Your base class should not really have to guess all the future ways in which derived child classes can screw things up :) in the base class, implement the method you want: 

package Parent;
sub X {
   my $self = shift @_;
   print "called Parent::X()\n";
   ...
}
# -------------------
# and in the Child class you specialise this
package Child;
use base qw(Parent)
sub X {
   my $self = shift @_;
   $self->SUPER::X(@_); # Call Base class method
   # then do some extra stuff
   print "called Child::X()\n";
   ...
}
# -------------------
# and further down the chain...
package GrandChild;
use base qw(Child)
sub X {
   my $self = shift @_;
   $self->SUPER::X(@_); # Call up one level
   # then do some extra grandchild stuff
   print "called GrandChild::X()\n";
   ...
}

[download]
This works to any depth of inheritance. One of the main benefits of OO is this type of inheritance where you can specialise a child class without having to recode the Parent and causing unanticipated issues elsewhere.

So in my opinion, _Private_X should be court marshalled. I usually find that $obj->can('method') is more suited for use in handling collections of different types of objects. If you are using it for an inheritance hierarchy trick, look again - its probably a mistake.

Regards,

Jeff

In reply to Re: overridden method - best way by jaa
in thread overridden method - best way by shemp

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