Comprog3 Midterm (Inheritance and Polymorphism)

Inheritance

object-oriented principle where a child class (derived/subclass) reuses behavior of a parent class (base/superclass). C# supports only single inheritance. Uses colon (:) syntax.

Protected Members of a Class

members declared with protected are accessible by derived classes. Declared using protected keyword.

Base

keyword used to call base class constructors or methods from a derived class.

Method Overriding

defining a method in a derived class with the same name and signature as in the base class, providing new behavior. Requires base class method to be virtual or abstract. Derived class uses override.

abstract class

a class that cannot be instantiated. Declared with abstract keyword. Used to provide outline for derived classes.

abstract methods

method declarations inside abstract classes without implementation. Must be overridden in derived classes. Declared with abstract keyword and semicolon.

Polymorphism

“many forms.” Classes provide multiple methods with the same name but different behaviors.

Compile time polymorphism

achieved using method overloading (static polymorphism, early binding).

Runtime polymorphism

achieved using method overriding (dynamic polymorphism, late binding).