Cpp - Inheritance Inheritance Introduction

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What Is Inheritance?

A C++ class can inherit from another class.

To create a class that inherits from another class in C++, put a colon after the class name and specify the access level of the class (public, protected, or private) and the class from which it derives. 

class Dog : public Mammal

This statement creates a derived class called Dog that inherits from the base class Mammal.

Demo

#include <iostream> 
class Mammal //from  w  w w.j  a  v  a  2 s.  c o m
{ 
public: 
    // constructors 
    Mammal(); 
    ~Mammal(); 
   
    // accessors 
    int getAge() const; 
    void setAge(int); 
    int getWeight() const; 
    void setWeight(); 
   
    // other member functions 
    void speak(); 
    void sleep(); 
   
protected: 
    int age; 
    int weight; 
}; 
   
class Dog : public Mammal 
{ 
public: 
    // constructors 
    Dog(); 
    ~Dog(); 
   
    // accessors 
    int getBreed() const; 
    void setBreed(int); 
   
protected: 
    int itsBreed; 
}; 
 
int main() 
{ 
    return 0; 
}

Protected

Protected data members and functions are visible to derived classes, but are otherwise private.

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