#java #oop #inheritance #programming

Java Concepts I’m Mastering – Part 9: Inheritance in Java (extends Keyword) Continuing my journey of mastering Java fundamentals. Today’s focus: Inheritance — the mechanism that allows one class to acquire properties and behavior of another class. What is Inheritance? Inheritance means: A child class can reuse the fields and methods of a parent class. This promotes: Code reusability Clean hierarchy Logical relationships Syntax class ChildClass extends ParentClass { // additional features } Example class Animal { void eat() { System.out.println("This animal eats food"); } } class Dog extends Animal { void bark() { System.out.println("Dog barks"); } } Now: Dog d = new Dog(); d.eat(); // inherited d.bark(); // own method The Dog class reuses behavior from Animal. Types of Inheritance in Java Single Multilevel Hierarchical (Java does not support multiple inheritance with classes — but it does through interfaces.) Why It Matters Inheritance helps in: Building scalable systems Reducing code