What is Inheritance?
Inheritance is a feature of object-oriented programming (OOP) that lets you define a base class that provides specific functionality (data and behavior) and derived classes that either inherit or override that functionality.
Types of Inheritance in C#
– Single Inheritance: A derived class that inherits from only one base class.
– Multi-level Inheritance: A derived class that inherits from a base class and the derived class itself becomes the base class for another derived class.
– Hierarchical Inheritance: A base class that serves as a parent class for two or more derived classes.
– Multiple Inheritance: A derived class that inherits from two or more base classes (only achievable through interfaces).
How Inheritance Works
– A derived class (child) inherits fields and methods from a base class (parent).
– The colon operator (:) is used to show inheritance between two classes.
– The base class can have any number of subclasses, but a subclass can have only one superclass.
– A subclass does not inherit the private members of its parent class.
– A subclass inherits all the members (fields, methods) from its superclass.
– Constructors are not members, so they are not inherited by subclasses, but the constructor of the superclass can be invoked from the subclass.
