Mastering Class Inheritance in JavaScript: A Practical Guide

Step into the world of object-oriented programming like a pro

Photo by Rowan Heuvel on Unsplash

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a widely used programming paradigm that allows developers to create reusable and modular code. One of the key concepts in OOP is inheritance, which enables the creation of new classes based on existing ones, inheriting their properties and methods.

In JavaScript, class inheritance is achieved through a powerful feature called prototypal inheritance.

Before we dive into class inheritance, let’s quickly review the basics of classes in JavaScript.

class Animal {
  constructor(name) {
    this.name = name;
  }

  speak() {
    console.log(`${this.name} makes a sound.`);
  }
}

const dog = new Animal('Buddy');
dog.speak(); // Output: Buddy makes a sound.

In the above example, we have a Animal class with a constructor that accepts a name parameter and initializes it as a property of the object instance. The class also has a speak method that logs a message to the console.

Now, let’s explore how we can create a new class that inherits from the Animal class using the extends keyword and the super method.

class Dog extends Animal {
  constructor(name) {…