🧾 Unit 7: Inheritance [6 Hrs]

✍️ What is Inheritance?

Inheritance is one of the core features of Object-Oriented Programming. It allows a new class (called derived class) to acquire the properties and behaviors (data members and member functions) of an existing class (called base class).

👉 It promotes code reuse, extensibility, and maintainability.

Syntax:

class DerivedClassName : access_specifier BaseClassName {
    // Members of the derived class
};

🔹 1. Introduction & Benefits of Inheritance

✍️ Benefits:

• Reusability of existing code
• Easier maintenance
• Logical model of the real world (IS-A relationship)
• Easier enhancement and modification

✅ Example: Basic Inheritance

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Animal {
public:
    void sound() {
        cout << "Animal makes sound" << endl;
    }
};

class Dog : public Animal {
public:
    void bark() {
        cout << "Dog barks" << endl;
    }
};

int main() {
    Dog d;
    d.sound(); // Inherited from Animal
    d.bark();  // Defined in Dog
    return 0;
}

📝 Output:

Animal makes sound
Dog barks