Course Object Oriented Programming
Pillar 3: Inheritance
In this class you will learn the 3rd pillar of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): Inheritance.
What is it?
In OOP, inheritance is used for one class to inherit characteristics from another class. In other words, when a class B inherits from a class A, the class B will have everything, all the methods and attributes, that the class A has, plus its specific characteristics.
When a class B inherits from a class A:
- Class base (or parent): A.
- Class derived (or child): B.
Example
Imagine that we have already defined a class person, and now we want to create a class student.
As a student is a person, the student will have all the characteristics of a person plus the characteristics of a student. In this way, it is not necessary to re-code all the characteristics in common.
Why to use inheritance?
- Avoid rewriting the characteristics of the parent class in the child class.