What is Inheritance ?

Inheritance is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming (OOP) that allows a new class (subclass or derived class) to inherit the characteristics and behaviors of an existing class (superclass or base class). This means that the subclass can reuse the code of the superclass, promoting code reusability and establishing a hierarchical relationship between classes.

What are the benefits of Inheritance in laravel ?

In Laravel, as in any object-oriented programming (OOP) framework, the benefits of inheritance remain consistent. Here are some advantages specific to Laravel:

1. Code Reusability: Inheritance allows you to reuse code from existing classes in new classes. In Laravel, this means that you can extend and inherit functionality from base classes, reducing the need to duplicate code.
2. Maintainability: When you make changes to a base class, those changes automatically propagate to all the subclasses that inherit from it. This makes it easier to maintain and update your codebase.
3. Polymorphism: Inheritance supports polymorphism, which allows objects of different classes to be treated as objects of a common base class. This can be particularly useful in Laravel when dealing with relationships and polymorphic relationships in Eloquent models.
4. Organized Code Structure: By using inheritance, you can create a clear and organized class hierarchy. This makes your code more readable and understandable, especially for developers who are new to the project.
5. Framework Extensibility: Laravel itself extensively uses inheritance to provide a flexible and extensible framework. Many of the core components, such as controllers and models, can be extended to customize their behavior according to your application’s needs.

Example :-

<?php

namespace App\Models;

class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'password',
    ];

    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
    }
}

class Admin extends User
{
    // Add new properties
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'password',
        'role',
    ];

    // Override the canPost() method from the parent class
    public function canPost()
    {
        return true;
    }
}

In this example, the Admin class inherits from the User class. This means that the Admin class has access to all of the properties and methods of the User class, including the fillable property and the posts() method.

The Admin class also adds new properties and overrides the canPost() method. This allows the Admin class to be more specialized for representing administrator data and functionality.