Practical Electron Microscopy and Database

Inheritance is one of the cornerstones of C++ because it allows the creation of hierarchical classifications. With inheritance, a class may then be inherited by more specific classes, which only add their unique things to the inheriting class. In standard C++ terminology, a class, which is inherited, is referred to as a base class. The class, which does the inheriting, is called the derived class. Furthermore, a derived class can, in fact, be used as a base class for another derived class. Therefore, a multilayered class hierarchy can be achieved.