Inheritance in CSharp

Inheritance is a foundational concept in C# that allows classes to acquire properties and behaviors from other classes. This article provides an in-depth understanding of inheritance with practical code examples to illustrate its application.

1. Single Inheritance

class Animal
{
    public void Eat()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Animal is eating.");
    }
}

class Dog : Animal
{
    public void Bark()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Dog is barking.");
    }
}

2. Multilevel Inheritance

class Animal
{
    public void Eat()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Animal is eating.");
    }
}

class Mammal : Animal
{
    public void Breathe()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Mammal is breathing.");
    }
}

class Dog : Mammal
{
    public void Bark()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Dog is barking.");
    }

3. Hierarchical Inheritance

class Animal
{
    public void Eat()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Animal is eating.");
    }
}

class Cat : Animal
{
    public void Meow()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Cat is meowing.");
    }
}

class Dog : Animal
{
    public void Bark()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Dog is barking.");
    }

4. Benefits of Inheritance

  • Code Reusability: Inherited code can be reused.
  • Code Organization: Promotes a structured and modular codebase.
  • Polymorphism: Allows for flexible use of derived classes.

Conclusion

Inheritance is a powerful feature in C# that enables code reuse, organization, and polymorphism. By mastering inheritance and its various forms, you can design efficient and structured code for your C# applications. The provided examples demonstrate the practical use of inheritance in C# programming.