Types of inheritance

Types of inheritance

Based on the number of super class and subclass we can classify inheritance into several types. They are
(1) Simple / Single Inheritance

Here only one subclass is derived from a single super class.

(2) Multilevel Inheritance

When a subclass is derived from a derived class then this mechanism is known as the multilevel inheritance. The derived class is called the subclass or child class for it's parent class and this parent class works as the child class for it's just above ( parent ) class.  Multilevel inheritance can go up to any number of level.

3) Hierarchical inheritance

In this type of inheritance we can derive more than one sub class from a single super class.

4) Multiple Inheritance

When a subclass is derived from more than one super class then it is called multiple inheritance. Multiple inheritance is not supported by Java. Multiple inheritance can be implemented with the help of interface in Java.

5) Hybrid inheritance 

This is a combination of multilevel and hierarchical inheritance.
 

The following figure represents the types of inheritance