Classes and Subclasses

Many sets of objects that you might define in a class can be subdivided into more specialized subsets that can also be represented by classes, and Java provides you with the capability to define one class as a more specialized version of another. This reflects the nature of reality. There are always lots of ways of dividing a cake - or a forest. Conifer, for example, could be a subclass of the class Tree. The Conifer class would have all the instance variables and methods of the Tree class, plus some additional instance variables and/or methods that make it a Conifer in particular.

You refer to the Conifer class as a subclass of the class Tree, and the class Tree as a superclass of the class Conifer. When you define a class such as Conifer using another class such as Tree as a starting point, the class Conifer is said to be derived from the class Tree, and the class Conifer inherits all the attributes of the class Tree.