Method overrides inaccessible method of superclass

Reports methods with the same signature as an inaccessible method of a superclass, for example, a private method, or a package-private method of a superclass in another package.

Such method names may be confusing because the method in the subclass may look like an override when in fact it hides the inaccessible method of the superclass. Moreover, if the visibility of the method in the superclass changes later, it may either silently change the semantics of the subclass or cause a compilation error.

A quick-fix is suggested to rename the method.

Example:

public class Super {
  private void test() {
  }
}

public class Sub extends Super {
  void test() { // making 'Super.test()' public causes a compilation error
                // making 'Super.test()' package-private makes 'Sub.test()' an override
  }
}

Inspection Details
Available in:	IntelliJ IDEA 2023.3, Qodana for JVM 2023.3
Plugin:	Java, 233.SNAPSHOT

Last modified: 13 July 2023