Inheritance in C++ (OOP)

Inheritance is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming (OOP) that allows a new class (the derived class or child class) to inherit properties and behaviors from an existing class (the base class or parent class).
This promotes code reusability by letting you create a hierarchy of classes that share common features, avoiding redundant code.

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📌 Types of Inheritance

1. Single Inheritance

In this type, a single derived class inherits from a single base class.
It’s the simplest form of inheritance, creating a one-to-one relationship between parent and child.

Example:
The car class inherits from the vehicle class, meaning a car is a type of vehicle.
It inherits the brand property and the colour() method from the vehicle class.

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2. Multilevel Inheritance

This involves a chain of inheritance where a derived class inherits from another derived class.

Example:
The hair_style class inherits from hair_type, which in turn inherits from hair_texture.

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3. Multiple Inheritance

A derived class can inherit from more than one base class, combining properties from all its parent classes.

Example:
A Specialist class inherits from hospital, doctor, and doc_type.

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4. Hierarchical Inheritance

In this model, multiple classes are derived from a single base class.

Example:
The Habitat, Food, and Behaviour classes all inherit from the Animals class.

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📌 Access Specifiers in Inheritance

When a class inherits from a base class, the access specifier (public, protected, or private) used in the inheritance declaration determines how the inherited members can be accessed in the derived class.

👉 Note: Private members of the base class are never directly accessible to any derived class.

Public Inheritance

• public members remain public.
• protected members remain protected.

Example:
Harley inherits publicly from Vehicle.

• You can access h.brand directly because it’s public.
• You cannot access h.fuel because it’s protected.

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Protected Inheritance

• Both public and protected members of the base class become protected in the derived class.

Example:
RoyalEnfield inherits protectedly from Vehicle.

• brand and fuel are now protected in RoyalEnfield.
• They are accessible within the class, but not outside it.

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Private Inheritance

• Both public and protected members of the base class become private in the derived class.

Example:
Jawa inherits privately from Vehicle.

• brand and fuel become private in Jawa.
• They are accessible only within the Jawa class itself.

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Algorithms

This repository demonstrates different types of inheritance in C++ with simple examples.
Each experiment highlights how members are inherited and accessed.

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exp14a.cc – Single Inheritance

• vehicle: brand="Ford", method colour() → "Red!"
• car: inherits vehicle, adds model="Mustang"
• main(): create mycar, print brand, model, call colour()

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exp14b.cc – Multiple Inheritance

• hospital: nearby="Jupiter"
• doctor: doc="Dr.Sharma"
• doc_type: type="Cardiologist"
• Specialist: inherits all three
• main(): create sp, print nearby, doc, type

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exp14c.cc – Multilevel Inheritance

• hair_texture: texture="Rough"
• hair_type: inherits hair_texture, adds type="Straight"
• hair_style: inherits hair_type, adds style="Layers"
• main(): create hair, print texture, type, style

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exp14d.cc – Hierarchical Inheritance

• Animals: animal_1="Tiger", animal_2="Dolphin", animal_3="Crocodile"
• Habitat, Food, Behaviour: each inherit Animals and add details
• main(): create h, f, b, print combined info for each animal

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exp14e.cc – Public, Protected, Private Inheritance

• Vehicle: brand (public), fuel (protected), year (private)
• Harley (public inheritance): can access brand & fuel
• RoyalEnfield (protected inheritance): brand & fuel → protected
• Jawa (private inheritance): brand & fuel → private
• main(): test access for each class

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📂 Summary of Files

File	Type of Inheritance	Description
exp14a.cc	Single Inheritance	A car class inherits from a single vehicle class, demonstrating a basic "is-a" relationship (a car is a vehicle).
exp14b.cc	Multiple Inheritance	A Specialist class inherits from three separate base classes (hospital, doctor, and doc_type), combining their properties into a single child class.
exp14c.cc	Multilevel Inheritance	A hierarchical chain is created, with hair_style inheriting from hair_type, which in turn inherits from hair_texture.
exp14d.cc	Hierarchical Inheritance	Multiple classes (Habitat, Food, and Behaviour) inherit from a single base class (Animals).
exp14e.cc	Access Modes	Demonstrates the different access specifiers (public, protected, private) in inheritance and how they affect member accessibility.

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