Babu Zohaib

geeks for geeks numpy

Inheritance is one of the key features of Object-oriented programming in C++.

It allows us to create a new class (derived class) from an existing class (base class).

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The derived class inherits the features from the base class and can have additional features of its own. 

  For example,

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class Animal {

    // eat() function

    // sleep() function

};

​

class Dog : public Animal {

    // bark() function

};

Here, the Dog class is derived from the Animal class. 

Since Dog is derived from Animal, members of Animal are accessible to Dog.

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Notice the use of the keyword public while inheriting Dog from Animal.

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class Dog : public Animal {...};

We can also use the keywords private and protected instead of public

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Example:

// C++ program to demonstrate inheritance

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#include 

using namespace std;

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// base class

class Animal {

​

   public:

    void eat() {

        cout << "I can eat!" << endl;

    }

​

    void sleep() {

        cout << "I can sleep!" << endl;

    }

};

​

// derived class

class Dog : public Animal {

   public:

    void bark() {

        cout << "I can bark! Woof woof!!" << endl;

    }

};

​

int main() {

    // Create object of the Dog class

    Dog dog1;

​

    // Calling members of the base class

    dog1.eat();

    dog1.sleep();

​

    // Calling member of the derived class

    dog1.bark();

​

    return 0;

}

Output

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I can eat!

I can sleep!

I can bark! Woof woof!!

Here, dog1 (the object of derived class Dog) can access members of the base class Animal.

It's because Dog is inherited from Animal.