Haliç University

Faculty of Engineering

CEN121

COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1

Chapter 11

’’ Inheritance’’
Lecturer: Asst.Prof. Zehra Merve Cinan
 TOPICS
• Introduction to Inheritance
• Polymorphism

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

2
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Introduction to Inheritance
 Inheritance allows us to define a class that inherits all the methods
and properties from another class.

*Parent class is the class being inherited from, also called base class.

*Child class is the class that inherits from another class, also called
derived class.

 In the real world, many objects are a specialized version of more

general objects.

*Example: grasshoppers and bees are specialized types of insect.

 In addition to the general insect characteristics, they have
unique characteristics:
• Grasshoppers can jump.
• Bees can sting, make honey, and build hives.
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

3
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Create a Parent Class
 Any class can be a parent class, so the syntax is the same as creating any other class.

 If we want to create a class named Person, with firstname and lastname properties, and a printname method:

class Person:
def __init__(self, fname, lname):
self.firstname = fname
self.lastname = lname

def printname(self):
print(self.firstname, self.lastname)

#Use the Person class to create an object, and then execute the printname method:

x = Person("John", "Doe")
x.printname()

John Doe

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

4
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Create a Child Class
 To create a class that inherits the functionality from another class, send the parent class as a parameter when creating the
child class.

 Note: Use the pass keyword when you do not want to add any other properties or methods to the class.

 If we want to create a class named Student, which will inherit the properties and methods from the Person class:

class Person:
def __init__(self, fname, lname):
self.firstname = fname
self.lastname = lname

def printname(self):
print(self.firstname, self.lastname)

class Student(Person):
pass

x = Student("Mike", "Olsen")
x.printname()

Mike Olsen
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

5
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Inheritance and the “Is a” Relationship
 “Is a” relationship: exists when one object is a specialized
version of another object.

*The specialized object has all the characteristics of the

general object plus unique characteristics.

*Example: Rectangle is a shape.

 Daisy is a flower.
 Inheritance: used to create an “is a” relationship between
classes.

 Superclass (base class): a general class.

 Subclass (derived class): a specialized class.

*An extended version of the superclass.

 Inherits attributes and methods of the superclass.
 New attributes and methods can be added.
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

6
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
  For example, need to create classes for cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs.
 All are automobiles.
*Have a make, year model, mileage, and price.

*This can be the attributes for the base class.

 In addition:
*Car has a number of doors.

*Pickup truck has a drive type.

*SUV has a passenger capacity.

 In a class definition for a subclass:

*To indicate inheritance, the superclass name is placed in parentheses after
subclass name.
 Example: class Car(Automobile):
*The initializer method of a subclass calls the initializer method of the
superclass and then initializes the unique data attributes.

*Add method definitions for unique methods.

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

7
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

8
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

9
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

10
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Inheritance in UML Diagrams

 In UML diagram, show inheritance by

drawing a line with an open arrowhead
from subclass to superclass.

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

11
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Polymorphism
 Polymorphism: an object’s ability to take different forms.

 Essential ingredients of polymorphic behavior:

*Ability to define a method in a superclass and override it in a subclass.

 Subclass defines a method with the same name.
*Ability to call the correct version of overridden method depending on the
type of object that called for it.

 In previous inheritance examples showed how to override the

__init__ method.

*Called superclass __init__ method and then added onto that.

 The same can be done for any other method.

*The method can call the superclass equivalent and add to it, or do
something completely different.

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

12
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

13
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
 So far we have created a child class that inherits the properties and methods from its parent.

 We want to add the __init__() function to the child class (instead of the pass keyword).

*Note: The __init__() function is called automatically every time the class is being used to create a new object.

 When you add the __init__() function, the child class will no longer inherit the parent's __init__() function.

*Note: The child's __init__() function overrides the inheritance of the parent's __init__() function.

 To keep the inheritance of the parent's __init__() function, add a call to the parent's __init__() function:
class Person:
def __init__(self, fname, lname):
self.firstname = fname
self.lastname = lname

def printname(self):
print(self.firstname, self.lastname)
Mike Olsen
class Student(Person):
def __init__(self, fname, lname):
Person.__init__(self, fname, lname)

x = Student("Mike", "Olsen")
x.printname()

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

14
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
The isinstance Function

 Polymorphism provides great flexibility when designing

programs.

 AttributeError exception: raised when a method is

receives an object which is not an instance of the right
class.

 isinstance function: determines whether object is an

instance of a class.

*Format: isinstance(object, class).

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

15
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

16
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

17
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

18
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
 Summary
This chapter covered:
• Inheritance, including:
 “Is a” relationships
 Subclasses and superclasses
 Defining subclasses and initializer methods
 Depicting inheritance in UML diagrams
• Polymorphism
• The isinstance function

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

19
CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL
 Asst.Prof. Zehra Merve Cinan
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
8th Block, Floor: 2
Office: 2521

[email protected]

CEN121- COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1/ 2023-2024 FALL 20