Hierarchical Inheritance in Java

Hierarchical inheritance is an object-oriented pattern where a single parent class is extended by multiple child classes. Each child inherits the same base functionality but can also add or override its own specific behavior.

How Hierarchical Inheritance Works

Imagine a base class called Vehicle with common properties like speed and fuelType. Both a Car class and a Bike class could extend Vehicle independently, each inheriting the shared properties while adding their own unique methods.

• Promotes code reuse by centralizing shared logic in the parent class
• Each subclass remains independent and can override parent methods as needed
• Common in real-world modeling — different types of a general category sharing a base definition

Hierarchical vs Other Inheritance Types

Unlike single inheritance (one parent, one child) or multilevel inheritance (a chain of classes), hierarchical inheritance is defined by one parent branching out to several children at the same level.