Multilevel Inheritance

Multilevel inheritance is an Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concept where a class can inherit properties and methods from a class that is already inherited from another class, forming a hierarchical class structure. This forms a parent-child-grandchild relationship between classes, enabling the creation of specialized classes from existing ones.

Syntax

In C++, multilevel inheritance follows this syntax:

class BaseClass {
    // Base class members
};

class DerivedClass1 : AccessSpecifier BaseClass {
    // First level derived class members
};

class DerivedClass2 : AccessSpecifier DerivedClass1 {
    // Second level derived class members
};

Example

In the following example, multilevel inheritance is demonstrated where Puppy inherits from Dog, which in turn inherits from Animal, allowing Puppy to access methods from both Dog and Animal:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Animal {
public:
    void eat() {
        cout << "Animal is eating." << endl;
    }
};

class Dog : public Animal {
public:
    void bark() {
        cout << "Dog is barking." << endl;
    }
};

class Puppy : public Dog {
public:
    void weep() {
        cout << "Puppy is weeping." << endl;
    }
};

int main() {
    Puppy myPuppy;

    myPuppy.eat();        // Inherited from Animal
    myPuppy.bark();       // Inherited from Dog
    myPuppy.weep();       // Inherited from Puppy

    return 0;
}

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The output of the above code will be:

Animal is eating.
Dog is barking.
Puppy is weeping.

Codebyte Example

The following example demonstrates how multilevel inheritance allows a class to inherit features across multiple levels, forming a structured class hierarchy:

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