What is inheritance and polymorphism in the context of reference data types?

Inheritance is an object-oriented programming mechanism that allows creating new classes based on existing ones. The new class (subclass) inherits fields and methods from the parent class, and can also add its own or override existing ones. This promotes code reuse and the creation of logical hierarchies.

Polymorphism is the ability of objects of different classes to respond to the same method in different ways. For reference data types, this means that you can work with objects of different classes through a reference to a base class or interface. The specific implementation of the called method will depend on the actual type of the object at runtime. There are two main types of polymorphism:

• Static (method overloading): The same method has multiple implementations with different parameter sets. The compiler determines which implementation to use based on the method signature.
• Dynamic (method overriding): A subclass provides its own implementation of a method that is already defined in the parent class. Calling the method through a reference to the parent class executes the implementation in the subclass (if it exists).