritance?

Question

I'm going to try to ask my question in the context of a simple example...

Let's say I have an abstract base class Car. Car has-a basic Engine object. I have a method StartEngine() in the abstract Car class that delegates the starting of the engine to the Engine object.

How do I allow subclasses of Car (like Ferrari) to declare the Engine object as a specific type of engine (e.g., TurboEngine)? Do I need another Car class (TurboCar)?

I'm inheriting a plain old Engine object and I cannot re-declare (or override) it as a TurboEngine in my Car subclasses.

EDIT: I understand that I can plug any subclass of Engine into myEngine reference within my Ferrari class...but how can I call methods that only the TurboEngine exposes? Because myEngine is inherited as a base Engine, none of the turbo stuff is included.

Thanks!

Answer 1

There are lots of ways it could be done. I myself would favour having a setEngine() method on Car that is callable and then have my Ferrai contructor call setEngine() passing in an instance of a TurboEngine.

Answer 2

The Abstract Factory pattern is precisely for this problem. Google GoF Abstract Factory {your preferred language}

In the following, note how you can either use the concrete factories to produce "complete" objects (enzo, civic) or you can use them to produce "families" of related objects (CarbonFrame + TurboEngine, WeakFrame + WeakEngine). Ultimately, you always end up with a Car object that responds to accelerate() with type-specific behavior.

---

     using System;


    abstract class CarFactory
    {
        public static CarFactory FactoryFor(string manufacturer){
            switch(manufacturer){
                case "Ferrari" : return new FerrariFactory();
                case "Honda" : return new HondaFactory();
                default:
                    throw new ArgumentException("Unknown car manufacturer. Please bailout industry.");
            }
        }

        public abstract Car createCar();
        public abstract Engine createEngine();
        public abstract Frame createFrame();

    }

    class FerrariFactory : CarFactory
    {
        public override Car createCar()
        {
            return new Ferrari(createEngine(), createFrame());
        }

        public override Engine createEngine()
        {
            return new TurboEngine();
        }

        public override Frame createFrame()
        {
            return new CarbonFrame();
        }
    }

    class HondaFactory : CarFactory
    {
        public override Car createCar()
        {
            return new Honda(createEngine(), createFrame());
        }

        public override Engine createEngine()
        {
            return new WeakEngine();
        }

        public override Frame createFrame()
        {
            return new WeakFrame();
        }
    }

    abstract class Car
    {
        private Engine engine;
        private Frame frame;

        public Car(Engine engine, Frame frame)
        {
            this.engine = engine;
            this.frame = frame;
        }

        public void accelerate()
        {
            engine.setThrottle(1.0f);
            frame.respondToSpeed();
        }

    }

    class Ferrari : Car
    {
        public Ferrari(Engine engine, Frame frame) : base(engine, frame)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Setting sticker price to $250K");
        }
    }

    class Honda : Car
    {
        public Honda(Engine engine, Frame frame) : base(engine, frame)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Setting sticker price to $25K");
        }
    }

    class KitCar : Car
    {
        public KitCar(String name, Engine engine, Frame frame)
            : base(engine, frame)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Going out in the garage and building myself a " + name);
        }
    }

    abstract class Engine
    {
        public void setThrottle(float percent)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Stomping on accelerator!");
            typeSpecificAcceleration();
        }

        protected abstract void typeSpecificAcceleration();
    }

    class TurboEngine : Engine
    {
        protected override void typeSpecificAcceleration()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Activating turbo");
            Console.WriteLine("Making noise like Barry White gargling wasps");
        }
    }

    class WeakEngine : Engine
    {
        protected override void typeSpecificAcceleration()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Provoking hamster to run faster");
            Console.WriteLine("Whining like a dentist's drill");
        }
    }

    abstract class Frame
    {
        public abstract void respondToSpeed();
    }

    class CarbonFrame : Frame
    {
        public override void respondToSpeed()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Activating active suspension and extending spoilers");
        }
    }

    class WeakFrame : Frame
    {
        public override void respondToSpeed()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Loosening bolts and vibrating");
        }
    }

    class TestClass
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            CarFactory ferrariFactory = CarFactory.FactoryFor("Ferrari");
            Car enzo = ferrariFactory.createCar();
            enzo.accelerate();

            Console.WriteLine("---");
            CarFactory hondaFactory = CarFactory.FactoryFor("Honda");
            Car civic = hondaFactory.createCar();
            civic.accelerate();

            Console.WriteLine("---");
            Frame frame = hondaFactory.createFrame();
            Engine engine = ferrariFactory.createEngine();
            Car kitCar = new KitCar("Shaker", engine, frame);
            kitCar.accelerate();

            Console.WriteLine("---");
            Car kitCar2 = new KitCar("LooksGreatGoesSlow", hondaFactory.createEngine(), ferrariFactory.createFrame());
            kitCar2.accelerate();
        }
    }

Answer 3

don't expose the internals of your class in the interface - in other words, the public method of Car should be Start, not StartEngine

if you want to impose an internal structure (i.e. like having only 1 engine) then you need another abstract/base class Engine that can be specialized.

then you can construct a sports car out of parts by setting the m_engine member to a sporty subclass of Engine, et al

EDIT: note that in the real world, a turbocharger is not part of the engine, it is an add-on to the engine, with its own control interface... But if you want to include things like this in your ferrari engine, that's ok, just upcast in the SportsCar subclass to make your base Engine into a TurboEngine

but it would be better modeling to keep the components separate - that way you can upgrade your turbocharger (dual intake vs single intake, for example) without replacing the entire engine!

Answer 4

Depending on your particular language semantics, there are a few ways to do this. Off the cuff my initial thought would be to provide a protected constructor:

public class Car {
    private Engine engine;

    public Car() {
        this(new Engine());
    }

    protected Car(Engine engine) {
        this.engine = engine;
    }

    public void start() {
        this.engine.start();
    }
}

public class Ferrari {
    public Ferrari() {
        super(new TurboEngine());
    }
}

Answer 5

There's no need to specify a subclass of Car to have a TurboEngine as long as TurboEngine is a subclass of Engine. You can just specify an instance of TurboEngine as the Engine for your Ferrari. You could even put a DieselEngine in your Ferrari. They're all just Engines.

A Car has an Engine. A TurboEngine is an Engine. A Car can have a TurboEngine or a DieselEngine or a FlintstonesEngine. They're all Engines.

If you want to limit the type of Engine in your Car subclass (no LawnMowerEngine in a SportsCar), you can leave it declared as Engine and limit it in the setter methods.

The Car has an Engine relationship doesn't limit the applicable subclasses of Engine.

Answer 6

You can always use an abstract that is protected. The public "Start" will call the protected (that will be ovveride in the abstract class). This way the caller only see the Start() and not the StartEngine().

abstract class Car {
    private Engine engine;

    public Car() {
        this.engine = new Engine();
    }

    protected Car(Engine engine) {
        this.engine = engine;
    }

 public void Start()
 {
  this.StartEngine();
 }
    protected abstract void StartEngine();
}

public class Ferrari : Car
{
    public Ferrari() {

    }
 protected override void StartEngine()
 {
  Console.WriteLine("TURBO ENABLE!!!");
 }

}

-The way to use it:

Car c = new Ferrari();
c.Start();

Answer 7

I think this would work.

public class Car
{
    private Engine engine;
    public virtual Engine CarEngine
    {
        get { return engine;}
    }

    public StartEngine()
    {
         CarEngine.Start();
    }
}

public class Engine
{
     public virtual void Start()
     {
         Console.Writeline("Vroom");
     }
} 

public class TurboEngine : Engine
{
    public override void Start()
    {
        Console.Writeline("Vroom pSHHHHHHH");
    }    

    // TurboEngine Only method
    public double BoostPressure()
    {
    }
}

public class Ferrari : Car
{
    private TurboEngine engine;
    public override Engine CarEngine
    {
         return engine;
    }
}

Ferrari = car new Ferrari();
// Will call Start on TurboEngine()
car.StartEngine();
// Upcast to get TurboEngine stuff
Console.WriteLine(car.CarEngine as TurboEngine).BoostPressure();

Answer 8

Do you have generics in your language? In Java I could do this:

class Engine {}

abstract class Car<E extends Engine> 
{
    private E engine;
    public E getEngine() { return engine; } 
}

class TurboEngine extends Engine {}

class Ferrari extends Car<TurboEngine> 
{
    // Ferrari now has a method with this signature:
    // public TurboEngine getEngine() {} 
}

I'm sure there's something similar in C#. You can then treat an instance of Ferrari as either an instance of the Ferrari subclass (with getEngine returning the TurboEngine) or as an instance of the Car superclass (when getEngine will return an Engine).

Answer 9

As I understand your (updated) question, you're going to have to cast the car's engine to the TurboEngine type if you want to call TurboEngine methods on it. That results in a lot of checking to see if the car you have has a TurboEngine before you call those methods, but that's what you get. Not knowing what this car is actually standing in for, I can't think of any reason you couldn't have the engine and the turbo engine share the same interface - are there really new methods that the turbo supports, or does it just do the same things differently - but I guess this metaphor was going to fall apart sooner or later.