Inheritance & Encapsulation

Inheritance

Inheritance is a process in which one object acquires all the properties and behaviors of its parent object automatically. It enables reuse, extension, or modification of attributes and behaviors.

• Base Class: The class whose members are inherited.
• Derived Class: The class which inherits members of another class.
• Types: Single (one class inherits another), Multiple (deriving from two or more classes), Hierarchical (deriving more than one class from a base class), Multilevel (deriving from another derived class), Hybrid (combination of others).
• Visibility Modes: private, protected, public.

Encapsulation

Encapsulation is the process of combining data and functions into a single unit called class. Data is not accessed directly; it is accessed through functions inside the class.

• Data Hiding: Attributes are kept private and public getter/setter methods are provided. This restricts access and reduces negative effects due to dependencies.