Java does not support multiple inheritance...?

[Som s]

Hi Friends can anyone explain me how Java does not support multiple inheritance?

If a class inherits properties of more than one class then it is called multiple inheritance.

In Java, all classes extends Object class implicitly. Condsider a class B which extends class A. Here class B implicitly extends Object class. In this scenario class B inherit the properties of both class A as well as class Object, so this should be considered as multiple inheritance but we consider that java does not support multiple inheritance, why...?

-Som

[Henry Wong]

In Java, all classes extends Object class implicitly. Condsider a class B which extends class A. Here class B implicitly extends Object class. In this scenario class B inherit the properties of both class A as well as class Object, so this should be considered as multiple inheritance but we consider that java does not support multiple inheritance, why...?

The definition of multiple inheritance is the ability to inherit from multiple classes (from different hierachies). For example, if class B extends from class A, and class C extends from class A. Mulitple inheritance is the ability to inherit from both class B and C.

Henry

[Rupert matthews]

In Java, all classes extends Object class implicitly. Condsider a class B which extends class A. Here class B implicitly extends Object class. In this scenario class B inherit the properties of both class A as well as class Object, so this should be considered as multiple inheritance but we consider that java does not support multiple inheritance, why...?

I think the difference is java doesn't support mulitple inheritance "explicitly." Like in c++ a class of the following can work..

class c extends A, B
()
{}

but this doesn't work in Java. Although class C is implicitly the subclass of its superclass class A, in other scenarios of "classing", it will not work.

Interface is the counterpart of inheritance in Java so we can still use the properties of the superclass of our class program.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Probably best to say that interfaces mimic multiple inheritance, and A----->B----->C is called single inheritance.

It would only be multiple inheritance if you could draw a diagram like this

A     B
 \   /
  \ /
   C