Ruby Language Inheritance Refactoring existing classes to use Inheritance
Example
Let's say we have two classes, Cat and Dog.
class Cat
def eat
die unless has_food?
self.food_amount -= 1
self.hungry = false
end
def sound
puts "Meow"
end
end
class Dog
def eat
die unless has_food?
self.food_amount -= 1
self.hungry = false
end
def sound
puts "Woof"
end
end
The eat method is exactly the same in these two classes. While this works, it is hard to maintain. The problem will get worse if there are more animals with the same eat method. Inheritance can solve this problem.
class Animal
def eat
die unless has_food?
self.food_amount -= 1
self.hungry = false
end
# No sound method
end
class Cat < Animal
def sound
puts "Meow"
end
end
class Dog < Animal
def sound
puts "Woof"
end
end
We have created a new class, Animal, and moved our eat method to that class. Then, we made Cat and Dog inherit from this new common superclass. This removes the need for repeating code
