Java Inheritance Explained: How Classes Reuse Code Through extends

This DEV Community article explains inheritance, a core object-oriented programming concept in Java that lets one class acquire the fields and methods of another. A child class uses the extends keyword to inherit from a parent, which reduces duplicated code. The author illustrates this with an Animal parent class and a Dog child class, where a Dog object can call both the inherited eat() method and its own bark() method. The piece outlines single, multilevel, and hierarchical inheritance, and notes that Java avoids multiple class inheritance, using interfaces for similar behavior. It also highlights benefits such as easier maintenance, support for method overriding, and clearer relationships between classes.