C++ ClassesLesson 38Free preview

C++ Inheritance

This lesson is part of C++ · All levels

Summary

Inheritance makes a new class (derived) able to reuse another class (base) so that code is not duplicated. The derivative class automatically gets the public method and data/protected from its parent, and can add features or replace them itself. C++ supports single, multiple, multilevel, as well as protected and private inheritance with different access rules.

Key points

Basic syntax: class derived: public base {...}.
In class, inheritance without modifier is private; in struct it is public.
The constructor base is executed automatically before the constructor derives.
Multiple inheritance allows one class to inherit from more than one base.

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