What is Inheritance in OOP?

Inheritance is a fundamental principle of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). It allows a class to acquire properties and methods from another class.

Inheritance = Reusing code by creating a new class from an existing class

Why Use Inheritance?

• ✔ Reuse existing code
• ✔ Reduce duplication
• ✔ Easier to maintain code
• ✔ Create hierarchical relationships
• ✔ Supports polymorphism

Real-Life Example

A Car is a type of Vehicle. A car inherits all common features of a vehicle (like wheels and speed control) and adds its own features (like air conditioning and radio).
Vehicle → base class (parent)
Car → derived class (child)

C# Example of Inheritance

class Vehicle
{
    public int Speed;

    public void Move()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Vehicle is moving");
    }
}

class Car : Vehicle    // Car inherits Vehicle
{
    public string Color;

    public void Honk()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Car is honking");
    }
}

    

Usage:

Car myCar = new Car();
myCar.Speed = 80;    // inherited from Vehicle
myCar.Move();        // inherited method
myCar.Color = "Red"; // property from Car class
myCar.Honk();        // method from Car class

    

Key Points to Remember

• The child class inherits fields and methods from the parent class.
• The child class can add its own properties and methods.
• Supports method overriding using virtual and override.
• Helps in code reuse, structure, and polymorphism.