CHAP 11 COSC 1010

“is a” relationship

exists when one object is a
specialized version of another object (rectangle is a shape)

inheritance

used to create an “is a” relationship
between classes (bee are a type of insect)

superclass (base class)

a general class

subclass (derived class)

a specialized class, extended version of superclass (class Car(Automobile):)

inheritance in UML diagrams

show inheritance by drawing a line
with an open arrowhead from subclass to superclass

polymorphism

an object’s ability to take different
forms (accepts either object and calls another method based on the objects actual type)

AttributeError exception

raised when a method
receives an object which is not an instance of the
right class

isinstance function

determines whether object is
an instance of a class (isinstance(object, class))