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C++ Polymorphism
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Polymorphism
Polymorphism means "many forms", and it occurs when we have many classes that
are related to each other by inheritance.

Like we specified in the previous chapter; Inheritance lets us inherit attributes and
methods from another class. Polymorphism uses those methods to perform different
tasks. This allows us to perform a single action in different ways.

For example, think of a base class called Animal that has a method called
animalSound() . Derived classes of Animals could be Pigs, Cats, Dogs, Birds - And
they also have their own implementation of an animal sound (the pig oinks, and the
cat meows, etc.):

Example

// Base class
class Animal {
public:
void animalSound() {
cout << "The animal makes a sound \n";
}
};

// Derived class
class Pig : public Animal {
public:
void animalSound() {
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cout << "The pig says: wee wee \n";

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};
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// Derived class
class Dog : public Animal {
public:
void animalSound() {
cout << "The dog says: bow wow \n";
}
};

Remember from the Inheritance chapter that we use the : symbol to inherit from a
class.

Now we can create Pig and Dog objects and override the animalSound() method:

Example
// Base class
class Animal {
public:
void animalSound() {
cout << "The animal makes a sound \n";
}
};

// Derived class
class Pig : public Animal {
public:
void animalSound() {
cout << "The pig says: wee wee \n";
}
};

// Derived class
class Dog : public Animal {
public:
void animalSound() {
cout << "The dog says: bow wow \n";

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}
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 int main() {JAVASCRIPT SQL PYTHON JAVA PHP HOW TO W3.CSS C
Animal myAnimal;
Pig myPig;
Dog myDog;

myAnimal.animalSound();
myPig.animalSound();
myDog.animalSound();
return 0;
}

Try it Yourself »

Why And When To Use "Inheritance" and "Polymorphism"?

- It is useful for code reusability: reuse attributes and methods of an existing class
when you create a new class.

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