Does Java Support Hybrid Inheritance?

Inheritance is a relation between two classes where one class inherits the properties of the other class. This relation can be defined using the extends keyword as −

public class A extends B{
}

The class which inherits the properties is known as sub class or, child class and the class whose properties are inherited is super class or, parent class.

In inheritance a copy of super class members are created in the sub class object. Therefore, using the sub class object you can access the members of the both classes.

Example

class Super{
   int a =100;
   int b = 200;
   public void superDemo(){
      System.out.println("This is a method of the super class");
   }
}
public class Sub extends Super{
   public void subDemo(){
      System.out.println("This is a method of the sub class");
   }
   public static void main(String args[]){
      Sub obj = new Sub();
      obj.superDemo();
      obj.subDemo();
      System.out.println(obj.a);
      System.out.println(obj.b);
   }
}

Output

This is a method of the super class
This is a method of the sub class
100
200

Types of inheritance

In general, there are five types of inheritance as listed below −

• Single inheritance − In this type of inheritance one class inherits the properties of the other class.

Example

public class A{
   ........
}
public class B extends A{
   ........
}

• Multi-level inheritance − In this type of inheritance a class inherits the properties of the other class, which in turn inherits the properties of another.

            In other words, when two classes are in inheritance, a third class inherits the child class among them.

Example

public class A{
   ........
}
public class B extends A{
   ........
}
public class C extends B{
   ........
}

• Hierarchical inheritance − In this type of inheritance one class is inherited by multiple classes.

            In other words, in hierarchical inheritance we can have one parent class and n number of child classes.

Example

public class A{
   ........
}
public class B extends A{
   ........
}
public class C extends A{
   ........
}

• Multiple in heritance − In this type of inheritance one class inherits the properties of multiple classes.

            In other words, in multiple inheritance we can have one child class and n number of parent classes.

Example

public class A{
   ........
}
public class B extends A{
   ........
}
public class C extends A,B{
   ........
}

But, Java does not support multiple inheritance directly you need to achieve this using interfaces.

• Hybrid inheritance − In general, the combination of any two (or more) types of inheritance mentioned above is known as hybrid inheritance.

public class A{
   ........
}
public class B extends A{
   ........
}
public class C extends A {
   ........
}
public class D extends B,C{
   ........
}

Hybrid inheritance in Java

Since Java does not support multiple inheritance, hybrid inheritance is also not possible in Java. Just like multiple inheritance you need to achieve this using interfaces.