Inheritance (or Derivation)
It is always nice if we could reuse something that already exists, rather than trying to create the same all over again .
It would not only save time and money but also
increase reliability .
The mechanism of deriving a
new class from an
old one is called
inheritance or
derivation .
The
new class known as
sub class /
child class /
derived class.
The
existing class known as
super class /
parent class /
base class.
Some other common definitions are :
1. An object can acquire the properties of another object.
Different Forms of Inheritance
(1) Single Inheritance .
(2) Multiple Inheritance .
(3) Hierarchical Inheritance .
(4) Multilevel Inheritance .
(5) Hybrid Inheritance .
Single Inheritance
A derived class with only
one base class , is known as single inheritance .
Multiple Inheritance
A derived class with
several base classes is known as multiple inheritance .
Hierarchical Inheritance
Several derived classes with only
one base class is known as Hierarchical inheritance .
Multilevel Inheritance
A derived class with already derived one, means the mechanism of deriving a class from another class is
known as multilevel inheritance .
Hybrid Inheritance
When two or more than two types of inheritance are needed to be combined together, then hybrid inheritance is used .
