Inheritance with an example in C#.NET

Inheritance with an example in C#.NET

Creating a new class from existing class is called as inheritance. 


When a new class needs same members as an existing class then instead of creating those members again in new class, the new class can be created from existing class, which is called as inheritance.


Main advantage of inheritance is reusability of the code.


During inheritance, the class that is inherited is called as base class and the class that does the inheritance is called as derived class and every non private member in base class will become the member of derived class.

Inheritance can be classified to 5 types.

1. Single Inheritance
2. Hierarchical Inheritance
3. Multi Level Inheritance
4. Hybrid Inheritance
5. Multiple Inheritance

1. Single Inheritance

when a single derived class is created from a single base class then the inheritance is called as single inheritance.

2. Hierarchical Inheritance
when more than one derived class are created from a single base class, then that inheritance is called as hierarchical inheritance.

3.Multi Level Inheritance

when a derived class is created from another derived class, then that inheritance is called as multi level inheritance.

4. Hybrid Inheritance

Any combination of single, hierarchical and multi level inheritances is called as hybrid inheritance.

5. Multiple Inheritance

when a derived class is created from more than one base class then that inheritance is called as multiple inheritance. But multiple inheritance is not supported by .net using classes and can be done using interfaces.

Note:Handling the complexity that causes due to multiple inheritance is very complex. Hence it was not supported in dotnet with class and it can be done with interfaces.