C# Language Tutorial => Inheriting from a base class

Example

To avoid duplicating code, define common methods and attributes in a general class as a base:

public class Animal 
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    // Methods and attributes common to all animals
    public void Eat(Object dinner)
    {
        // ...
    }
    public void Stare()
    {
        // ...
    }
    public void Roll()
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Now that you have a class that represents Animal in general, you can define a class that describes the peculiarities of specific animals:

public class Cat : Animal
{
    public Cat() 
    {
        Name = "Cat";
    }
    // Methods for scratching furniture and ignoring owner
    public void Scratch(Object furniture)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

The Cat class gets access to not only the methods described in its definition explicitly, but also all the methods defined in the general Animal base class. Any Animal (whether or not it was a Cat) could Eat, Stare, or Roll. An Animal would not be able to Scratch, however, unless it was also a Cat. You could then define other classes describing other animals. (Such as Gopher with a method for destroying flower gardens and Sloth with no extra methods at all.)

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C# Language

C# Language Inheritance Inheriting from a base class

Fastest Entity Framework Extensions

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