This Q&A is part of a weekly series of posts highlighting common questions encountered by technophiles and answered by users at Stack Exchange, a free, community-powered network of 100+ Q&A sites.

A controversial new proposal for .NET suggests the introduction of a limited form of multiple inheritance via abstract interfaces. This feature was inspired by Java’s default methods. The purpose of a ...

Java’s single inheritance limitation is usually not a problem in the normal course of development. In fact, the need to use multiple inheritance could be a sign of a bad design. There are times, ...

Q: Why doesn’t the Java language support multiple inheritance? A: Whenever you find yourself asking why Java has or does not have some feature, consider the design goals behind the Java language. With ...

In object-oriented programming, a class that can contain more than one parent. Contrast with single inheritance. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction requires permission.