Call to inherited method looks like call to local method

Reports calls to a superclass method from an anonymous, inner or local class, if a method with the same signature exists in the code surrounding the class. In this case it may seem that a method from the surrounding code is called, when in fact it is a call to a method from the superclass.

To clarify the intent of the code, it is recommended to add an explicit super qualifier to the method call.

Example:

  class Parent {
    void ambiguous(){}
  }

  class Example {
    void ambiguous(){}

    class Inner extends Parent {
      void example(){
        ambiguous(); //warning
      }
    }
  }
  

After the quick-fix is applied:

  class Parent {
    void ambiguous(){}
  }

  class Example {
    void ambiguous(){}

    class Inner extends Parent {
      void example(){
        super.ambiguous();
      }
    }
  }

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

AmbiguousMethodCall

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Visibility

Inspection ID: AmbiguousMethodCall

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection AmbiguousMethodCall

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, Qodana for JVM 2025.3,

Last modified: 03 December 2025