Inheritance is the capability of one class to derive or inherit the properties from another class. The benefits of inheritance are:
- It represents real-world relationships well.
- It provides reusability of a code. We don’t have to write the same code again and again. Also, it allows us to add more features to a class without modifying it.
- It is transitive in nature, which means that if class B inherits from another class A, then all the subclasses of B would automatically inherit from class A.
Different forms of Inheritance:
1. Single inheritance:
When a child class inherits from only one parent class, it is called single inheritance. We saw an example above.
2. Multiple inheritance:
When a child class inherits from multiple parent classes, it is called multiple inheritance.
3. Multilevel inheritance:
When we have a child and grandchild relationship.
4. Hierarchical inheritance:
More than one derived classes are created from a single base.
5. Hybrid inheritance:
This form combines more than one form of inheritance. Basically, it is a blend of more than one type of inheritance.
