supercall

supercall is a term used in object-oriented programming, particularly in languages that support inheritance, to refer to the act of calling a method of a parent class from within a child class. This is a fundamental mechanism that allows a child class to extend or modify the behavior of a method defined in its superclass (parent class). When a child class overrides a method from its parent, it can still execute the original implementation of that method by using supercall.

The specific syntax for invoking a superclass method varies depending on the programming language. For instance, in Python, it is commonly done using the `super()` function, such as `super().method_name()`. In Java, the keyword `super` is used, like `super.methodName()`. This capability is crucial for building robust and maintainable class hierarchies, enabling code reuse and the implementation of the "is-a" relationship characteristic of inheritance. Without supercall, a child class that overrides a parent method would completely replace the parent's implementation, potentially losing valuable functionality. Therefore, supercall provides a way to leverage existing code while adding specific adaptations.