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Inheritance
Definition
Inheritance is the mechanism which allows a class A to inherit properties of a class B. We say “A inherits from B''. Objects of class A thus have access to attributes and methods of class B without the need to redefine them.
If class A inherits from class B, then B is called superclass (or parent class) of A. A is called subclass (or derived class) of B. Objects of a subclass can be used where objects of the corresponding superclass are expected. This is due to the fact that objects of the subclass share the same behaviour as objects of the
superclass.
In the literature you may also find other terms for “superclass'' and “subclass''. Superclasses are also called parent classes. Subclasses may also be called child
classes or just derived classes.