Inheritance is implemented in Java through the extends keyword, such as class Dog extends Animal, so that the subclass inherits the properties and methods of the parent class. Its core functions include code reuse, improving maintainability, and establishing a class hierarchy. Java supports single inheritance, multi-layer inheritance and hierarchical inheritance, but does not directly support multiple inheritance and hybrid inheritance. When using it, you need to pay attention to method rewriting, calling the parent class constructor, and avoid excessive inheritance.
Inheritance in Java is a mechanism where one class can inherit the properties and behaviors (fields and methods) of another class. This allows for code reuse and helps create a hierarchical structure between classes.

What does inheritance look like in code?
At its core, inheritance uses the extends
keyword to let one class build on top of another.
For example:
class Animal { void eat() { System.out.println("This animal eats food."); } } class Dog extends Animal { void bark() { System.out.println("The dog barks."); } }
Here, the Dog
class inherits the eat()
method from the Animal
class and adds its own bark()
method.
You can then use them like this:

Dog myDog = new Dog(); myDog.eat(); // Inherited from Animal myDog.bark(); // Defined in Dog
This keeps your code organized and avoids duplication.
Why use inheritance?
There are a few practical reasons to use inheritance:

- Code Reuse : You don't have to rewrite common logic.
- Maintainability : If you need to change behavior, you only update it in one place.
- Hierarchical Organization : It reflects real-world relationships (eg, a
Car
and aBike
are bothVehicles
).
It's especially useful when building frameworks or large applications where consistency and structure matter.
Types of inheritance in Java
Java supports different types of inheritance, but some are restricted due to design choices:
- Single Inheritance : One subclass extends one superclass — fully supported.
- Multilevel Inheritance : A chain like
A → B → C
— also supported. - Hierarchical Inheritance : One superclass with multiple subclasses — allowed.
- Multiple Inheritance : Not directly supported (you can't extend more than one class), but you can achieve similar results using interfaces.
- Hybrid Inheritance : A mix of the above — not supported directly either.
This limitation exists because Java wanted to avoid complexity and ambiguity that comes with multiple inheritance in languages like C .
Some things to keep in mind
- The child class can override methods from the parent class using the
@Override
annotation. - Use
super()
to call the parent class constructor. - Mark classes as
final
if you don't want them to be extended. - Don't overdo it — deep inheritance chains can make code harder to read and maintain.
So while inheritance is powerful, it's best used thoughtfully.
Basically that's it.
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