The best way to understand inheritance in C++ is to take a look at a simple code example. Let's consider a context from finance, specifically stock assets. If you're familiar with finance, you know that each stock can be considered as an asset with additional characteristics, such as its ticker symbol.

In the code here, we first define an Asset parent class that holds a value. We then create a Stock class that is derived from the Asset class. The Stock class introduces an additional property - the ticker symbol. This is a perfect example of inheritance, where the Stock class reuses the code in the Asset class and extends it with its characteristics.

Our main function then creates a Stock object, representing Apple's shares, with a ticker 'AAPL' and a value of 150. We can then use the methods defined in both the Asset and Stock classes, showing how inheritance allows efficient code reusability and extension.

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#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

​

// Parent class

class Asset {

public:

  Asset(int val):value(val) {}

  int Get() { return value; }

private:

  int value;

};

​

// Child class - Stock derived from the class Asset

class Stock : public Asset {

public:

  Stock(const string &name,int val):Asset(val),ticker(name) {}

  const string &Ticker() { return ticker; }

private:

  string ticker;

};

​

int main() {

  Stock apple("AAPL", 150);

  cout << "The stock " << apple.Ticker() << " is worth $" << apple.Get() << endl;

  return 0;

}