C4J support full contract inheritance,
both for target classes and for contracts themselves.
If a class is protected by a contract,
all extending classes will automatically enforce those contracts as well.
Also, if a parent class is protected by a contract
and an extending class is protected by another contract,
the contracts will be combined for the extending class.
The same mechanism is provided for interface inheritance:
If an interface is protected by a contract,
all extending interfaces will automatically enforce those contracts as well.
Also, if a parent interface is protected by a contract
and an extending interface is protected by another contract,
the contracts will be combined for the extending interface.
- Class invariants are merged (AND'ed), except for in constructors where only the target class' own class invariants are checked. By calling the super constructor, the parent invariant will be checked, too.
- Preconditions may not be strengthened, i.e. the contract in the extending class may not disallow a method call that the contract in the parent allows.
- Postconditions may not be weakened, i.e. the contract in the extending class may not allow more outcomes than the contract in the parent.
- Contracts defined on the same inheritance level, e.g. by implementing two interfaces which both has contracts for the same methods, are merged.
If contracts don't adhere to these rules, it will be discovered during runtime and a warning will be logged.
For more information about this topic, please have a look at the section Under the hood.