Inheritance in Java

What is inheritance? #

Inheritance provides a way to create a new class from an existing class. The new class is a specialized version of the existing class such that it inherits elements of the existing class.

Terminology #

• Superclass(Parent Class): This class allows the re-use of its members in another class.
• Derived Class(Child Class or Subclass): This class is the one that inherits from the superclass.

Hence, we can see that classes can be built by using previously created classes!

Notation #

Let’s take a look at the notation necessary for the creation of subclasses. This is done by using the keyword extends.