C++ Inheritance
By:
Dr. Shweta Jain
Head Coordinator, Data Science
C++ Inheritance
The capability of a class to derive properties and characteristics from another
class is called Inheritance. Inheritance is one of the most important feature of
Object Oriented Programming.
Sub Class: The class that inherits properties from another class is called Sub
class or Derived Class.
Super Class: The class whose properties are inherited by sub class is called
Base Class or Super class.
Why and when to use inheritance?
Syntax for Inheritance and Access Modes:
In C++, there are three access specifiers:
● public - members are accessible from outside the class
● private - members cannot be accessed (or viewed) from outside the
class
● protected - members cannot be accessed from outside the class,
however, they can be accessed in inherited classes. You will learn more
about Inheritance later.
Syntax:
class subclass_name : access_mode base_class_name
{
//body of subclass
};
Code 1: Demonstration of Inheritance
// C++ program to demonstrate //main function
// implementation of Inheritance int main()
{
#include <iostream.h>
using namespace std; Child obj1;
//Base class // An object of class child
class Parent // has all data members
{ // and member functions of class parent
public: obj1.id_c = 7;
int id_p; obj1.id_p = 91;
}; cout << "Child id is " << obj1.id_c << endl;
cout << "Parent id is " << obj1.id_p << endl;
// Sub class inheriting from
// Base Class(Parent) return 0;
class Child : public Parent }
{
public:
int id_c; Output
}; Child id is 7
Parent id is 91
Code 2: Demonstration of Modes of Inheritance
// C++ Implementation to show that a derived class class C : protected A
// doesn’t inherit access to private data members. {
// However, it does inherit a full parent object // x is protected
class A // y is protected
{ // z is not accessible from C
public: };
int x;
protected: class D : private A // 'private' is default for
int y; // classes
private: {
int z; // x is private
}; // y is private
// z is not accessible from D
class B : public A };
{
// x is public
// y is protected
// z is not accessible from B
};
Type of Inheritance based on Access Modes/Specifiers
Types of Inheritance
Types of
Inheritance
Single Multiple Multi-level Hierarchical Hybrid (Virtual) Multipath
Inheritance Inheritance Inheritance Inheritance Inheritance Inheritance
1. Single Inheritance
In single inheritance, a class is allowed to inherit from only one class. i.e. one sub
class is inherited by one base class only.
Syntax:
class subclass_name : access_mode base_class
{
//body of subclass
};
2. Multiple Inheritance
Multiple Inheritance is a feature of C++ where a class can inherit from more than
one classes. i.e one sub class is inherited from more than one base classes.
Syntax:
class subclass_name : access_mode base_class1, access_mode base_class2, ....
{
//body of subclass
};
3. Multilevel Inheritance
In this type of inheritance, a derived class is created from another derived class.
4. Hierarchical Inheritance
In this type of inheritance, more than one sub class is inherited from a single base
class. i.e. more than one derived class is created from a single base class.
5. Hybrid (Virtual) Inheritance
Hybrid Inheritance is implemented by combining more than one type of
inheritance. For example: Combining Hierarchical inheritance and Multiple
Inheritance.
6. Special case of hybrid inheritance : Multipath inheritance
A derived class with two base classes and these two base classes have one
common base class is called multipath inheritance. An ambiguity can arise in this
type of inheritance.
