Python Inheritance

Inheritance is a key feature of object-oriented programming (OOP) in Python. It allows us to define a new class based on an existing class. The new class is called a subclass or derived class, and the existing class is called the superclass or base class.

Here's an example of how to define a superclass and a subclass in Python:

class Animal:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

    def speak(self):
        raise NotImplementedError("Subclass must implement abstract method")

class Dog(Animal):
    def speak(self):
        return "Woof!"

class Cat(Animal):
    def speak(self):
        return "Meow!"

In this example, we've defined a superclass called Animal with an attribute name and a method speak. The speak method is an abstract method that doesn't have a concrete implementation. Instead, it raises a NotImplementedError exception, indicating that any subclass of Animal must implement its own version of speak.

We've also defined two subclasses of Animal called Dog and Cat. These subclasses inherit the name attribute and the abstract speak method from the Animal class. However, they also provide their own implementation of the speak method.

We can create objects of the Dog and Cat classes and call their speak methods:

dog = Dog("Fido")
cat = Cat("Whiskers")

print(dog.name + ": " + dog.speak())  # Output: Fido: Woof!
print(cat.name + ": " + cat.speak())  # Output: Whiskers: Meow!

In this example, we've created a Dog object called dog with the name "Fido" and a Cat object called cat with the name "Whiskers". We've then called the speak method on each object, which returns the appropriate string for each animal.

Inheritance allows us to reuse code and avoid code duplication. We can define a common set of attributes and methods in a superclass, and then create subclasses that inherit those attributes and methods and provide their own unique behavior.