Java Inheritance and Recursion Glossary

A class that cannot be instantiated and may contain abstract methods that subclasses must implement.

The stopping condition in a recursive method that returns a value without making another recursive call.

Treating a superclass reference as a subclass type. Requires explicit cast and risks ClassCastException if the object is not actually that subclass.

Runtime resolution of which overridden method to call based on the actual object type.

A mechanism where a subclass acquires fields and methods from a superclass using the extends keyword.

An operator that tests whether an object is an instance of a specific class or interface.

A reference type defining method signatures that implementing classes must provide. Supports multiple implementation.

A subclass providing its own implementation of a method with the same signature as one in the superclass.

The ability to treat objects of different subclasses through a common superclass reference, with method behavior determined at runtime.

A technique where a method calls itself to solve a problem by breaking it into smaller subproblems.

A runtime error thrown when the call stack exceeds its size limit, typically caused by infinite recursion.

The child class that extends a superclass, inheriting its members and optionally overriding methods.

The parent class in an inheritance relationship. Also called the base class.

Treating a subclass object as a superclass type. Always safe and implicit in Java.