Composition vs inheritance
22-minute lesson · module-inheritance-03
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Composition vs inheritance
22-minute lesson · module-inheritance-03
- Distinguish a "has-a" relationship (composition) from an "is-a" relationship (inheritance).
- Build a class that holds other objects as attributes.
- Delegate work to contained objects from the outer class.
- Choose composition or inheritance for a given modeling problem.
Source attribution
Status: adapted
How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Interactive Edition — source · Inheritance / Composition vs Inheritance
Adaptation notes. Reading rewritten in our voice. A Course "has-a" list of Student objects; methods delegate to the contained students. Hidden tests check that the container aggregates over its parts (total enrolled credits, roster).
License notes. Original chapter is GNU FDL 1.3 (Brad Miller and David Ranum). No verbatim text from the original is reproduced here.