Scribd
Upload
38 views

Inheritance

The document discusses the concept of inheritance in object-oriented programming. Inheritance allows classes to inherit attributes and behaviors from parent classes, creating hierarchical relationships between classes. There are two main types of inheritance discussed: simple inheritance, where a subclass inherits from a single parent class, and multilevel inheritance, where a subclass inherits from another subclass. The keyword 'extends' is used to create subclasses in Java.

Uploaded by

Tabrez Khan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
38 views

Inheritance

The document discusses the concept of inheritance in object-oriented programming. Inheritance allows classes to inherit attributes and behaviors from parent classes, creating hierarchical relationships between classes. There are two main types of inheritance discussed: simple inheritance, where a subclass inherits from a single parent class, and multilevel inheritance, where a subclass inherits from another subclass. The keyword 'extends' is used to create subclasses in Java.

Uploaded by

Tabrez Khan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

INHERITANCE

To know the concept of inheritance clearly you must have the idea of class and its
features like methods, data members, access controls, constructors, keywords this,
super etc.
As the name suggests, inheritance means to take something that is already made. It
is one of the most important feature of Object Oriented Programming. It is the
concept that is used for reusability purpose. Inheritance is the mechanism through
which we can derived classes from other classes. The derived class is called as child
class or the subclass or  we can say the extended class and the class from which we
are deriving the subclass is called the base class or the parent class. To derive a
class in java the keyword extends is used. To clearly understand the concept of
inheritance you must go through the following example.
The concept of inheritance is used to make the things from general to more specific
e.g. When we hear the word vehicle then we got an image in our mind that it moves
from one place to another place it is used for traveling or carrying goods but the
word vehicle does not specify whether it is two or three or four wheeler because it is
a general word. But the word car makes a more specific image in mind than vehicle,
that the car has four wheels . It concludes from the example that car is a specific
word and vehicle is the general word. If we think technically  to this example then
vehicle is the super class (or base class or parent class) and car is the subclass or
child class because every car has the features of it's parent (in this case vehicle)
class.
The following kinds of inheritance are there in java.

   Simple Inheritance
   Multilevel Inheritance

Pictorial Representation of Simple and Multilevel Inheritance


Simple Multilevel
Inheritance Inheritance
Simple Inheritance
When a  subclass is derived simply from it's parent class then this mechanism is
known as simple inheritance. In case of simple inheritance there is only a sub class
and it's parent class. It is also called single inheritance or one level
inheritance.                                             
eg.
class A {
  int x;
  int y;
  int get(int p, int q){
    x=p; y=q; return(0);
    }
    void Show(){
      System.out.println(x);
      }
}

class B extends A{
  public static void main(String args[]){
    A a = new A();
    a.get(5,6);
    a.Show();
    }
    void display(){
      System.out.println("B");
      }
}

Multilevel Inheritance
It is the enhancement of the concept of inheritance. When a subclass is derived from
a derived class then this mechanism is known as the multilevel inheritance. The
derived class is called the subclass or child class for it's parent class and this parent
class works as the child class for it's just above ( parent ) class.  Multilevel
inheritance can go up to any number of level.
e.g. 
class A {
  int x;
  int y;
  int get(int p, int q){
    x=p; y=q; return(0);
    }
    void Show(){
      System.out.println(x);
      }
}
class B extends A{
  void Showb(){
    System.out.println("B");
    }
}

class C extends B{
  void display(){
    System.out.println("C");
  }
  public static void main(String args[]){
    A a = new A();
    a.get(5,6);
    a.Show();
    }
}

Java does not support multiple Inheritance


Multiple Inheritance
The mechanism of inheriting the features of more than one base class into a single
class is known as multiple inheritance. Java does not support multiple inheritance
but the multiple inheritance can be achieved by using the interface.
In Java Multiple Inheritance can be achieved through use of Interfaces by
implementing more than one interfaces in a class.
super keyword
The super is java keyword. As the name suggest super is used to access the
members of the super class.It is used for two purposes in java.
 The first use of keyword super is to access the hidden data variables of the super class
hidden by the sub class.
e.g. Suppose class A is the super class that has two instance variables as  int a and
float b. class B is the subclass that also contains its own data members named a and
b. then we can access the super class (class A) variables a and b inside the subclass
class B just by calling the following command.
super.member;
Here member can either be an instance variable or a method. This form of super
most useful to handle situations where the local members of a subclass hides the
members of a super class having the same name. The following example clarify all
the confusions. 
class A{
  int a;
  float b;
  void Show(){
    System.out.println("b in super class:  " + b);
  }

class B extends A{
  int a; 
  float b;
  B( int p, float q){
    a = p;
    super.b = q;
  }
  void Show(){
    super.Show();
    System.out.println("b in super class:  " + super.b);
    System.out.println("a in sub class:    " + a);
  }

  public static void main(String[] args){
    B subobj = new B(1, 5);
    subobj.Show();
  }
}

Output:
C:\>java B
b in super class: 5.0
b in super class: 5.0
a in sub class: 1
Use of super to call super class constructor: The second use of the keyword super
in java is to call super class constructor in the subclass. This functionality can be
achieved just by using the following command.
super(param-list);
Here parameter list is the list of the parameter requires by the constructor in the
super class. super must be the first statement executed inside a super class
constructor. If we want to call the default constructor then we pass the empty
parameter list. The following program illustrates the use of the super keyword to
call a super class constructor. 
class A{
  int a;
  int b;
  int c;
  A(int p, int q, int r){
    a=p;
    b=q;
    c=r;
  }
}
  
  class B extends A{
    int d;
    B(int l, int m, int n, int o){
      super(l,m,n);
      d=o;
      }
    void Show(){
      System.out.println("a = " + a);
      System.out.println("b = " + b);
      System.out.println("c = " + c);
      System.out.println("d = " + d);
    }

    public static void main(String args[]){
      B b = new B(4,3,8,7);
      b.Show();
    }
  }

Output:
C:\>java B
a=4
b=3
c=8
d=7

You might also like