How Does Java Handle Aliasing?

Aliasing means there are multiple aliases to a location that can be updated, and these aliases have different types.

In the following example, a and b are two variable names that have two different types A and B. B extends A.

B[] b = new B[10];
A[] a = b;
 
a[0] =  new A();
b[0].methodParent();

In memory, they both refer to the same location.

The pointed memory location are pointed by both a and b. During run-time, the actual object stored determines which method to call.

How does Java handle aliasing problem?

If you copy this code to your eclipse, there will be no compilation errors.

class A {
	public void methodParent() {
		System.out.println("method in Parent");
	}
}

class B extends A {
	public void methodParent() {
		System.out.println("override method in Child");
	}

	public void methodChild() {
		System.out.println("method in Child");
	}
}

public class Main {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		B[] b = new B[10];
		A[] a = b;
 
		a[0] =  new A();
		b[0].methodParent();
	}
}

But if you run the code, the output would be as follows:

Exception in thread “main” java.lang.ArrayStoreException: aliasingtest.A
at aliasingtest.Main.main(Main.java:26)

The reason is that Java handles aliasing during run-time. During run-time, it knows that the first element should be a B object, instead of A.

Therefore, it only runs correctly if it is changed to:

B[] b = new B[10];
A[] a = b;

a[0] =  new B();
b[0].methodParent();

and the output is:

override method in Child