C++ Inheritance

Inheritance is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming that allows a class (called the derived class) to acquire properties and behaviors of another class (called the base class). Inheritance promotes code reusability and establishes a relationship between classes.

Types of Inheritance

The derived class inherits all accessible members (public and protected) of the base class.
Private members of the base class are not directly accessible in the derived class.
Access specifiers (public, protected, private) control the visibility of base class members in the derived class.

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Next, learn about Polymorphism in C++.

Single Inheritance: A derived class inherits from a single base class.
Multiple Inheritance: A derived class inherits from more than one base class.
Multilevel Inheritance: A chain of inheritance where a class is derived from a derived class.
Hierarchical Inheritance: Multiple derived classes inherit from a single base class.
Hybrid Inheritance: Combination of two or more types of inheritance.

Syntax

class BaseClass {
    // Base class members
};

class DerivedClass : access_specifier BaseClass {
    // Derived class members
};

Example: Single Inheritance

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// Base class
class Person {
public:
    string name;
    void displayName() {
        cout << "Name: " << name << endl;
    }
};

// Derived class
class Student : public Person {
public:
    int rollNo;
    void displayRollNo() {
        cout << "Roll No: " << rollNo << endl;
    }
};

int main() {

    Student s1;
    s1.name = "Alice";  // Inherited from Person
    s1.rollNo = 101;

    s1.displayName();
    s1.displayRollNo();

    return 0;
}

Output

Name: Alice
Roll No: 101

Important Notes

The derived class inherits all accessible members (public and protected) of the base class.
Private members of the base class are not directly accessible in the derived class.
Access specifiers (public, protected, private) control the visibility of base class members in the derived class.

Next Topic

Next, learn about Polymorphism in C++.