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  • Thanks. Could you explain that further. Do you mean that if I mark a class as final (a change) then I just have to re-test it?
    – JW01
    Commented Jul 2, 2011 at 12:18
  • 5
    I would say this more strongly. Do not mark things as final unless an extension cannot be made to work because of the design of the class.
    – S.Lott
    Commented Jul 2, 2011 at 12:18
  • Thanks S.Lott - I am trying to understand how bad use of final affects the code/ project. Have you experienced any bad horror stories that have lead you to be so dogmatic about the sparing use of final. Is this first hand experience?
    – JW01
    Commented Jul 2, 2011 at 12:27
  • 2
    @JW01: A final class has one primary use case. You have polymorphic classes that you do not want extended because a subclass might break polymorphism. Don't use final unless you must prevent the creation of subclasses. Other than that, it's useless.
    – S.Lott
    Commented Jul 2, 2011 at 12:36
  • @JW01, in a production setting you may not be ALLOWED to remove a final, because this is not the code the customer tested and approved. You may, however, be allowed to add extra code (for testing) but you may not be able to do what you want to because you cannot extend your class.
    – user1249
    Commented Jul 2, 2011 at 12:40