What is the Difference Between Inheritance and Composition?

Inheritance and composition are two fundamental concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP) that help establish relationships between classes and promote code reuse. The main difference between inheritance and composition lies in the relationships they create between classes and the flexibility they offer.

Inheritance:

1. Inheritance is a mechanism that allows one class to inherit the properties and methods of another class.
2. It creates a "is-a" relationship between classes, indicating that a subclass inherits the characteristics of its parent class and can add or override them as needed.
3. Inheritance establishes a tightly coupled relationship between classes, making it more difficult to change or swap out components without affecting the entire codebase.
4. Inheritance is useful when there is a clear hierarchy or a "is-a" relationship between classes.

Composition:

1. Composition is a mechanism where a class contains an instance of one or more other classes.
2. It creates a "has-a" relationship between classes, indicating that a class contains an instance of another class but does not inherit from it.
3. Composition establishes a loosely coupled relationship between classes, making it easier to change or swap out components without affecting the entire codebase.
4. Composition is useful when there is a "has-a" relationship between classes and promotes more flexibility and maintainability in the code.

In summary, inheritance is generally preferred when a class has a clear "is-a" relationship with its parent class and when behavior overriding and code reusability are important. On the other hand, composition is preferred when a class has a "has-a" relationship with other classes and when flexibility and maintainability are more important.

Comparative Table: Inheritance vs Composition

Inheritance and composition are two programming techniques used to establish relationships between classes and enable code reuse. Here is a table highlighting the differences between inheritance and composition:

In summary, inheritance is used to create specialized classes by inheriting properties and behaviors from a base class, while composition is used to create a class by combining objects of other types. Composition generally offers more flexibility and modularity compared to inheritance, making it easier to change component parts without affecting the overall code structure.