Is-a relationships
The is-a relationship is a fundamental concept in OOP that describes the inheritance relationship between classes. It is also known as the “inheritance relationship” or “subclass-superclass relationship.” The is-a relationship signifies that one class is a specialized version of another, emphasizing a hierarchical classification of objects.
When we say Class A is-a Class B, this means that Class A is a specific type of Class B. Class A inherits the properties, methods, and behavior of Class B, and it can also have additional properties and methods specific to its nature.
In the example with cats and dogs we built earlier in this chapter, we can say the following:
Dogis-aAnimalCatis-aAnimal
These is-a statements imply that Dog and Cat are specialized types of Animal, inheriting the common properties and methods defined in the Animal class.
The is-a relationship enables code reuse and promotes a hierarchical...
