What is Inheritance in Scala?

In this article, we will learn Inheritance in Scala,This free Scala tutorial for complete beginners will help you learn Scala from scratch.

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Inheritance is an important pillar of OOP(Object Oriented Programming). It is the mechanism in Scala by which one class is allowed to inherit the features(fields and methods) of another class.
Important terminology:

Super Class: The class whose features are inherited is known as superclass(or a base class or a parent class).
Sub Class: The class that inherits the other class is known as subclass(or a derived class, extended class, or child class). The subclass can add its own fields and methods in addition to the superclass fields and methods.
Reusability: Inheritance supports the concept of “reusability”, i.e. when we want to create a new class and there is already a class that includes some of the code that we want, we can derive our new class from the existing class. By doing this, we are reusing the fields and methods of the existing class.

How to use inheritance in Scala

The keyword used for inheritance is extends.
Syntax:

class child_class_name extends parent_class_name {
// Methods and fields
}

Example:

Scala

// Scala program to illustrate the 
// implementation of inheritance
 
// Base class
class Beginner1{
    var Name: String = "Ankita"
}
 
// Derived class
// Using extends keyword 
class Beginner2 extends Beginner1
{
    var Article_no: Int = 130
     
    // Method
    def details()
    {
    println("Author name: " +Name);
    println("Total numbers of articles: " +Article_no);
    }
}
 
object Main 
{
     
    // Driver code
    def main(args: Array[String]) 
    {
         
        // Creating object of derived class
        val ob = new Beginner2();
        ob.details();
    }
}

Output:

Author name: Ankita
Total numbers of articles: 130

Explanation: In the above example Beginner1 is the base class and Beginner2 is the derived class which is derived from Beginner1 using extends keyword. In the main method when we create the object of Beginner2 class, a copy of all the methods and fields of the base class acquires memory in this object. That is why by using the object of the derived class we can also access the members of the base class.

Type of inheritance

Below are the different types of inheritance which are supported by Scala.

Single Inheritance: In single inheritance, derived class inherits the features of one base class. In the image below, class A serves as a base class for the derived class B.

Example:

Scala

// Scala program to illustrate the 
// Single inheritance
 
// Base class
class Parent
{
    var Name: String = "Ankita"
}
 
// Derived class
// Using extends keyword 
class Child extends Parent
{
    var Age: Int = 22
     
    // Method
    def details()
    {
    println("Name: " +Name);
    println("Age: " +Age);
    }
}
 
object Main
{
     
    // Driver code
    def main(args: Array[String]) 
    {
         
        // Creating object of the derived class
        val ob = new Child();
        ob.details();
    }
}

Output:

Name: Ankita
Age: 22

Multilevel Inheritance: In Multilevel Inheritance, a derived class will be inheriting a base class and as well as the derived class also act as the base class to another class. In the below image, the class A serves as a base class for the derived class B, which in turn serves as a base class for the derived class C.

Example:

Scala

// Scala program to illustrate the 
// Multilevel inheritance
 
// Base class
class Parent
{
    var Name: String = "Soniya"
}
 
// Derived from parent class
// Base class for Child2 class
class Child1 extends Parent
{
    var Age: Int = 32
}
 
// Derived from Child1 class
class Child2 extends Child1
{
    // Method
    def details(){
    println("Name: " +Name);
    println("Age: " +Age);
    }
}
 
object Main
{
     
    // Drived Code
    def main(args: Array[String]) 
    {
         
        // Creating object of the derived class
        val ob = new Child2();
        ob.details();
    }
}

Output:

Name: Soniya
Age: 32

Hierarchical Inheritance: In Hierarchical Inheritance, one class serves as a superclass (base class) for more than one subclass.In below image, class A serves as a base class for the derived class B, C, and D.

Example:

Scala

// Scala program to illustrate the 
// Hierarchical inheritance
 
// Base class
class Parent
{
    var Name1: String = "Siya"
    var Name2: String = "Soniya"
}
 
// Derived from the parent class
class Child1 extends Parent
{
    var Age: Int = 32
    def details1()
    {
    println(" Name: " +Name1);
    println(" Age: " +Age);
    }
}
 
// Derived from Parent class
class Child2 extends Parent
{
    var Height: Int = 164
     
    // Method
    def details2()
    {
    println(" Name: " +Name2);
    println(" Height: " +Height);
    }
}
 
object Main 
{
     
    // Driver code
    def main(args: Array[String]) 
    {
         
        // Creating objects of both derived classes
        val ob1 = new Child1();
        val ob2 = new Child2();
        ob1.details1();
        ob2.details2();
    }
}

Output:

 Name: Siya
 Age: 32
 Name: Soniya
 Height: 164

Multiple Inheritance: In Multiple inheritance ,one class can have more than one superclass and inherit features from all parent classes. Scala does not support multiple inheritance with classes, but it can be achieved by traits.

Example:

Scala

// Scala program to illustrate the 
// multiple inheritance using traits
 
// Trait 1
trait Beginner1
{
    def method1()
}
 
// Trait 2
trait Beginner2
{
    def method2()
}
 
// Class that implement both Beginner1 and Beginner2 traits
class GFG extends Beginner1 with Beginner2
{
     
    // method1 from Beginner1
    def method1()
    {
        println("Trait 1");
    }
     
    // method2 from Beginner2
    def method2()
    {
        println("Trait 2");
    }
}
object Main 
{
    // Driver code
    def main(args: Array[String])
    {
         
        // Creating object of GFG class
        var obj = new GFG();
        obj.method1();
        obj.method2();
    }
}

Output:

Trait 1
Trait 2

Hybrid Inheritance: It is a mix of two or more of the above types of inheritance. Since Scala doesn’t support multiple inheritance with classes, the hybrid inheritance is also not possible with classes. In Scala, we can achieve hybrid inheritance only through traits.