Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
Subclasses are classes that inherit properties and behaviors from superclasses. They can add additional attributes or override existing ones to create specialized versions of the superclass.
This is a concept in object-oriented programming where a subclass provides its own implementation for a method that is already defined in the superclass.
As mentioned earlier, polymorphism allows objects belonging to different classes, including subclasses, to respond differently based on their own implementation of shared methods.
Abstract Classes: These are classes that cannot be instantiated but serve as blueprints for other classes. Subclasses must implement any abstract methods defined in the abstract class.