Question

What does a subclass inherit from its superclass?

Short answer

** A subclass inherits attributes (data) and methods (functions) from its superclass. It can use, override, or modify these attributes and methods as needed. Inheritance enables code reusability and is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming.

Step-by-step solution

Introduction to Classes and Inheritance

In object-oriented programming, classes are blueprints for creating objects. A class can inherit properties (attributes) and methods (functions) from another class. When a class inherits from another class, the inherited class is called a superclass, while the class doing the inheriting is called a subclass. Inheritance in programming is modeled after real-world inheritance, where the child class inherits traits from the parent class.

What a Subclass Inherits

A subclass inherits the following from its superclass: 1. Attributes: The data or properties of the superclass are inherited by the subclass. 2. Methods: The functions defined in the superclass are inherited by the subclass. The subclass can also override or modify the inherited attributes and methods, as well as add new attributes and methods specific to the subclass.

Example of Inheritance

Let's look at an example to further clarify the concept of inheritance: Consider a superclass called `Animal`, that has an attribute called `sound` and a method called `make_sound()`. A subclass called `Dog` inherits from the `Animal` superclass. ```python class Animal: sound = "" def make_sound(self): return self.sound class Dog(Animal): sound = "Woof" my_dog = Dog() print(my_dog.make_sound()) # Output: Woof ``` In this example, the `Dog` subclass inherits the `sound` attribute and `make_sound()` method from the `Animal` superclass. The `Dog` subclass then overrides the `sound` attribute by setting it to "Woof". When we create an instance of the `Dog` subclass and call the `make_sound()` method, it returns "Woof" instead of an empty string, because it inherited and overrode the `sound` attribute from the superclass.

Summary

In conclusion, a subclass inherits attributes (data) and methods (functions) from its superclass. The subclass can then use, override, or modify these attributes and methods as needed. Inheritance allows for code reusability and is an important concept in object-oriented programming.