Introduction to OOP: Chapter 7: Inheritance [next] [previous] [audio] [real] [text]

Summary of Forms of Inheritance

Specialization. The child class is a special case of the parent class; in other words, the child class is a subtype of the parent class.
Specification. The parent class defines behavior that is implemented in the child class but not in the parent class.
Construction. The child class makes use of the behavior provided by the parent class, but is not a subtype of the parent class.
Generalization. The child class modifies or overrides some of the methods of the parent class.
Extension. The child class adds new functionality to the parent class, but does not change any inherited behavior.
Limitation. The child class restricts the use of some of the behavior inherited from the parent class.
Variance. The child class and parent class are variants of each other, and the class-subclass relationship is arbitrary.
Combination. The child class inherits features from more than one parent class. This is multiple inheritance and will be the subject of a later chapter.