Master Single Inheritance in Python: A Comprehensive Guide

Learn how to use single inheritance in Python with clear-cut explanations and updated code examples

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In object-oriented programming, inheritance is a fundamental concept where one class acquires the properties and methods of another class. It allows you to reuse existing code and build new functionality on top of it. In this guide, we’ll focus solely on single inheritance in Python, which means a class can only inherit from one parent class or base class.

We will cover the syntax, advantages, disadvantages, and best practices when using single inheritance in Python.

Let’s start by defining a base class called Animal. This class has two attributes - name and sound, and a method make_sound().

class Animal:
    def __init__(self, name, sound):
        self.name = name
        self.sound = sound
    
    def make_sound(self):
        return f"{self.name} says {self.sound}"

Now let’s define a child class called Dog, which inherits from the Animal class. The child class automatically gets access to all the attributes and methods defined in its parent class. Here's an example:

class Dog(Animal):
    pass

my_dog = Dog("Buddy", "Woof")
print(my_dog.make_sound())…