Multiple inheritance is a feature of some object-oriented computer programming languages in which a class can inherit characteristics and features from more than one superclass. It is distinct to single inheritance, where a class may only inherit from one particular superclass.
Languages that support multiple inheritance include C++, Common Lisp via the Common Lisp Object System, Perl and Python.
Multiple inheritance has been a touchy issue for many years, with opponents pointing to its increased complexity and ambiguity in situations such as the "diamond problem", where it may be ambiguous as to which superclass a particular feature is inherited from if more than one superclass implements said feature. This can be addressed in various ways, including using virtual inheritance.
Read more about Multiple Inheritance: Details, Implementations, The Diamond Problem
Famous quotes containing the words multiple and/or inheritance:
“... the generation of the 20’s was truly secular in that it still knew its theology and its varieties of religious experience. We are post-secular, inventing new faiths, without any sense of organizing truths. The truths we accept are so multiple that honesty becomes little more than a strategy by which you manage your tendencies toward duplicity.”
—Ann Douglas (b. 1942)
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—Emilie Buchwald (20th century)