Classes and Inheritance

Abstract

Inheritance allows you to define a new class that incorporates and extends an already declared class.

• You can use an existing class, called the base class, as the basis for a new class, called the derived class. The members of the derived class consist of the following:

  • The members in its own declaration

  • The members of the base class

• To declare a derived class, you add a class-base specification after the class name. The class-base specification consists of a colon, followed by the name of the class to be used as the base class. The derived class is said to directly inherit from the base class listed.

• A derived class is said to extend its base class, because it includes the members of the base class plus any additional functionality provided in its own declaration.

• A derived class cannot delete any of the members it has inherited.