<programming, object-oriented> In object-oriented
programming, the ability to derive new classes from
existing classes. A derived class (or "subclass") inherits
the instance variables and methods of the "base class"
(or "superclass"), and may add new instance variables and
methods. New methods may be defined with the same names as
those in the base class, in which case they override the
original one.
For example, bytes might belong to the class of integers for
which an add method might be defined. The byte class would
inherit the add method from the integer class.
See also Liskov substitution principle, multiple
inheritance.
