Inheritance (Smart Contracts)

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Pronunciation

[in-hair-uh-tuhns smart kon-trakts]

Analogy

Inheritance is like a family recipe passed down—you get all the ingredients and steps from your parent plus your own additions.

Definition

An object‑oriented feature in allowing contracts to inherit variables, functions, and modifiers from parent contracts.

Key Points Intro

Contract inheritance promotes reuse via:

Key Points

Single & multiple: Supports linearized multiple inheritance (C3 linearization).

`is` keyword: `contract B is A` imports A’s definitions.

Overriding: Child can override parent functions with `virtual`/`override`.

Modifiers inheritance: Child contracts inherit and can combine modifiers.

Example

``` contract Ownable { owner; modifier onlyOwner { ... } } contract MyToken is Ownable { function mint() external onlyOwner { ... } } ```

Technical Deep Dive

uses C3 linearization to compute a consistent Method Resolution Order. Parent constructors can be invoked explicitly in child constructors. Virtual functions in parents must be marked `virtual`; overrides in children require `override` keyword. Storage layout merges parent slots first.

Security Warning

Incorrect ordering in multiple inheritance can introduce vulnerabilities; follow the “most -like to most derived” order.

Caveat

Complex inheritance trees can obfuscate logic; prefer composition for clarity.

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