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Let’s understand with another example: a 'Car' inherits its properties from the class 'Motor Driven' which inherits
some of its properties from another class 'Vehicle'.
Concept of Reusability Definition
While developing a code, there may be a requirement to create
more than one class. Under such situation, we may share the Inheritance in Java is the method that allows one
data members and methods of one class with another class. class to inherit the properties (data members
This helps to reduce the lines of code as well as the complexity and member methods) of another class.
of the programs. This is the concept of reusability.
Essential terms related to Inheritance
Class from where features are inherited to another class. It is also
known as base class or parent class.
Class which inherits the features of another class is called derived
class or extended class or child class. Apart from features of Base
Class, it may have its own features (data members and methods).
For example, “Vertebrate” is superclass and “Fish” and “Mammal”
are subclass as both Fishes and Mammals have backbones which
are the properties of the superclass Vertebrate.
1.3.5 Polymorphism
The word Polymorphism is derived from the Greek word meaning “many forms” ("poly" means many and "morphe"
means form). In object-oriented programming (OOP), polymorphism is a feature that allows objects to exhibit
multiple forms or behaviours, depending on the context in which they are used.
For example, a Car object might represent different types of cars: a family car, a taxi, or a pool car used by students
of a school. Each type of car could share the same general structure but behave differently depending on its
specific type or purpose.
In object-oriented programming, polymorphism
is the feature of being able to assign a different
meaning so that a variable, a method, or an
object can have more than one form. Thus, it is
the capability of altering the characteristics and
behaviour of a variable and use it in many forms
according to the need of an object. Polymorphism
allows the program to automatically select and
apply the appropriate methods to an object based
on the subclass to which it belongs, enabling
the same code to handle various object types
seamlessly.
20 Touchpad Computer Applications-IX

