Chapter Seven

Introduction to
Inheritance
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Objectives

Learn about the concept of inheritance

Learn inheritance terminology
How to extend classes
How to use the protected access specifier
How to override superclass methods

Objectives
How to access superclass methods from a
subclass
How a subclass object is an instance of the
superclass
About the Object class
How to work with superclasses that have
constructors
How to work with superclass constructors that
require arguments
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Objectives
How to create and use abstract classes
How to create and use interfaces
Learn the benefits of inheritance

Understanding the Concept of Inheritance

Inheritance is the principle that states you can apply
your knowledge of a general category to more specific
objects
When you create a class by making it inherit from
another class, you are provided with data fields and
methods automatically
There are many advantages to using inheritance

Understanding the Concept of Inheritance

An Employee class

Understanding the Concept of Inheritance

The ability to use inheritance makes programs easier to

write, less error-prone, and easier to understand
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Understanding Inheritance Terminology

A class that is used as a basis for inheritance is called a
base class
When you create a class that inherits from a base class,
it is a derived class or extended class
You can use the terms superclass and subclass as
synonyms for base class and derived class
You usually can distinguish base classes from their
subclasses by size

Understanding Inheritance Terminology

A derived class can be further extended
Inheritance is transitive; that means a child inherits all
the members of all its ancestors
When you create your own transitive inheritance chains,
you want to place fields and methods at their most
general level

Extending Classes
When you create a class that is an extension or child of
another class, you use a single colon between the
derived class name and its base class name
Inheritance works in one direction

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Using the protected Access Specifier

Occasionally, you want to allow a subclass to access
parent class data, while still abiding by the principle of
information hiding
The keyword protected provides you with an
intermediate level of security
A protected data field or method can be used within its
own class or in any classes extended from that class, but
it cannot be used by outside classes

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Using the protected Access Specifier

Declaring empSal as protected and accessing it within

CommissionEmployee
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Overriding Superclass Methods

When you create a subclass by extending an existing
class, the new subclass contains data and methods that
were defined in the original superclass
Sometimes the superclass data fields and methods are
not appropriate for the subclass objects
Using the same method name to indicate different
implementations is called polymorphism

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Overriding Superclass Methods

In the above child class, the SetCredits() method is

declared as new because it has the same name and
argument list as a method in its parent classit
overrides its counterpart
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Overriding Superclass Methods

DemoStudents program and Output

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Accessing Superclass Methods from a

Subclass
A subclass can contain a method with the same name
and arguments as a method in its parent class
When you want to use the parent class method within a
subclass use the base keyword to access the parent
class method
A method that calls itself is a recursive method

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Understanding a Subclass Object is an

Instance of the Superclass
Every subclass object is a specific instance of both the
subclass and the superclass
You can assign a subclass object to an object of any of
its superclass types. When you do so, C# makes an
implicit conversion from subclass to superclass
C# also makes implicit conversions when casting one
data type to another

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Using the Object Class

Every class you create in C# derives from a single class
named System.Object
The object (or Object) class type in the System
namespace is the ultimate base class for all other types
Every class descends from Object

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Using the Object Class

The Four public Instance Methods of the Object class

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Using the Object Class

The GetType() method returns an objects type, or class

Object class methods are usually overridden
The ToString() method can be useful for debugging
The Object classs Equals() method returns true if two
Objects have the same memory address

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Working with Superclasses that have

Constructors
When you instantiate an object that is a member of a
subclass, you actually call two constructors
When you create any subclass object, the base class
constructor must execute first

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Using Superclass Constructors that Require

Arguments
When you use a class as a superclass, and the class
has a constructor that requires arguments, then you
must make sure that any subclasses provide the
superclass constructor with the proper arguments
The format of the statement that calls a superclass
constructor is base(list of arguments)
C# does not allow you to call the superclass constructor
by name, it must be called using the base keyword

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Creating and Using Abstract Classes

An abstract class is one from which you cannot create
any concrete objects, but from which you can inherit
An abstract method has no method statements; any
class derived from a class containing an abstract method
must override the abstract method by providing a body
for it
When you create an abstract method, you provide the
keyword abstract and the intended method type, name,
and argument
When you create a subclass that inherits an abstract
method from a parent, you must use the override
keyword
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Creating and Using Abstract Classes

Animal class

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Creating and Using Abstract Classes

Dog and Cat classes

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Creating and Using Abstract Classes

DemoAnimals program and Output

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Creating and Using Interfaces

The ability to inherit from more than one class is called
multiple inheritance
Multiple inheritance creates many complicated problems,
and as a result is prohibited in C#
C# does provide an alternative to multiple inheritance in
the form of interfaces

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Recapping the Benefits of Using Inheritance

The benefits of inheritance are as follows:
Subclass creators save development time because much of the
code that is needed for the class has already been written
Subclass creators save testing time
Programmers who create or use new subclasses already
understand how the superclass works, so the time it takes to
learn the new class feature is reduced
The superclass maintains its integrity

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Chapter Summary
Inheritance is the principle that you can apply your
knowledge of a general category to more specific objects
A class that is used as a basis for inheritance is called a
base class
When you create a class that is an extension or child of
another class, you use a single colon between derived
class name and its base class name
If you could use private data outside of its class, the
principle of information hiding would be destroyed

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Chapter Summary
You can declare a child class method with the same
name and argument list as a method within its parent
class
When a subclass overrides a parent class method and
you want to use the parent class version, you can use
the keyword base to access the parent class method
Every subclass object is a specific instance of both the
subclass and the superclass
Every class you create in C# derives from a single class
named System.Object

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Chapter Summary
When you instantiate an object that is a member of a
subclass, you actually call two constructors
When you use a class as a superclass, and the class
has a constructor that requires arguments, then within
the header of the subclass constructor you must provide
values for any arguments required by the base class
constructor
An abstract class is one from which you cannot create
any concrete objects
C# provides an alternative to multiple inheritance known
as the interface
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