# Inheritance: Parent not using Child method

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inheritance-parent-not-using-child-method/129845>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 22, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inheritance-parent-not-using-child-method/129845 "2008-02-22T01:36:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brenton_B)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inheritance-parent-not-using-child-method/129845/1 "2008-02-22T01:36:54Z")

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Setup:

class Parent  
def foo  
bar()  
end

```
def bar
    # more stuff
end

```

end

class Child \< Parent  
def bar  
# over riding bar  
end  
end

obj = Child.new  
obj.foo

* * *

K, now naturally, due to inheritance this will call Parent#foo in  
which it calls ‘bar()’

My problem is this:

Why does it call Parent#bar instead of Child#bar? … according to  
inheritance and method overriding Parent#bar is replaced with  
Child#bar … so when Parent#foo calls some method named ‘bar’, should  
it not call Child#bar due to obj being an instance of Child??

Where am I going wrong?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brenton_B)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inheritance-parent-not-using-child-method/129845/2 "2008-02-22T02:13:16Z")

</div>

Brenton B wrote:

> Why does it call Parent#bar instead of Child#bar? … according to  
> inheritance and method overriding Parent#bar is replaced with  
> Child#bar … so when Parent#foo calls some method named ‘bar’, should  
> it not call Child#bar due to obj being an instance of Child??

This question will get better results on the Ruby-talk mailing lists and  
newsgroups.

> Where am I going wrong?

What is your evidence that the parental bar() gets called? Post your  
question,  
with that addition, that to the Ruby group(s).

–  
Phlip

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brenton_B)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inheritance-parent-not-using-child-method/129845/3 "2008-02-22T02:18:00Z")

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Hmm … good though, I’ll throw it over there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Brenton\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brenton_B)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 2:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/inheritance-parent-not-using-child-method/129845/4 "2008-02-22T02:39:41Z")

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I’m a tool … never mind got it going … there was a mix up with  
alias\_method, wasn’t setup the way I thought it was …  
ugh.