Difference between polymorphism and inheritance

[jo sim]

Hi I know about overriding, overloading, extending classes. I just dont know the difference between polymorphism and Inheritance.

[marc weber]

See How my dog learned polymorphism, and let us know if that clears it up.

[Campbell Ritchie]

This sort of question comes up frequently; you can get answers by searching. I wrote about it myself about a week ago here.

Polymorphism is one of the features or results of inheritance.

[Ilja Preuss]

Originally posted by Campbell Ritchie:

Polymorphism is one of the features or results of inheritance.

That's not true. What is true is that *in Java* polymorphism is coupled to inheritances. But there are languages that provide polymorphism without the need for inheritance; and there are other languages that have inheritance without polymorphism.