Millal on pärimine programmeerimises kasulik ja millal see võib olla ebaefektiivne?

Inheritance is useful for:

• Code reuse: Common methods and fields are defined in the base class and inherited by subclasses.
• Polymorphism: Subclass objects can be treated as objects of the base class, allowing a common interface for different implementations.
• Creating type hierarchies: Modeling "is-a" relationships between entities.

Inheritance can be inefficient or problematic in the following cases:

• Tight coupling: Changes in the base class can affect all its subclasses, complicating maintenance and refactoring.
• Diamond problem: In languages with multiple inheritance, when two classes inherit from a common base class, and a third class inherits from these two, ambiguity arises in method calls. (not directly applicable in Java/Kotlin, but a conceptual problem of polymorphic hierarchy).
• Violation of Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP): A subclass cannot be used in place of the base class without affecting program correctness. Often indicates improper use of inheritance.
• Base class bloat: The base class becomes too complex and contains functions needed only by some subclasses.
• Fragility: Small changes in the base class can unintentionally break subclass behavior.

Alternative approaches such as composition ("has-a" relationships) and interfaces are often preferred over inheritance to achieve flexibility and loose coupling.