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Inheritance

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Learning Objectives To understand inheritance terminology To understand multiple inheritance To understand diamond inheritance and virtual

inheritance To understand protected access privilege To understand the call order of constructor and

destructor in inheritance To understand function overriding

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Inheritance By nature we commonly group objects that have a

common attributes and behaviors into classes (categories)., e.g. animals, vehicles, and human.

Under each of these classes there can be 0, 1, or more subclasses (subcategories).

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Example 1/2 Under the animal class, we can create three subclasses:

bird, mammal and fish.

Animal, bird, mammal and fish are classes. Bird, mammal and fish are subclasses of animal. Eagle, parrot, whale, monkey, goldfish and shark are

instances/objects. (They can actually be sub-subclasses.)

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The "is-a" Relationship Note the following statements:

– Eagle is a bird. Parrot is a bird. Both are also animals.– Cat is a mammal. Monkey is a mammal. Both are also animals.– Goldfish is a fish. Shark is a fish. Both are also animals.

A bird is different from a mammal, a mammal is different from a fish, and a fish is different from a bird.

Even though they are all different among one another, they are the same in regard that they are all animals.

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Example 2/2 Under the Human class, we can create 2 subclasses:

Lecturer and Student.

Sharaf and Manoj are instances of Lecturer. Tom and John are instances of Student.

Sharaf, Manoj, Tom and John are also Humans.

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Inheritance Terminology The "is-a" relationship between a superclass and its

subclasses is commonly referred to as inheritance. We say that a subclass "inherits from"/"derives from" a

superclass. Example: Bird inherits from Animal. Subclass inherits all the characteristics (attributes and

methods) from its superclass.– All objects of Bird have a common set of attributes

and methods of Bird, and also inherit a common set of attributes and behaviors from Animal.

– Example: If animals have skin, then birds also have skin.

Inheritance promotes code reuse and simplifies code maintenance in the long run.

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Definition of Inheritance Inheritance is the mechanism which allows

a class B to inherit attributes and methods of a class A. We say "B inherits from A".

Objects of class B have direct access to non-private attributes and methods of class A.

If class B inherits from class A, then A is called the superclass/base class/parent class) of B. B is called the subclass/derived class/child class) of A.

Superclass is more general than subclass– Subclass is more specific than

superclass

Superclass/Base class/Parent class

Subclass/Derived class/

Child class

Is-a

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Inheritance in UML Class Diagram From the following UML Class Diagram

– We know that Human is the superclass.– Lecturer and Student are subclasses of Human class.

Human - name: string + Human (name: string)

+ speak (sentence: string): void

Lecturer Student - room: string - CGPA: double + Lecturer (name: string,

room: string) + Student (name:string,

CGPA:double)

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The C++ Definition for the superclass Human:class Human { string name; public: Human(string name) : name(name) {} void speak(string sentence) { cout << "My name is " << name << ". " << sentence << endl; }};

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Superclass: Human

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Defining Subclasses To indicate that a subclass inherits from superclass, we

use a single colon ":", followed by an access privilege keyword (usually public) and the name of the superclass in the declaration.class subclass : public superclass : <constructor initialization list> { ...};

In most cases, subclass' constructor should initialize superclass' attributes.

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Subclass Lecturer Hence, the declaration for Lecturer is as follows:

class Lecturer : public Human { string room; public: Lecturer (string name, // 'name' is for initializing // superclass' attribute. string room);};

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Initializing Superclass from Subclass Wrong way of initializing superclass from subclass:

Lecturer (string name, string room) { this->name = name; // Compile-error. this->room = room; }orLecturer (string name, string room) : name(name), room(room) {} // Compile-error.

The reason is name is a private attribute of superclass hence cannot be directly accessed by subclass.

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Calling Superclass Constructor The correct way of initializing superclass is to invoke

superclass constructor at subclass' constructor initializer list.Lecturer (string name, string room) : Human(name) { // Correct. this->room = room; }

"calls" the Human constructor with the argument name.

Note that we are reusing existing code (Human constructor).

orLecturer (string name, string room) : Human(name), room(room) { } // Correct.

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Inheritance Exampleclass Human { string name; public: Human (string name) : name(name) {} void speak (string sentence) { cout << "My name is " << name << ". " << sentence << endl; }};class Lecturer : public Human { string room; public: Lecturer (string name, string room) : Human(name), room(room) {}};

class Student : public Human { double CGPA; public: Student (string name, double

CGPA) : Human(name), CGPA(CGPA) {}};

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Output:My name is Hugo. HaMy name is Lee. HiMy name is Sarah. Ho

int main() { Human h("Hugo"); Lecturer l("Lee", "BR1111"); Student* s = new Student ("Sarah",

3.99); h.speak ("Ha"); l.speak ("Hi"); // Human::speak() s->speak ("Ho");// Human::speak() delete s;}

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Now assume that both Lecturer and Student need a new attribute called address. Instead of adding the address at subclasses Lecturer and Student directly, we should add the address at superclass Human because the attribute will be inherited by both Lecturer and Student.

The C++ Definition for the superclass Human:class Human { string name; string address; public: Human(string name, string address = "") : name(name), address(address) {} ...

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Simpler Code Maintenance

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Multiple Levels of Inheritance We can have more than one level of inheritance. For example, the Student class can be the superclass of LocalStudent and ForeignStudent. (Ignore the attribute address we discuss in previous slide.) Human - name: string + Human (name: string)

+ speak (sentence: string): void

Lecturer Student - room: string - CGPA: double + Lecturer (name: string, room: string)

+ Student (name: string, CGPA: double)

LocalStudent ForeignStudent - icno: string - passportno: string + LocalStudent (name: string, CGPA: double, icno: string)

+ ForeignStudent (name: string, CGPA: double, passportno: string)

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Multiple Levels of Inheritance A subclass inherits the attributes and methods of all of its

superclasses:– A ForeignStudent object will, therefore, inherit:

• all of the attributes and methods of Human class, • plus the attributes and methods of Student class, • plus the attributes and methods of ForeignStudent

class.

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Multiple Levels of Inheritance A subclass constructor can invoke only the immediate

superclass constructor, not the super-superclass constructor, unless virtual inheritance is used.

class LocalStudent : public Student { string icno; public: LocalStudent (string name, double CGPA, string icno) : Human(name), // Compile error, attempt to call // super-superclass constructor. Student(name, CGPA), icno(icno) {}};

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Multiple Levels of Inheritance Sample constructor for LocalStudent and ForeignStudent.class LocalStudent : public Student { string icno; public: LocalStudent (string name, double CGPA, string icno) : Student(name, CGPA), // Call immediate superclass constructor, okay icno(icno) {}};

class ForeignStudent : public Student { string passportno; public: ForeignStudent (string name, double CGPA, string passportno) : Student(name, CGPA), passportno(passportno) {} // okay};

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Multiple Inheritance Multiple inheritance is NOT the same as "multiple levels of

Inheritance". Multiple inheritance occurs when a class has 2 or more

direct/immediate superclasses. Use comma "," to separate superclasses. class C : public A, public B {

public: C(…) : A(…), B(…) // Constructor initialization list.

{}}; A B

C

Constructor for class A

Constructor for class B

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Diamond Inheritance Problem

A

C

B1 B2

Multiple inheritance may introduce diamond inheritance problem, which arises when 2 classes B1 and B2 inherit from A, and class C inherits from both B1 and B2.

The problem is C would have duplicate sets (2 sets) of the members inherited from A, which might not be desirable.

If one set of members of A is preferred at C, we can use virtual inheritance to avoid duplicate sets.

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Diamond Inheritance Problemclass A { ... };class B1: public A { ... };class B2: public A { ... };class C: public B1, public B2 { public: C(...) : B1(...), B2 (...) { }}; Solution: virtual inheritanceclass A {};class B1: virtual public A {};class B2: virtual public A {};class C: public B1, public B2 { public: C(...) : A(...), B1(...), B2 (...) {} // Must call super-superclass constructor.};

Virtual Inheritance

A

B1

C

B2

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protected Access Privilege Recall from the previous lecture the following classes:

class Human { string name; // private ...};class Lecturer : public Human { string room; public: Lecturer (string name, string room) : Human(name), room(room) {} // 'name' is private in

Human ... };

The reason we have to initialize the attribute name via constructor initialization list is subclass cannot access superclass' private members.

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protected Access Privilege If a class member is declared as protected, then it is

accessible to the class itself and its subclasses.class Human { protected: string name; ...};class Lecturer : public Human { string room; public: Lecturer (string name, string room) { this->name = name; // Fine since 'name' is protected. ...};

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protected Access Privilege However, same as private member, a protected member of

a superclass is not accessible at subclass' constructor initilizer list.class Human { protected: string name; ...};class Lecturer : public Human { string room; public: Lecturer (string name, string room) { : name(name), // Error, 'name' is not accessible here. room(room) { } ...};

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protected Access Privilege We use hash symbol "#" to denote protected access

privilege in UML Class Diagram.

Human# name: string

+ Human (name: string)+ speak (sentence: string): void

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Accessing Superclass' Private Attribute Subclass can access/modify superclass' private

attributes indirectly via the public/protected get/set methods provided by superclass.

class Super { int z; public: void setZ (int z) { this->z = z; } int getZ() { return z; }};class Sub: public Super { public: Sub(int z) { setZ (z); // superclass' setZ }};

int main() { Sub s(3); cout << s.getZ() << endl; s.setZ (33); // Fine cout << s.getZ() << endl;}

Output:333

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Function Overriding A subclass can override a superclass method by supplying

a new version of that method with the same signature. When the method is invoked in the subclass, the subclass

version is automatically selected.class Human { public: void eat() { cout << "Eating\n"; } void speak() { cout << "I'm a human\n"; }};class Student : public Human { public: void speak() { // Override superclass' speak(). cout << "I'm a student\n"; }};

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Function Overridingclass Human { public: void eat() { cout << "Eating\n"; } void speak() { cout << "I'm a human\n"; }};class Student : public Human { public: void speak() { // Override superclass' speak(). cout << "I'm a student\n"; }};int main() { Human* h = new Human; Student* s = new Student; h->speak(); // call Human::speak() s->speak(); // call Student::speak() h->eat(); // call Human::eat() s->eat(); // call Human::eat() delete h; delete s;}

Output:

I'm a humanI'm a studentEatingEating