Superclass constructors with arguments

What if the superclass constructor has arguments? Can you pass something in to the super() call? Of course. If you couldn’t, you’d never be able to extend a class that didn’t have a no-arg constructor. Imagine this scenario: all animals have a name. There’s a getName() method in class Animal that returns the value of the name instance variable. The instance variable is marked private, but the subclass (in this case, Hippo) inherits the getName() method. So here’s the problem: Hippo has a getName() method (through inheritance), but does not have the name instance variable. Hippo has to depend on the Animal part of himself to keep the name instance variable, and return it when someone calls getName() on a Hippo object. But... how does the Animal part get the name? The only reference Hippo has to the Animal part of himself is through super(), so that’s the place where Hippo sends the Hippo’s name up to the Animal part of himself, so that the Animal part can store it in the private name instance variable.