Inheritance
A class is typically developed to represent a group or category of objects An object is an instance of a class When an object is created(instantiated) it is given both the attributes and behaviors that are defined in that objects class In addition to this, attributes and behaviors can be inherited from other classes In fact inheritance hierarchies can be formed allowing classes to be developed by simply specializing existing classes As an example, think of kitchen appliances such as a toaster, fridge, juicer, mixer and stove Each of these groups of objects can be modeled with a class definition, however each of these groups of objects also belongs to a broader group called appliances By defining an appliance class as a generalized class each specialized class can be provided with a base if implementation This can reduce development time by promoting software reuse