Inheritance

Inheritance is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming that allows you to create new classes based on existing ones. A derived class, or subclass, inherits the members of its parent class, or base class, thereby enabling code reuse and extension of functionality.

In C#, you can create a derived class using the : symbol followed by the name of the base class. The derived class inherits all the properties, methods, and other members of the base class.

Here's an example that demonstrates inheritance in C#:

1using System;
2
3// Base class
4public class Animal
5{
6    public string Name { get; set; }
7
8    // Method
9    public void Move()
10    {
11        Console.WriteLine(Name + " is moving.");
12    }
13}
14
15// Derived class
16public class Dog : Animal
17{
18    // Additional property
19    public string Breed { get; set; }
20
21    // Additional method
22    public void Bark()
23    {
24        Console.WriteLine("Woof woof!");
25    }
26}
27
28// Usage
29Dog myDog = new Dog()
30{
31    Name = "Buddy",
32    Breed = "Golden Retriever"
33};
34
35myDog.Move();
36myDog.Bark();

In this example, we define a base class Animal with a property Name and a method Move. We then create a derived class Dog that inherits from Animal. The Dog class has an additional property Breed and an additional method Bark.

We create an instance of the Dog class called myDog and set its Name and Breed properties. We can then call the Move method inherited from the Animal class and the Bark method defined in the Dog class.

Inheritance allows you to create a hierarchy of classes with increasing levels of specialization. It promotes code reuse, as you can define common behavior in a base class and extend it in derived classes. Understanding inheritance is essential for building complex object-oriented systems and implementing advanced programming concepts like polymorphism and encapsulation.

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myDog.Bark();

using System;

​

// Base class

public class Animal

{

    public string Name { get; set; }

​

    // Method

    public void Move()

    {

        Console.WriteLine(Name + " is moving.");

    }

}

​

// Derived class

public class Dog : Animal

{

    // Additional property

    public string Breed { get; set; }

​

    // Additional method

    public void Bark()

    {

        Console.WriteLine("Woof woof!");

    }

}

​

// Usage

Dog myDog = new Dog()