Classes, polymorphism and subclassing

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Polymorphism, from the Greek, means having many forms.

In programming, object-oriented programming allows polymorphism.

This page provides some examples in various languages of inheritance and polymorphism.

In the following, the class Verse2 is a subclass of class Verse1.

Here is the Python code.

class Verse1():

	def __init__(self):
		self.name1 = "Mary"
		self.size1 = "little"
		self.animal1 = "lamb"


	def show(self):
		print("{0:s} had a {1:s} {2:s},".format(self.name1,self.size1,self.animal1))


class Verse2(Verse1):

	def __init__(self):
		super(Verse2,self).__init__()
		self.name1 = "John"
		self.animal1 = "pig"


	def show(self):
		print("(begin show)")
		super(Verse2,self).show()
		print("(end show)")


verse1 = Verse1();
verse2 = Verse2();
verse2.size1 = "medium"

verse1.show()
verse2.show()

Here is the output of the Python code.

Mary had a little lamb,
(begin show)
John had a medium pig,
(end show)